I like how our pastor does chapter by chapter Bible studies rather than subject sermons. We've been in Luke for months and today was Jesus' trial before Pilate. It got me to thinking - (of course it did...) - about the knee jerk reactions to Bible characters that christians seem to have. They're either GOOD or BAD, nothing in between, no understanding of what made them take the path they did, how God would view their lives. So often we force God to respond like we would respond.
So, Pilate. He came from an equestrian military family who got him well placed in his youth. He caught the eye of Tiberius and advanced straight up the ladder, hoping to reach the top. Tiberius knew he could trust his prefect, Pilate, and so, in 26 BC he sent Pilate to, basically, the armpit of Judea. There was a lot of unrest in the area because of the long standing, hated Roman occupation. Rebellion was bubbling just under the surface, about to explode. So the emperor sent the meanest, cruelest, most dangerous man he knew to keep the peace. Pilate of the Pontii family of Rome. And he lived up to his promise. He planted his heel on the Jewish neck and squeezed. He was hated by Roman and Jew alike but the Jews had no choice but to work with him if they wanted to maintain their religious and political standing.
Jesus. An wandering messiah, one of many, from a tiny village in Judea. So how did he come to be such a threat that the Jews wanted him dead? The Judeans wanted freedom from their Roman oppressors. There was a vast underground of rebels, growing stronger every day. This prophet, Jesus, was speaking about freedom as well, but from a different perspective. He meant freedom from religion, a personal God, personal spiritual responsibility and he claimed that his authority to teach such a novel idea came from his 'father' God. This is what made him dangerous to the Jewish authorities - Theirs was a highly political religion. This man could quite possibly gather enough support that political rebels would ride his religious wake into an uprising against the Romans. And if that happened, the whole religious and political structure would come down For the sake of the nation, Jesus couldn't be allowed to continue.
Jesus and Pilate cross paths. The Jewish authorities had to kill Jesus in some spectacular, horrendous way to send a very clear message to any who would come against Rome and the established religion. But the religious court couldn't do that, only the Roman court had that authority. The plan for a public execution was put into place. Jesus and Pilate were swiftly coming toward one another.
Jesus was arrested in the garden and taken to the priests to be tried. But he wouldn't cooperate and give them a secular reason for the Romans to execute him. Next step, bring him before the Roman prefect and accuse him of insighting riot. I can see Pilate being awakened from his sleep. The Jews that he hated were yammering again, demanding that he give his consent to some stupid religious matter. He threw his clothes on and stroke angrly into the court. And there was this beaten, half unconscious filthy beggar, the priests babbling on about his claiming to be God, saying he was forming a kingdom and he their king. Pilate was furious. Perhaps he decided in that moment to be oppositional to get back at the priests?
And then he heard the name of the man - Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate had heard of him. Miracle worker, preaching peace and obedience to the powers that be. He had been wanting to meet the prophet. And now was his chance. He ordered Jesus taken inside. They spoke. Pilate was impressed. Why would he want to have this man killed? "No," he said. "This man has done nothing to warrant death." But the priests shouted louder. So Pilate had an idea - he would send this Jesus to his enemy Herod who was the next highest in authority. There was no love lost between them and if shuffling Jesus off would get Pilate back to bed and off the hook it was worth a shot. Within the hour, the crowd was back. Herod didn't want the job either so he had Jesus beaten severely and returned to Pilate.
Now Pilate was really mad, but not at Jesus. He sensed that the prophet wasn't any danger to Rome but the priests were. He tried to reason with them - "I see nothing over which to condemn him. I'll have him beaten again to teach him a lesson." No, the priests shouted. "Execute him!" Still trying to get out of a bad situation that was growing worse, Pilate remembered that these people had a custom, to release one prisoner as a good deed for their Passover. He asked the head of the prison who they had down there and the name Barabas came up. A minor criminal, perhaps on the fringes of rebellion. Barabas was dragged out of his cell, sure that this was it, his execution had come. He was thrust out into the prefect's court beside another poor soul. "I will release Jesus, as is your custom!" The shouting became more frenzied - Release Barabas! Crucify Jesus!" And they wouldn't stop, their voices become louder and louder. By this time a crowd had gathered. The priests sent men through the crowd to whisper lies about Jesus until the innocent onlookers thought the calls for execution were their own idea.
Pilate's wife, Claudia, whom many scholars believe was a secret follower, called her husband aside and warned him of the danger he was facing. She knew the man Jesus and she knew he wasn't an ordinary criminal of any kind. She knew that condemning him would be her husband's downfall and so she warned Pilate not to listen to the priests but to quickly release Jesus. Pilate strode back out and the crowd went wild, screaming that they were going to report him to Tiberious and have him recalled if he didn't do what they wanted him to do.
And right then, Pilate made a decision that changed the course of history, a misjudgement that, on another night he might have made differently if he hadn't been tired, mad and harried. He caved in to pressure. What was one more wandering Jew more or less? But he got his last licks in - the death warrant was always written and nailed to the cross. He ordered the death warrant to say "He is the King of the Jews". No, said the priests, not he IS the king of the Jews, he SAYS he's the king of the Jews. Pilate snapped. "I've written what I've written!" and he ordered his soldiers to clear the court, which they did with all the hardness of the Roman guard.
We know what happened after that. Jesus was executed, he rose the third day. When word came to Pilate, what did he think? What did his wife say? He knew in that moment what a terrible mistake he had made. But what was done was done and he went back to his terrible and cruel reign, wiping out men, women and children, whole villages, crucifying hundreds of innocent people.
Five years later, Tiberious died. By this time, Roman and Jew alike had had their fill of his cruelites and Pilate was recalled. Emporer Caligula was crowned. And Pilate was in severe disfavor along with his family. He was stationed in a worse place, Gaul, which became France in later centuries, where he commited suicide rather than face the rest of his life in disgrace. The people threw the body into the river where he was eaten by fishes. (How ironic - eaten by fish, the christian fish symbol).
And now, ta da, the thought I had in church on Sunday about Pilate. We're supposed to hate him, righteously of course. He condemned the son of God! He didn't choose to do the right thing! But you know, on this side of heaven, how many of us have a perfect record? How many of us make right decisions all the time? Do we make misjudgements that change the world in their own small ways? This was one small man in his speck of time, who uncharacteristically tried to do a good thing, but who, in the end, made a choice he lived to regret.
I can see myself doing exactly the same thing. He didn't know this man was the Son of God. How would he? All these prophets claimed divine right, this one was perhaps more popular than most, more compelling. Pilate acted according to his life pattern -
Just like most of us do, just like I do all the time. And I think that if my misjudgements were written down and somebody published my story two thousand years from now, I might be viewed in a terrible light as well.
And beside all that, he, like Judas, was part of a plan - the role of the bad guy who advanced the plot. Without them, the whole story fell apart.
Mother Theresa said, "I can't judge you because of the Hitler in me." And I'm thinking, I can't judge any of these historical figures because the same capacity for horrible choices is in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment