Luke 23:3

‘And Pilate asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him and said, “You say so.” '

‘You?' The word is emphasised. Pilate had expected them to haul in a glaring insurrectionist, the type that he knew exactly how to deal with. And now here was someone who was calm and fearless, who spoke to him quietly as man to man, who argued philosophy and who had a quality about Him that could not pass unnoticed. This was not at all what he had expected.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” This is very much an abbreviation of all that was said, but deals with the essential point. What Pilate overall wanted to know was what claims He did make, and whether it was true that He was claiming to be a King in opposition to Caesar and his appointee. Jesus replied by pointing out that it was all something that had arisen from people's own ideas. The claim, in the way in which the court meant it, had not come from Him, it had come from Pilate himself, via the Sanhedrin. While then there was a sense in which He was a King, it was not in the way that everyone was saying. Whatever else was said (see John 18:33) it convinced Pilate, who was very experienced and no fool, that the charge was baseless. This man may be a clever arguer. He might even be more. But He was no revolutionary.