Behold the Man

Jesus’ trial before Pilate consists of seven scenes. They follow a familiar pattern.

Peter Leithart writes,

The bookends and the central pivot are clear, but what about the steps in between? If we take some of the other threads of the Bible Matrix cord into account, the typological significance of these extra steps is made apparent. The dramatic sequence draws upon the sevenfold covenant pattern, the annual harvest feast pattern from Leviticus 23, the Creation/Tabernacle pattern, and the legal sequence of sacrifice that begins with Initiation and ends with Representation. We can also tack on the Heptateuch to round things out.

As usual, just like the text itself, a chart like this is to be meditated upon. But I will make a few more observations.

1. Coming from the high priest’s house to make their accusations, the Jews are actual “satans,” snakes in the Garden.
2. Jesus as the promised Seed, the true firstborn, in the Exodus step accords with “that He gave His only Son” in the Exodus step of John 3:16.
3. Barabbas means “son of the father.” The choice was between the true, blameless heir and the older natural heir who was a man of blood. This is thus a reprise of the choice between hairy Esau, the natural man (the goat) and smooth Jacob, the spiritual man (the sheep). Both animals were acceptable for sacrifice at Passover (Exodus 12:5), but only a lamb was acceptable as a Firstfruits offering.¹For more on this theme, see The Meaning of the Sheep and the Goats, “The Arms of Jacob”. The Jews were tasked with choosing “a son of the herd or the flock” (Leviticus 1). They made a sinful choice, and yet they did choose the Son without blemish—for sacrifice.
4. As Leithart notes, although Jesus’ claim to kingship is mocked, He is in total control of the proceedings. It is His accusers and murderers who are on trial. This is the wisdom, the judicial cunning, of Greater Solomon at play.² For more on this theme, see The Meaning of the Sheep and the Goats, “The Ministry of Provocation.”
5. “Deutero-nomos” means “second law,” and Deuteronomy is Moses’ repeating of the Law for a new generation of Israel. The idea at this step is the testimony of a minimum of two witnesses. This explains John’s record of Pilate stating twice, “I find no guilt in him” as the second bookend of the threefold Ethics step. The statement is found in the steps that correspond to the Bronze Altar and the Incense Altar, that is, the flesh and the smoke, with the holy fire of the Lampstand between them. As the Prophecy step, it also relates to the murder of the prophets after their legal witness, such as the martyrs/witnesses under the altar in the fifth seal in Revelation. Here it is Jesus whose blood will be splashed against the altar like the raging sea against the land.
6. Unlike Adam, “the Man” here makes no defence of Himself. Instead, He is both the sacrifice and the judge.
7. Booths brings us to the gathering of the Gentiles for worship. The irony here is as palpable as Jesus’ gathering of the Romans against Jerusalem at the Booths step of the complete first-century pattern.

Further reading:
The Shape of John’s Gospel
The Sevenfold Dream