From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
“Caesar’s friend” is a general term for a loyal supporter of Rome. The Jews are trying to say that there is a conflict between Jesus and Caesar. They are wrong in their declaration that Jesus wants to usurp the authority of Rome over Israel by becoming an earthly king. However, the irony here is that they are in a sense correct in their statement. If one is to accept the claims of Christ, there is room for only one King in their heart and that King is Jesus (Matt 10:37-39).
Matthew 10:37-39 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
The Jews are reminding Pilate here that if he doesn’t do what they want and if he instead releases Jesus, they will send a delegation to Caesar and bring an accusation against him. Morris notes that “A man with a good record need not, of course, take notice of such a palpably false accusation. But Pilate’s record was not one to be subjected to a close scrutiny.” Philo comments upon Pilate’s record when he writes of another occasion when some Jewish leaders were confronting Pilate with a similar threat, Pilate “feared that if they actually sent an embassy they would also expose the rest of his conduct as governor by stating in full the briberies, the insults, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty.” (qt’d in Morris) When you couple Pilate’s miserable record with the well-known suspicious nature of Tiberius, this tactic of the Jews is quite effective. Plummer comments that “They know their man; it is not a love of justice, but personal feeling which moves him to seek to release Jesus; and they will overcome one personal feeling by another still stronger.” That stronger feeling is of course, self-preservation.