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C H A P T E R 1 7
“No One Has Love
Greater Than This”
“LOOK! The man!” With those words, the Roman Governor
Pontius Pilate presents Jesus Christ to the angry mob
gathered outside the governor’s palace at dawn on Passover
of 33 C.E. (John 19:5) Just a few days earlier, Jesus
was hailed by the crowds when he made his triumphal
entry into Jerusalem as the divinely appointed King. On
this night, however, the hostile crowd has a very different
view of him.
2 Jesus is decked with a purple robe like that worn by royalty,
and he has a crown upon his head. But the robe, covering
the ribbons of bleeding flesh on his scourged back,
and the crown, braided of thorns and pressed into his
now-bloodied scalp, are in mockery of his royal status.
The people, incited by the chief priests, reject the battered
man standing before them. The priests shout: “Impale
him! Impale him!” With murder in their hearts, the
people cry out: “He ought to die.”—John 19:1-7.
3 With dignity and courage, Jesus endures the humiliation
and suffering uncomplainingly. He is fully prepared
Twice that day Jesus was spit upon, first by the religious leaders
and then by the Roman soldiers. (Matthew 26:59-68; 27:27-30) Even
this contemptuous treatment, he took without complaining, fulfilling
the prophetic words: “My face I did not conceal from humiliating
things and spit.”—Isaiah 50:6.
1-4. (a) What happens when Pilate presents Jesus to the angry mob
gathered outside the governor’s palace? (b) How does Jesus respond
to the humiliation and suffering, and what important questions are
raised?
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