(Verse 19) - The charge they were pursuing was that of sedition. Thus they wanted to show that He had many dangerous disciples and that He was secretly plotting to overthrow Caesar. This is the aim of this question. They were not after the disciples, yet! A second aim was to try and elicit a confession of attacks on the Mosaic system so they could accuse Him of blasphemy. It is this later charge that they finally bring before Pilate. 

(Verse 20) - Jesus replies and completely defeats the sedition argument so thoroughly that it makes the question look silly. Had He been guilty of sedition He would have done His teaching in secret and avoided the limelight. He would not have been open and public and attracted attention to Himself until ready to launch His revolt against the Romans. Instead, He had proclaimed His teaching openly and everywhere. He even taught in the synagogues and in the Temple where they, the Leaders, heard Him, and so knew what He really taught. His point here is force them to show their hand and not to allow them to make His offense a political one, but to keep it what it really was, an offense against their religious system. 

(Verse 21) - In His appeal to the Leaders to ask those who had heard Him we can see several things: If their charge of sedition was just; it should have been easy to prove. He demands that prove their charge. 

Even though Jesus was willing to be reviled and persecuted He also insisted that Justice be done to Him. There is a thin line between meekness and passivity as well as between assertiveness and arrogance. Jesus was wonderfully meek and lowly but yet did not simply lay down and let His enemies walk over Him either. This is a learned quality for most of us. We tend either to be too passive or to be arrogant and prideful. We ought to seek to be more like Christ in this regard. 

He was conscious of His innocence and was, in fact, innocent and could appeal to the multitudes regarding what He had taught and expect them to back Him up. What a beautiful testimony to a clear conscience! There was nothing Christ had ever said and done that could be used against Him as evidence of any wrong doing. No man could bring a charge against Him. In the end, they had to bring false witnesses against Him who lied in order to substantiate the charges brought by the Leaders. 

In His meekness He demonstrates for us that it is entirely proper and fitting for us to insist on our rights and to demand justice be done for us. The purpose of the Law is to protect the innocent as well as to condemn the guilty. There is absolutely nothing improper about pursuing our rights under the Law. God put the legal structure in place because He desired to use it to benefit His people. 

We, like the Lord, should so live as to be able to appeal to all men who have known us as witnesses to the character of our life and our message. Peter says, in 1 Peter 4:13-16, that it is no glory to suffer because of our own failings; but if he suffer as a Christian there is no cause for shame. 

(Verse 22) - The original language is not specific as to whether this was with an open hand or with a rod. At any rate, it was an offense against justice as Jesus had done nothing to warrant such action. Ist serves to show both the level of anger and the growing level of frustration present in these persecutors. 

(Verse 23) - Here again we see Christ demand that the court function legally and according to justice, which it ultimately failed to do. This sets the stage for the abandonment of any pretense of fairness or justice on the part of Jesus' accusers.

Would that our reputation was as spotless as Jesus' reputation. It is that purity that enables Him to give answer to His accusers as wonderfully as He does. It ought to be our goal to live and speak in such a fashion as to leave our reputation spotless before all men.