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?

“LOOK! The man!” With those words, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate presents Jesus Christ to the angry mob gathered outside the governor’s palace in the morning 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 day, 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, draped over 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: “To the stake with him! To the stake with 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.a He is fully prepared to die.