This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of Christ the King. The gospel reading for this year is the scene of Jesus on trial before Pontius Pilate during which the nature of Jesus’ kingship and kingdom is revealed. Throughout the trial before Pilate, there are numerous scenes in two different locations: outside and inside the praetorium (“Pilate’s headquarters”). Outside the praetorium Pilate speaks to the “Jews,” because they won’t enter the praetorium, “so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover” (18:28b). What does this indicate about Jesus who is inside the praetorium?

It is one of the many ironies of Jesus’ trial that those Jewish leaders who scrupulously observe the statutes about ritual purity by refusing the enter the praetorium; who cry for the release of a Jewish freedom fighter (18:40); who badger Pilate into executing a blasphemer, which was required by Jewish law (19:7); are the same people who betray their faith by confessing that their only king is Caesar (19:15), the man who attempted to usurp the place of God.

In a sense, John pictures these authorities as being the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus rails against in Matthew 23; e.g., “For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” (23:23-24)

At the same time, Pilate also betrays his faith. He believes that Jesus is innocent and tries to set him free; but in the end, he turns him over to be crucified. He acts contrary to his beliefs.

Brown (The Death of the Messiah) writes:

“The Jews” are outside the praetorium refusing to enter; Jesus is inside the praetorium; these are the separated forces of darkness and light. Pilate must shuttle back and forth, for he is the person-in-between who does not wish to make a decision and so vainly tries to reconcile the opposing forces. For John, however, one must decide for light or darkness and thus judge oneself as one faces the light come into the world (3:19-21). By not deciding for the truth, Pilate is deciding for falsehood and darkness. [p. 744]

Our text begins with Pilate entering the praetorium to question Jesus — so he thinks.

Image credit: “Christ before Pilate” by Duccio di Buoninsegna | Museo dell’Opera metropolitana del Duomo, Siena | PD-US