Jesus Interrogates Pilate and Accuses His Accusors

The Book of Common Prayer reading for today seems a bit odd, seeing as Lent has not begun yet. We seem a few steps ahead of the process. Having said that, perhaps this is appropriate, because in this passage Jesus seems in a sense to be a few steps ahead, too.

Here's the passage:

John 18:28-38
Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him."

The thing that first struck me this morning as I read this passage was that Jesus ignores Pilate's first question.

"Are you the king of the Jews?"

That's not a toughie, as they say. But Jesus responds to Pilate with a question of his own. The interrogated becomes the interrogator.

So that was odd, and I wondered if Jesus leaves Pilate's question unanswered.

Oddly enough, he does not.

Jesus answers Pilate's first question, but only after he has set the terms and tenor of the conversation to his own liking.

The question Jesus returns to Pilate is also a simple question.

"Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?"

A simple question, but a profound one. Said another way, Jesus is asking Pilate who he has been listening to. Hold that thought!

Pilate picks up pretty quickly on the fact that Jesus has turned the tables on him, so he gives a retort and tries to get the interrogation pointed in the right direction again.

"What is it you have done?"

Another simple question! But once again Jesus doesn't answer it. Not yet, at any rate. Instead, he answers Pilate's first question! "Yes," Jesus assures Pilate in so many words, "I am a King."

Give Pilate credit, because he's tracking with Jesus quite well. He recognizes this as the answer to his first question.

"You are a king, then!"

But Pilate's elation (perhaps feeling briefly that he had regained control of the interview?) is short-lived. Jesus continues to guide the interrogation effortlessly.

And here is where a pattern began to take shape for me. Jesus answers Pilate's first question, but not immediately. So also with the second.

"What is it you has done?" Pilate had asked. Now Jesus, according to his own timing, returns to answer this question, and does so emphatically.

"...the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

But here's where the interrogation is revealed to be what it really is.

Pilate is not interrogating Jesus. He's not in control. Pilate is just along for the ride.

The action is with Jesus, who is doing three things.
1) Testifying to the truth.
2) Accusing his accusers.
3) Interrogating his interrogator.

That's what it all comes down to, when you boil it down.

Jesus does with Pilate what he's been doing with everyone else. Pointing to himself. Claiming his rightful place. Testifying to the truth. Everything else is just off-flow from that.
1) I'm the truth.
2) The people outside opposing me are opposed to the truth.
3) And you, Pilate? Are you for the truth?

The part that, for me, makes it clear that Jesus has done this all quite intentionally is this: Jesus asked the key question at the start of the conversation, and then made sure that the conversation ended with his explanation of why that first question was so important.

Opening question? "Who have you been listening to?"

Closing assertion? "Everyone on the side of the truth listens to me."

At this point, Pilate throws in the towel. "What is truth?" he retorts. (In other words, "I don't want to be interrogated anymore.")

The interrogation is finished. Pilate leaves.

But Jesus the interrogator remains, and as was the case with several parables Jesus told, a question lingers in the air long after the dust has settled.

A question that reaches out from the text 2,000 years later.

A question each reader must answer.

A question I must answer.

Who am I listening to?