Friday
Friday
The Vacillations of Pilate
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
Mark 15:15
Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, was an able administrator but sometimes insensitive to Jewish scruples. In the Gospels we see him impaled on the horns of a dilemma, torn between justice and expediency. On the one hand (as we saw yesterday), he knew Jesus was innocent, and he said so repeatedly. On the other hand, he feared the consequences if he did not yield to the mob. The evangelists depict him as “wanting to release Jesus” (Luke 23:20) and “wanting to satisfy the crowd” (Mark 15:15). But he found that he could not fulfill both wants simultaneously. It is fascinating to watch him wriggling in his painful predicament. He tried four ways of avoiding a clear decision.
Firstly, he tried to shift the responsibility to somebody else. Discovering that Jesus came from Galilee and was therefore in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod for trial. But Herod found no basis for the charges against Jesus.
Secondly, he tried to do the right thing (release Jesus) for the wrong reason (because of the Passover custom), freeing Jesus as an act of clemency instead of an act of justice.
Thirdly, he tried to satisfy the crowd with half measures, having Jesus flogged instead of crucified.
Fourthly, he tried to persuade the crowd of his integrity (by washing his hands publicly) even while contradicting it (by sending Jesus to the cross). Each was a subterfuge, an attempt to avoid a commitment by compromise.
Why was Pilate so weak, such a moral coward? John tells us. The Jews kept shouting to him: “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar” (John 19:12). That settled it. The issue was plain. He had to choose between two kings. To his everlasting shame, he made the wrong choice. He chose to be a friend of Caesar and an enemy of all reason and justice. His name has been immortalized in the clause of the creed that declares that Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate.”
For further reading: John 19:4–16