PONTIUS PILATE
By Dr. David Jeremiah
Selected Scriptures
In this lesson we meet a man who lacked the moral integrity to do the right thing.
Some politicians are good at passing the buck, making the majority happy, and assuming leadershiop of someone else's parade. But those are dangerous strategies when dealing with life and death issues. People can be hurt, even killed, when leaders fail to do what they know is right.
We meet an individual in this lesson who is one of those historical icons with which most Westerners are familiar but know very little about. Millions of people in Christendom are reintroduced to him at least once a year during the Easter season when Scriptures concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus are studied. But beyond name recognition, this historical figure-Pontius Pilate-is relatively unknown.
When you dig into this man's life and try to learn more about him, you do not come away impressed. Pontius Pilate was not a noble character at all. Had it not been for his influential connection through marriage, he never would have risen to the position of Procurator of Judea, the position which brought him face to face with Jesus. Raised in Spain, he made his way to Rome where he married a granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus. Politically, this was a wise move, but morally it was a blunder. Pilate's mother-in-law was Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and a woman of such depraved and coarse habits that even in decadent Rome she was notorious. Augustus was known to avoid her presence and to have said, "Would I were wifeless or had childless died!" so offensive had his daughter Julia become. It is a sign of Pilate's own moral standards that he would have married into such a family-a man of nobler instincts would not have tainted himself in such a conspicuous fashion.
His connections with Augustus' family landed him the procuratorship of Judea in A.D. 26. In a matter of a few short years, he found himself making a weak-willed decision concerning a carpenter from Nazareth that changed the course of world history forever.
THE INSENSITIVITY OF PILATE
Pilate was a man who was culturally connected, but culturally very insensitive. Many were the times when he greatly offended the Jewish people by imposing Roman standards or practices on them. Remember that Rome ruled over Palestine at this time, and for the most part the Roman government made an effort to live in peace with the Jewish people. Rome made an effort not to offend the religious sensibilities of the people-until Pilate came on the scene.
For instance, the Roman procurators preceding Pilate had ceased the public display of Roman banners is which had images of Roman emperors on them. The Jews, in keeping with the second commandment, were to have before them no images of any other gods (Roman emperors were considered divine). But Pilate, on one occasion, knowing he would infuriate the Jews, sent soldiers into Jerusalem carrying banners with the image of Tiberius on them. When the Jews protested to Pilate, he threatened to kill them all. They called his bluff and said they would rather die than have Roman images in their sight. Pilate backed off and removed the images, but not before causing serious problems in his relationship w ith the Jews.
Pilate also stole money from the Temple treasury to complete the building of an aqueduct, and murdered a number of Jews in a crowd who gathered to protest the pilferage. He also murdered a group of Jews as they were offering sacrifices in the Temple, an event which is mentioned in Luke 13:1. The Jews hated Pilate for the many atrocities he had committed against their people. Not only was he culturally insensitive to the Jews, he was inconsistent as well.
THE INCONSISTENCY OF PILATE
Pilate was cruel in many respects, but strangely, when it came to Jesus' trial, he wasn't like that. Perhaps he was taking the opposite side to the Jewish leaders. But for whatever reason, he seems committed to releasing Jesus and not cooperating with the Jews who want Him killed. Three times during the trial he declared Jesus innocent (John 18:38, 19:4, 6).
We have to ask why Pilate would have appeared inclined to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt and release Him. Some have said that he wasn't as cruel as the historians make him out to be; that he was actually a civil ruler. But then we have to ask, What would have been the historians' motives for painting a false, overly cruel picture of this particular procurator? You might expect a Jewish historian to "color him cruel," but why would Roman historians vilify one of their own? Others have suggested that Pilate changed when he got around Jesus-that just being in the presence of one as innocent as the Savior totally softened him and made him realize that Jesus had done nothing deserving death. While just being around Jesus undoubtedly had that effect on some people, there is another reason I think Pilate changed when it came to presiding over the fate of Jesus.
Matthew 27:19 gives us the record: Pilate received word from his wife who told him, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because ot Him." Apparently Pilate's wife, the night before, had a dream about Jesus that frightened her greatly, so much so that she warned her husband not to become involved at all Jesus' trial. What her dream contained, we do not know. But we do know that Romans took dreams seriously-they were omens of either good or evil. And Pilate probably took his wife's note, and her dream, seriously as a result. This probably accounts for his hesitancy in pronouncing Jesus guilty. Unfortunately, he was not sincere enough to stay the course.
THE INSINCERITY OF PILATE
Pilate was politically correct before that term was even used. He did what the crowds, the majority, wanted him to do even though he knew inside that it wasn't right. He knew Jesus was innocent, yet he walked all the way through the different parts of the Roman trial process playing it to his own advantage. He was more interested in his future than in Jesus'.
In a Roman trial, there were four parts. In each of the four parts, described for us in the eighteenth chapter of John, we see Pilate and Jesus interacting with each other and we get insight into Pilate's insincerity.
The Indictment
In John 18:29 Pilate asked the Jews what the accusation was that they were bringing against Jesus. The Jews did not answer Pilate's question. In fact, they replied sarcastically to him, saying, in effect, "Don't worry Pilate. Trust us. If He wasn't an evil person who needed to be put away, we wouldn't be bringing Him to you" (see John 18:30). From Luke's gospel we learn that the Jews finally did accuse Jesus of three things: Perverting the nation, forbidding the paying of taxes to Caesar, and calling Himself a king (Luke 23-2). The first two were patently false charges while the third could have been demonstrated in Jesus' claims to Messiahship. But He certainly never walked around proclaiming Himself a king.
The Examination
Pilate began his examination of Jesus by asking Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" (John 18:33) Jesus responds by essentially asking Pilate if he is asking as a Roman (then the answer is, No, I am not a Roman king, or a king of any nation opposed to Rome) or as a pawn of the Jews (then the answer is, Yes, I am the King of the Jews). Pilate is caught off guard by Jesus' answer, and begins backpedaling, trying not to get pulled too deeply into this complicated affair (John 18:35; remember-the words of his wife are fresh in his mind). He is backing away, not wanting to get involved, trying to keep Jesus at arm's length, outwardly cooperating but inwardly playing the game. He tries to get away from the real confrontation. He says, in essence, that religious questions are of no interest to him; he is a Roman ruler: "Don't ask me about religious questions. Am I a Jew? You go and take care of your own religious problems."
So Jesus begins the third part of the trial with His defense.
The Defense
Jesus explains the nature of His kingdom, and Pilate latches on to the "kingdom" part as if to say, "Aha! So you admit you are a king?" (John 18:37). Jesus answered as plainly as possible: "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice" (John 18:37). Pilate the philosopher grabs the opportunity to deflect the attention away from Jesus' guilt or innocence by starting a discussion on the nature of truth. Over and over again, Pilate misses the opportunity to focus on Jesus' innocence, to hear Him out and release Him for lack of evidence. But his insincerity keeps him tangled in the Jewish leaders' web.
The Verdict
After asking and then not answering, his famous, What is truth?" question, Pilate went again to the Jews and said, "I find no fault in Him at all" (John 18:38). In his mind, Jesus was innocent and should be acquitted. The trial should have been over at that point. Pilate had the power to release Jesus and end the trial-but he didn't. The question is, Why?
Outwardly, Pilate was playing the Jews' game, being politically correct. But inwardly, he was scared to death. Not scared for his own physical safety should he release Jesus. He had the Roman army to protect him from the Jews should they react with hostility. But he was scared of the warning he had gotten from his wife-wondering what it meant and what would happen to him if he didn't release Jesus. Pilate had conducted the trial properly, collected the evidence, and had every reason to set Jesus free and dismiss the charges. But there was a weakness in his inner man that would not allow him to do the right thing.
Instead of doing what he should have done-set Jesus free-he did three other things that just prolonged the inevitable result of his weakness:
1. He sent Jesus to Herod.
Pilate passed the buck to King Herod. At first, Herod was glad to see this Jesus whom he had heard much about. But because Jesus refused to cooperate with Herod, he angrily sent Jesus back to Pilate. But Pilate began working the system again, communicating with Herod about Jesus and using this mutual problem of theirs to patch up his strained relationship with the king (Luke 23:12). These two enemies became friends in their dilemma over what to do with Jesus.
2. He offered the Jews Barabbas.
When Jesus returned to him from Herod, Pilate still is unwilling to do the right thing and set Him free. So he put the responsibility for Jesus' fate on the Jews themselves by offering them a choice between someone to be set free: Jesus or an insurrectionist named Barabbas.
It was the time of the Passover feast, and it was the custom for Pilate to release a prisoner to the Jews, perhaps someone they thought had been detained unjustly. Matthew 27:15-18 relates the details of this unseemly transaction involving Barabbas. The Jews would rather have a rabble-rouser named Barabbas released, someone about whose guilt there was probably no doubt, than to have Jesus released. Once the Jews made their choice, Pilate took a basin of water and washed his hands in front of them declaring himself "innocent of the blood of this just Person" (Matthew 27:24). In other words, he was innocent and the Jews were guilty. After all, they were the ones who passed up the opportunity to have Jesus set free.
3. He scourged Jesus.
In John I9:1-4 we read that Pilate scourged Jesus with a whip then brought Him out and presented Him to the Jews. He probably thought that if the Jews saw Jesus bleeding and suffering, they would be driven out of pity to release Him and Pilate would be freed from his problem. But these Jews were more hateful than he had imagined. They were bent on seeing Jesus killed.
While we are not unjustified in pointing out the weakness of Pilate's character, we would be wrong to assume that we are not prone to those same Weaknesses ourselves. If we are not careful, we will fall prey to the same temptations to self-preservation and advancement that Pilate gave in to.
THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM PILATE
There are three things we can learn from his failure to do the right thing by assuming personal responsibility for the position he was in and exercising his influence for good.
Popularity vs. Spirituality
Pilate was more concerned about his popularity than his spirituality. He was like a modern politician who governs on the basis of public opinion polls instead of what he knows to be right regardless of the cost. He was factoring into his decision everything except the truth. Herod, the Jews, his wife's dream-he was weighing all the pieces of the puzzle and trying to fit them together so that it presented the best possible picture of him.
As a pastor, I see this all the time. I see people struggling with decisions they must make-critical, life-changing decisions-and they are wondering what their friends or family will think. How much it will cost. What level of inconvenience it will create. They're thinking of everything except the only thing that matters: What is the spiritually mature thing to do?
Right vs. Wrong
As a pastor, my greatest concern is not how much of the Bible people in my church don't know. It's how much thev do know but might choose not to obey. It was Will Rogers who is supposed to have said, "It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do understand."
Matthew 27:18 tells us something that closes the case on Pilate: "For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy." He knew-he didn't think; he knew-that the only reason the Jews were prosecuting Jesus was because they were envious of Him. He had done nothing wrong, and Pilate knew it. And in his actions he sinned-he knew what was right to do, but he failed to do it (James 4:17).
Activity vs. Passivity
When Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' fate, he thought by that dramatic act he could become a neutral player in the drama. What he failed to recognize is that there is no neutrality in moral matters. If you're not doing the right thing, then you're doing the wrong thing. The English statesman, Edmund Burke, is attributed with the classic statement, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Even if good men declare themselves neutral, and put their head in the sand like an ostrich, they are still culpable for the evil that takes place in the absence of their actions. One is either morally active or passive in life; there is no neutral ground.
Did you know...?
Pontius Pilate is the only Roman official named in the two most famous confessional statements of the Christian church. The Apostles Creed, probably formulated near the end of the second century A.D., and the Nicene Creed, composed in 325 A.D., both refer to Pilate. The Apostles Creed says Christ "suffered under Pontius Pilate," and the Nicene Creed says He was "crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate." Note that the creeds don't say that Pilate crucified Christ. Rather, referring to Pilate locks the crucifixion of Christ into history as a space and time event. Christ died for the sinss of the world under the Roman authority of a Roman procurator named Pontius Pilate. What an ignominious honor�to have millions of Christians reminded each Sunday that it was under vour oversight that Christ was killed unjustly.
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