Goal Association Strategy - John 19-21

 John 19:12-15 (ESV)

From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

There is a theory in leadership called, “goal association strategy.”   The tenant of the theory is that when we offer an idea to someone and they believe that our idea will help us reach OUR goal(s), they will tend to reject our idea.  However, if we offer them an idea and they are lead to believe our idea will help them reach THEIR goals, they will run through a wall with our idea.    If we can “associate” our ideas with their ultimate goal(s), they will agree with our idea and move forward to execute it.   In the above passage we can actually see this theory played out.   Pilate did not want to crucify Jesus.  He found no guilt in him worthy of crucifixion.  But the Jews (the religious leaders of the day) told him that if he didn’t declare Jesus guilty and worthy of crucifixion, he would not be a friend of Caesars.    Pilate’s ultimate goal in life was political.  He had to be seen as a great representative of Caesar.   When the Jews said these things to him, they were playing to that goal.   They were using what we would call today “goal association strategy.”   To put an exclamation point on the moment, the Jews later cried out “We have no king but Caesar.”    The Jews no more wanted Caesar as their king than Pilate wanted to crucify Jesus.   But, they had to make it look that way so that Pilate would go along with their idea to kill Jesus.   Pilate was first and foremost committed to being a representative of Caesar.   If killing Jesus allowed him to reach that goal than the Jews benefited themselves by associating their idea to that goal vs their own goal.  They just wanted Jesus killed.  They didn’t care if to do that they had to sell the idea to meet Pilate’s goal.  That is “goal association strategy.”