John 19:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Love of power is truly a great evil. It is a great evil, and it can destroy the soul. Therefore they never listened to Him. Pilate, because of His words alone, wished to release Him. But they did not cease saying: “Crucify Him!”

Why do they insistently desire to subject Him to this kind of death? Because it was the most shameful death. Fearing that afterward some memory of Him might remain, they tried to subject Him to a disgraceful execution. They did not understand that truth is exalted by obstacles.

That this is what they supposed, hear what they say: “We remember that this deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise’” (Mt 27:63). Therefore they set everything in motion and used every measure to blacken the things that would follow. For this reason they constantly cried, “Crucify Him!” It was the disorderly crowd, bribed by the rulers, that cried out.

Let us not only read about these things, but keep them all in our mind: the crown of thorns, the robe, the reed, the beatings, the blows on the cheeks, the spitting, and the mockery. Constant remembrance of these things can destroy every kind of anger.

Whether we are mocked or suffer something unjustly, let us constantly say: “A servant is not greater than his master” (Jn 15:20). Let us call to mind the words of the Jews, which they spoke to Christ in frenzy: “You are a Samaritan and have a demon” (Jn 8:48), and, “He casts out demons only by the power of Beelzebul” (Mt 12:24).

Christ endured all this so that we might walk in His steps and patiently bear mockeries. Mockery irritates incomparably more than insults. Yet He not only endured them, but did everything to deliver those who mocked Him and free them from the punishment awaiting them.

Thus He sent the Apostles for their salvation. Therefore you hear them say: “We know that you acted in ignorance” (Acts 3:17), and by such words they draw them to repentance.

Let us also imitate this. Nothing so propitiates God as love for enemies and doing good to those who wrong us. When someone wrongs you, look not at him, but at the devil who moves him to this. Pour out all your anger on the devil, and pity the man, since he is under the devil’s influence.

If falsehood is from the devil (Jn 8:44), then senseless anger is still more from him. Likewise, when you see someone mocking you, consider that the devil is moving him. Mockery is not a Christian work.

If one who has been commanded to mourn (Mt 5:4), and who has heard the words, “Woe to you who laugh now” (Lk 6:25), reviles others, mocks them, and grows angry, he deserves from us not accusation but tears. For Christ too was troubled in spirit when He thought of Judas.

Therefore let us strive to put all this into practice. If we do not act in this way, then He came into this world for us vainly and without profit, or rather, to our condemnation.

Thus the judge seems to accuse and rebuke them, since they wish the One worthy of complete reverence to be crucified. His deeds, by their excellence, rise above everything earthly. Indeed, what is equal to, and what is not lower than, the Son of God and King?

“The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar.”

By this cry beloved Israel openly denied and withdrew from love for God. According to the word of Moses, it abandoned the God who begot it and “did not remember the Lord, its Helper” (Deut 32:18). Notice that “it had the face of a harlot and was not ashamed before all,” as it is written (Jer 3:3). “It denied its boast and rejected its Master” (Is 17:10).

For this very thing God once accused it through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “Go to the islands of Chittim and send to Kedar, and learn whether the nations change their gods, though they are no gods. But My people has changed its Glory” (Jer 2:10-11).

And again: “Heaven was astonished at this and trembled exceedingly, says the Lord, because My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of water and life, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer 2:12-13).

Indeed, other peoples throughout the whole world hold fast to their error. They strongly love those whom they have recognized as gods. Their mind is not easily inclined to apostasy and does not quickly pass over to other religions. But Israel apostatized, handing itself over to Caesar’s authority, and tore itself away from the Kingdom of God.

Therefore it was most justly given into the hands of Caesar. Having accepted his authority at the beginning, Israel later perished miserably, suffered the destruction of its land, and endured all the incurable calamities and sufferings of war.

But here again pay attention to the writer’s precision. He did not say that the people began this impious cry. Again, it was those who had received authority over them. “The chief priests cried out,” he says. Everywhere he shows that the obedient people, submitting to their leaders, rushed upon the rocks and fell into the abyss of perdition.

Therefore the chief priests deserve condemnation not only as destroyers of their own souls, but also as leaders, chiefs, and authors of the ruinous murder for the people subject to them.

The prophet undoubtedly accused them of this when he cried: “You have become a snare for the watch, and a net spread on Itabyrion, which hunters have fixed” (Hos 5:1-2). By “watch” he here means the people subject to them, appointed, as it were, to watch the manner of life of their leaders and conform itself to it.

For this reason representatives of peoples are called watchmen in the Holy Scriptures. Thus the chief priests themselves became a snare and a net for the watch. They were the initiators of the denial and persuaded all the others to say: “We have no king but Caesar!”

Yes, these wretched men dare to speak this way, although God the Father, through the voice of the prophet, had foretold to them the coming of the Savior, crying: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you, righteous and saving. He is meek and mounted on a beast of burden, and on a young colt” (Zech 9:9).

They had brought Jesus into Jerusalem seated on the foal of a donkey. All, with one voice and together with the children, had crowned Him with praises beyond man, saying: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mt 21:9). Yet now they cry out their confession of the Romans’ authority alone, as if freeing their neck from the Kingdom of God.

This is what their clear cry meant: “We have no King but Caesar.” But again we shall find that even then praise of Christ the Savior came from the people, while this bold cry was added by the folly of the chief priests.

"We have no king but Caesar. If you release Him, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king, and whoever favors such a one, opposes Caesar."

Pilate had not expected such a turn at all. He did not suppose that those known haters of Roman dominion would reach such vile hypocrisy, declared so publicly.

They openly, and still more secretly, preached that the chosen people had only one King, namely Jehovah.

They constantly stirred the people to revolt by teaching that the true king of the Jews, the Son of David, would soon come.

He would overthrow the hated rule of the predatory Roman eagle.

Pilate was seized with terror. These same conspirators, being the worst enemies of Roman rule, could now appear as supporters of the Roman crown.

They could denounce Pilate in Rome as a traitor who had publicly supported some self-appointed "king of the Jews."

Something similar had already happened to him before. Once, wishing to flatter the emperor Tiberius, he displayed dedicatory shields with the emperor's name and his own on Mount Zion.

The Jewish zealots saw in this an insult to their law. They noisily demanded that he remove the shields, threatening otherwise to bring a complaint to Tiberius himself.

They cried that Tiberius' will was that their laws should be respected.

Even then this declaration greatly frightened the procurator. According to Philo, he feared that the Jewish delegation would reveal all his crimes before the emperor.

These included the venality of his sentences, his plundering, the ruin of whole families, all his shameful deeds, numerous executions of persons condemned by no court, and extreme cruelties of every kind.

Since he still wanted to insist on his own will, a complaint against him was actually brought.

Tiberius, displeased with Pilate's undertaking, ordered him to remove the shields from Jerusalem and hang them in the temple of Augustus in Caesarea.

If even then the outcome of his clash with a fanatical people proved so unfavorable for him, what could he expect now?

He surely knew that at this very time the law on offense against majesty operated in Rome with inexorable severity.

Many important dignitaries had already fallen victim to the suspiciousness of Tiberius. In this respect, as Tacitus says, neither Tiberius nor the accusing informers knew weariness.

A denunciation made under the present conditions could cost him not only his position, but also his life.

What will you decide? Here is your pleasure on one side, and your God on the other. For which of the two will you stand, when it is impossible to keep both together?

You must lose either your pleasure or your God, and this is set before you to decide for yourself.

Passion, having become mistress of our heart through our excessive inclination to unfaithfulness, suggests to us this decision: I want pleasure.

But what will you do with your God? Conscience asks this secretly. Can I be silent about Him, when I cannot fail to defend His rights against your desires?

I have no need of Him, passion shamelessly answers. I want pleasure. I have already decided.

But do you know, conscience cries through its pangs, that by allowing yourself pleasure, you crucify the Son of God anew in yourself?

It does not matter. Let Him be crucified, if only I am satisfied.

But what evil has He done, and why do you betray Him so?

My pleasure is my right. Since God is the enemy of my pleasure, I repeat: let Him be crucified.

This is the sorrowful state of the sinner who permits the enemies of his salvation imperceptibly to occupy a place in his soul.

If at the beginning of the struggle with them he had gained more resolve, he would have risen above them.

The first victory over them would have led him to many other victories and confirmed his progress in the further struggle.