The New Testament devotes a great amount of
material to the trials of Jesus - more even than to the crucifixion
itself. There were six stages taking up
the whole night as well as the morning preceding His death. The gospel writers paint pictures of the
various characters involved in the drama - the Jewish priests, Judas his betrayer,
Peter who denied him, Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate to whom the greatest
amount of material is devoted.
In many retellings of the story - sermons,
Sunday school lessons, movies, TV episodes - Pilate is treated as a minor
character, in others as an evil, unprincipled man. But the Gospels themselves portray him almost
sympathetically, as a troubled, confused, frustrated person; a man who happened
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; a truly tragic figure.
There is also much historical material
available concerning Pilate. Josephus
the contemporary Jewish historian and others give background for an
understanding of the man. An inscription
with his name and title - "prefect" has even been discovered. He served as prefect (Josephus calls him
procurator) of the Roman province of Judea from 26-36 AD. It is thought that he held this position
under the patronage of Sejanus the prefect of the Praetorian guard, the most
powerful man in Rome.
Pilate is pictured by history as a cruel
"law and order" governor. He
had cruelly quelled Jewish demonstrations and riots in the past (see Luke 13:1)
and at the time of Jesus' trial his position was shaky, as the Jews had
powerful connections in Rome and by this time Sejanus had fallen from power.
So when the Jewish Sanhedrin brought Jesus to
Pilate on Friday morning after their night-long trial, he clearly did not want
to get involved until they insisted that Jesus was guilty of a capital crime
and accused him of crime against the Roman emperor - especially of claiming
that he himself was a King - their Messiah.
Pilate's interrogation of Jesus is described
in all four Gospels with each writer supplying various details. It is John's gospel, however, that describes
it most vividly:
"So
Pilate entered the Praetorium again and called Jesus and said to him, 'Are you
the King of the Jews?'
Jesus
answered, 'Do you say this on your own or did others tell you about me?'Pilate answered, 'I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own people and their chief priests handed you over to me! What have you done?'
Jesus answered, 'My Kingdom isn't of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.'
Thus Pilate said to him, 'So then you are a king?'
Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born and for this reason I came into the world, that I might testify to the truth! Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.'
Pilate says to him, 'What is truth?!!''' (John 18:35-38a)
We can almost hear the frustration in Pilate's
voice - perhaps anger - at the Jewish accusers, at Jesus. He had found himself in a dilemma. Shall he free an innocent man and anger the
Sanhedrin or should he simply go along with them? After all, to Pilate, Jesus was just another
Jew, another provincial. Pilate had
disposed of a number of them in the past.
One more would seem to be no problem.
Or would it? Does Pilate perhaps recognize
that the man standing before him is more than just one more provincial? Does he suspect that Jesus just may be the
person his accusers said he was falsely claiming to be?
Both Luke 23:4 and John 18:38b tell us that
at this point Pilate gives his verdict:
"I find no guilt in this man!"
It is probably at this point that Pilate,
upon hearing that Jesus is from Galilee, sends him to Herod Antipas, who after
mocking him, returns him to Pilate with no decision (Luke 23:5-12). Luke tells us that Pilate now for the second
time pronounces a Not guilty! verdict and offers to chastise and release
Jesus (Luke 23:13-16). All four Gospels
tell us that the crowd at this time demands that Jesus be crucified and that
Pilate release Barabbas, an insurrectionist and murderer.
In the meantime Pilate had received word from
his wife, "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man. I've suffered a lot today from a dream about
him!" (Matthew 27:19) As the crowd continues to demand Barabbas'
release and Jesus' crucifixion, we can almost hear Pilate screaming as he says,
"Why? What evil has he
done?" (Matthew 27:23)
Pilate appears to be doing all he can to save
Jesus from the death penalty. He has Jesus
scourged; the soldiers mock him and plant a crown of thorns on his head. Pilate has him again brought out to the
crowd, bloodstained and beaten, and we hear Pilate's shout, "Behold the
Man!" (John 19:5) Could it be that Pilate is hoping this will
satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd? He
twice again pronounces Jesus not guilty!
But when the priests continue to demand his death, Pilate gives in and
says, "Take him and crucify him yourselves!"
At this point the priests come up with a new
accusation: "We have a law and
according to that law, he needs to die because he made himself out to be the
Son of God!" (John 19:7)
John tells us here that, "When Pilate heard
this accusation, he became even more afraid" (19:8). While it may be doubted that Pilate was a
religious or superstitious man, he was a Roman and the gods would have been a
part of his culture. Myths of gods
taking human form would have been familiar to him. Add to this mix the fact that he had been in
the center of Judaism for a number of years and must have gained some knowledge
of their belief in the Invisible God with an unutterable Name. And then there was his wife's dream. Certainly the frightening possibility must
have crossed his mind that he, Pilate had been forced into trying an earthly
representative of a God much more powerful and frightening than his own. So he again returns to the Praetorium with
Jesus.
"'Where
are you from?' he said to Jesus. But
Jesus didn't give an answer.
So
Pilate says to him, 'Aren't you talking to me?
Don't you know that I have the authority to release you and I have the
authority to crucify you?!'
Jesus
answered him, 'You'd have no authority over me if it hadn't been given you from
above. Because of this, the one who
handed me over to you has the greater sin!'" (John 19:9-11)
We're
told that after this, "Pilate was seeking to release him." But the
Jewish leaders had one more trump card, "If you release this man, you are
not Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king is opposed to
Caesar." (19:12)
It was apparently these words that caused
Pilate to cave in. "Friend of Caesar" was probably an official title that
Pilate had, one that provided privilege.
Pilate was already in hot water because of his previous acts against the
Jews and the fall of his patron. This
could be the final straw. A Jewish
complaint to Rome could lead to his losing his position, even (literally)
getting the axe. It was no longer the
question of Jesus or Barabbas, but of Jesus or Pilate!
But Pilate makes one more effort: he presents Jesus to the crowd with a shout,
"Behold your King!" When they
shout louder for Jesus to be crucified, we can hear Pilate pleading?
Shouting? Screaming? "Shall I crucify your King?" to which the chief priests reply, "We
have no King but Caesar!" (19:14,
15)
Matthew tells us that Pilate also feared a
riot, and that he "took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd,
saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood!
See to it yourselves!'" to which they answered "His blood be
on us and our children!" (Matthew 27:24, 25)
And Pilate handed
Jesus over to them to be crucified. But
Pilate did get the final word. While all
the Gospels tell us that the charge for Jesus' crime which was nailed to the
cross over his head, said, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews,"
John tells us, "The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, 'Don't write
The King of the Jews, but that he said I am the King of the Jews.' Pilate said, 'What I have written, I have
written!'" (John 19:21, 22)
This in no way, of
course, justifies Pilate's actions. The
early disciples recognized that there was enough blame to go around. An early prayer recorded in the Book of Acts
names "Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel" as those who "were gathered together against (God's) holy
servant Jesus" (Acts 4:27). That's
pretty all inclusive.
We in our day may
justly put blame on Pontius Pilate; it's easy for us to do. It's easy to think of him as an evil, unprincipled
man, one willing to condemn an innocent man - our Savior - to save his own
skin. But if I may, I'd like to imagine
Pilate addressing us as he wipes his hands:
"I had to do
it. I had no other option, did I? What do you suppose would have happened to me
if I had released Jesus? The Jewish
Sanhedrin would have accused me to Caesar himself. I would surely have lost my position that I
had worked so hard to attain. It could even
have cost me my life. I wasn't willing
to take that risk. After all, I have a
wife and family to look out for. That's
important, isn't it? I've got to keep my
job - and sometimes that requires compromise doesn't it? Am I really that different from you 21st
century American Christians? Or maybe I
should ask, are you really different from me?
I looked out for number one.
Don't you do the same?"
"My gods are made of bronze,
granite and plaster. You claim to
worship the God who made the universe. To me Jesus was just
another provincial - expendable if necessary. You claim him as the Son
of God, as your Savior, as your Lord.
You claim to have surrendered your all to him. But what if those claims could cost you your
life? Your family? Your job?
Your comfort? Would you behave any differently than I did? Or would you too wash your hands of
Jesus Christ?"
"Think about it!"
