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Pilate: "God's Son, Found Innocent" Text:
Matthew 27:11-14, 24-26 In our midweek Lenten devotions we are taking notice of certain people who came into contact with our Lord Jesus Christ especially as he neared the goal of his earthly ministry on the cross of Good Friday. We are especially interested in whether they considered Jesus to be a mere man or, as only a God-given faith can discover and confess, that He is truly the Son of God. We began with Nicodemus who was a secret believer in Christ until the crucifixion when he boldly came forward to assist in His burial. Last week we considered the tragic witness of Judas Iscariot and learned that true repentance consists not only in sorrow over sin but also patient faith that turns to Christ for forgiveness. Tonight we look at a central figure in the Gospel who was not a Jew but the Roman governor of the imperial province of Syria. It is interesting that, besides our Lord, there are only two people mentioned by name in the Apostles Creed. The one we honor; the other we either pity or scorn. In the words “born of the Virgin Mary” we confess and call her the most blessed woman that ever lived. But then the Creed has us continue and confess, “[He] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.” This naming of names in the Creed anchors the Gospel firmly as an undeniable fact in the annuls of the history of the world, a fact that forces all who acknowledge it to respond either in faith or unbelief.
A strange name to our ears, “Pontius Pilate.” “Pontius” was his family name indicating he was of the family of Pontii, one of the most famous of the ancient Samnite names, the Samnite people being a grouping who lived in the south of Italy and were conquered by the city of Rome in the last centuries B.C. [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/it_samni.html]. His surname or cognomen, Pilate, identified a particular branch of the family Pontius and may have meant “armed with the pilum” meaning a spear or javelin [http://www.bible-history.com/empires/pilate.html].
It is not unimportant to know that to be assigned as a Roman governor over the primarily Jewish territories of Galilee, Samaria and Judea was, as we would say, the bottom rung of the Roman political ladder from which one hoped to be promoted to something better. The drama of our Lord's passion from Pilate's political point of view is therefore more understandable as we see him caught between keeping some semblance of “peace” and success in his realm on the one hand and the demands of justice on the other hand.
Ever since Rome had subjugated Palestine there was endless trouble. The opposite of atheistic regimes like Socialism or Communism that ban all religion, the Romans allowed people to believe in as many gods as they wanted, the more the better. (Sounds sort of similar to our American “freedom of religion,” doesn't it?). The problem was the strict monotheism of the Jews, that is, their faithful refusal to allow their faith and their God to be considered only one of many. The First Commandment still applies today. The Christian Church has become weaker in our day and in our land whenever it has compromised the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ in the pantheon of religious freedom that is The United States. In Pilate's day this exclusive claim of the faith in the God of Abraham made for an uncompromising spirit of nationalism especially during the Jewish religious festivals in Jerusalem.
In the early hours of Friday of that Passover week in that crucial year of our Lord's crucifixion, very early in the morning, Pilate was awakened out of his sleep by a noisy delegation from the Jews. St. Mark records it this way: “as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate” [Mark 15:1 (ESV)]. The charge was treason, so Pilate had to hear the case. After questioning Jesus Pilate found no basis for a charge against him on legal grounds. But he perceived that the real issue was that Jesus was a religious threat to the Jewish leaders, so he tried every way possible to buy off their thirst for blood.
First, he tried to refer the case to Herod. When that didn't work he remembered his annual practice of placating the people by releasing to them any prisoner they wanted. So he brought out the worst criminal he could find and gave them the choice between him and Jesus. The choice should have been obvious. But even that backfired. So he tried one more thing, appealing to their compassion. He had Jesus scourged, beaten and whipped. Presenting the pathetic figure before them he hoped he would arouse pity and could release him. When even that failed he confirmed his verdict of innocence by washing his hands before them all, warning them that they would be solely responsible for this man's death. The crowed roared back, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” Then he handed him over to be crucified.
What sort of man was this who, though he knew Jesus was innocent, gave up on his feeble attempts to save him, being more concerned about his political status and position and reputation? The obvious conclusion is that he winds up being a weak, cowardly and compromising man, ready to sell his own soul for the good of his career. Well, according to the historian Eusebius, even that backfired as Pilate was eventually banished by the emperor and he died violently by his own hand.
In a way Pontius Pilate reminds us of our first two Lenten guests, a combination of the hesitancy of a Nicodemus and the despairing unbelief of a Judas. And have we never compromised our principles for the sake of mere expediency? How many haven't put their Christian principles “on hold” in a moment of pride or passion or for the sake of pleasure or money? Again we are brought to a point of repentance. This is why we pray the words of the Good Friday hymn: For I also and my sin Brought your deep affliction; This the shameful cause has been Of your crucifixion. [LW 109:3] If Pilate, like Nicodemus and Judas, had discovered and believed that Jesus was laying down his life willingly for the sins of everyone, Pilate included, his tragic end could have been avoided. Our tragic end can be avoided. Once again, from the story of Pontius Pilate, we are reminded to know and believe that all our wavering and weakness, our calculating and compromising, together with all our other acts of waywardness and wrongdoing, are, at once, the cause of Christ's death and yet are covered by that blood Jesus shed on the cross. Forgiven sinners are, then, more bold, finding new strength to stand by a renewed conscience and live under Christ in Godly righteousness. ___________________
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