NOTES for Joh 18:37-38
During Jesus' trial, something very important for understanding everything that is happening stands out: as a man He is of no interest to anyone. Not as Man (neither the temple elite nor the Roman procurator saw Man with a capital M in Him), but precisely as a man. The most ordinary one. The one with a small letter. The one over whom all authorities of all times, both secular and religious, habitually stepped whenever he got in their way.
They stepped over him, often without even noticing. Of course, both the high priest and the procurator had their own reasons and arguments for acting as they did. Their own interests. Often, as it seemed to them, extremely important ones. Far more important than the individual life of an individual person. The welfare of the people, for example. Or the peace of the empire.
Of course, both are worth the life of some preacher. Especially one who is dubious and not trusted by serious and authoritative people. One who can only stir up the crowd. Meanwhile, He does not even try to prove anything to them. He answers Pilate's simple questions so simply and profoundly that it is hard not to understand Him. But for a skeptic by habit, His answers have no meaning. Likewise, for that matter, the question about truth posed by Pilate himself is quite rhetorical.
There is nothing to prove or explain here. As for the rest... the value of human life for a high-ranking official is determined by the social status of the person being evaluated. Everything is simple and prosaic. And therefore frightening - for us today. If Christ had been executed by some infernal villains, we could feel relatively safe: there are very few such villains among us, if any are to be found. But it turns out that He was executed by the most ordinary people with quite ordinary interests.
True, they were high-ranking people, vested with the right to make decisions, but... in every other respect they were the most ordinary people. People like us. And all that was required for the execution of the Messiah was to place certain supposedly higher interests ahead of a human being. Not even Man with a capital M, but simply a human being as the image of God. If they had seen Him even in that way, it would have been enough for the Messiah not to die on the cross. But it did not happen. It turned out otherwise. And now, and in any other age, everything could end the same way. And that is truly frightening.