Pontius Pilate What Is Truth? Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.—John 18:38 Michael Nekora Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect of Judea when Jesus’ ministry was drawing to a close. He was expected to keep the peace at minimum cost to Rome, which meant with a minimum number of soldiers. Pilate had military experience, but political skills were far more important in the administration of Judea. Roman prefects quickly learned that it was the religious leaders who controlled what happened in Jerusalem. They either established a condition of détente with the Sanhedrin or had continuous unrest and rebellion on their hands. Pilate’s palace was in Samaria in the seaport town of Caesarea south of present-day Haifa. He had supreme authority in the military, judicial, and financial administration of Samaria and Judea. He exercised only general surveillance which required occasional travelling to Jerusalem to administer Roman justice, hear appeals, and keep his finger on the pulse of the people. He could not have known that the events associated with that particular Passover week would make him "the judge who changed history." The Sanhedrin vs. Jesus According to Paul Maier, in 30 AD Pilate received a directive from Rome which had obvious anti-Semitic overtones. Because he felt he had to do something Rome would think restricted the freedom of the Jews without actually antagonizing the Sanhedrin, he decided to take away their freedom to execute anyone. They could conduct a trial and find a person guilty, but the actual sentencing and execution had to be carried out by Roman authority. Pilate spoke with Caiaphas, the high priest, and explained the political pressure causing him to act as he did. "Pilate tried to sweeten the pill by granting a Jewish request that he release one prisoner, chosen by the people, at each Passover, a festival amnesty which was unparalleled in the Roman Empire, but a concession with no great implications."1 It is unlikely that Pilate knew much about Jesus’ activities because they were in the religious sphere not the political. Although the triumphal entry into Jerusalem as the people shouted "Hosanna" could be interpreted as political, by no stretch of the imagination was this a threat to Rome. The ride into Jerusalem was not a threat to the Sanhedrin either, but interference with temple commerce was. It threatened the flow of money into their own treasury. Why were moneychangers needed in the temple at all? When Jesus answered whether it was lawful to pay money to Caesar, he asked for a coin of the realm. "Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s." (Matthew 22:20,21) Each new supreme ruler replaced the old coins containing the image of his predecessor with new coins containing his own image. Caesar had followed that venerable tradition. And that was the "problem," so to speak. Images were forbidden: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Exodus 20:4). Accepting coins at the temple with Caesar’s image on them would "pollute" the temple so people had to exchange them for temple coins. Whenever one kind of money is exchanged for another, a fee flows into the hands of the one managing the transaction. Jesus said: "It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, and could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him."—Luke 19:46-48 Why did a crowd which had such enthusiasm for Jesus, which was so attentive to hear him, quickly turn and cry "Crucify him"? The obvious answer is they were different crowds. Everything indicates the common people never wavered in their love of Jesus. It was the scribes and chief priests who hated him. As one of the largest employers in Jerusalem they could easily assemble the temple employees at the crack of dawn to be a crowd very much under their control. They could suggest with some conviction that Jesus was a threat to their jobs. These people knew they held their jobs at the pleasure of the chief priests. What appeared to be an unruly mob was the most effective tool Caiaphas had and he used it for maximum effect. Although Pilate had his soldiers, he also knew that actually using them might do more harm than good. If the scribes and chief priests could have taken the law into their own hands, they would have killed Jesus. It would not have been difficult. They did it with Stephen, even though under Pilate’s rules that was not legal. But Pilate was not in Jerusalem when Stephen was stoned. In the unlikely event that the chief priests had to account for their action in condoning that summary execution, they would undoubtedly have claimed that the "uncontrollable" crowd simply took matters into its own hands. Such an excuse would never work during Passover week when Pilate was "in town" and administering Roman justice. The events of the trial before Pilate are described in some detail in the Scriptures. What is not described are the events that might have happened behind the scenes. Jim Bishop suggests that once the Sanhedrin decided that they had to execute Jesus and had to do it immediately, they faced such overwhelming problems that the high priest would have been forced totalk to Pilate the night before and get his agreement to "rubber stamp" the death penalty. Bishop gives these reasons:
In political relationships among powerful forces, one side may have a momentary advantage, but power can also shift unexpectedly. There were times when Pilate needed the Sanhedrin’s help to advance his own agenda. Pilate’s future promotional opportunities depended heavily on a peaceful state of affairs in his territory. And he knew he wasn’t the only one sending reports to Rome. The high priests had their own communication channels. So cooperation was essential between the oppressors and the oppressed. This was one time when Caiaphas really needed Pilate’s help, and they both knew it. It is not clear why Pilate decided to conduct a formal trial of Jesus. Perhaps it was something that he saw or sensed in Jesus, a man who was clearly not like the two thieves he had just condemned to death. All the elements of a trial are described in John 18:
When Jesus answers Pilate’s question about whether he is a king, he says: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all."—John 18:37,38 What is Truth? Truth is one of the first casualties in the political arena. Certainly the scribes, Pharisees, and priests had a flexible standard of truth when it was applied to themselves, but an inflexible standard when it came to others. Jesus said, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."—Matthew 23:2-4 As events proceeded and the priests saw that Jesus might slip through their fingers, they finally hit upon the one fear that got Pilate’s attention: "From thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar" (John 19:12). This was the one issue the priests could make bigger than it was. Caesar was known to be paranoid. If he heard that his Judean prefect was indifferent to challenges against Rome, Pilate’s career could be brought to an untimely end. So this accusation could not be ignored. He asks, "Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar" (John 19:15). For the moment the chief priests have become more Roman than Pilate himself. What is truth? These putative defenders of the law effortlessly violate commandment number one: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Truth, in their estimation, is flexible. Because Pilate had reserved the right as Rome’s representative to execute anyone, death was administered by crucifixion, a form of execution unknown to the Jews. It could be a very slow punishment, taking as long as several days. In other places controlled by Rome, those crucified died slowly, often requiring more than a day. The Jews were the only people in the Roman Empire who had obtained the concession that under no circumstances would any body be left on a cross over the Sabbath. If the legs of a crucified man were broken, hecould no longer push his body up enough to get air into his lungs. Death actually came quickly through suffocation. That’s why the legs of the two thieves were broken. Unlike the thieves Jesus was scourged first which, if carried to an extreme, could cause death. This scourging made Jesus so weak he could not carry his cross. In fact an entire cross was so heavy no healthy man could carry an entire, assembled cross even though that is what we see in the pictures of most artists. Only the crossbeam, placed on a condemned man’s neck, was carried.3 Pilate must have forgotten how weakened a man could become when scourged because he expressed surprise that Jesus had died so quickly (Mark 15:44). The Roman cross, intended as an instrument of cruel death, instead became an instrument of new life and hope for the human race. Pontius Pilate, outmaneuvered at every turn by the clever priests, curiously emerges as the only one who actually defends Jesus, hardly a role he would have chosen for himself. As a result and now nearly 2000 years after these events, he is the best known Roman of the time. On the day of Pentecost Peter told the Jews, "God . . . hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go" (Acts 3:13). The culpability of the Jews in the death of Jesus is beyond question. But the anti-Semitic reaction within the Christian community is inexcusable. As Maier puts it, "To be anti-Semitic because of Good Friday is as ridiculous as hating Italians because Nero once threw Christians to the lions."4 Truth How should we answer Pilate’s question, "What is Truth?" What do the Scriptures say? "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). The word of God is not "an old fiddle upon which any tune may be played." It sets the highest standard imaginable. It expects those who embrace it to uphold its principles no matter what the personal cost may be, even of life itself. But all too frequently a person may be tempted to make a quick calculation and see the advantage of sacrificing principle for momentary gain. "What is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" (Luke 9:25). The chief priests and Pharisees did a quick calculation: "If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation" (John 11:48). So they killed Jesus, yet they still lost both their place and their nation. They said, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). So it was for countless generations that followed. If we have "come to the Father" through Jesus, we have been enlightened. We have tasted some of the good things of God, have received the holy spirit, and have seen that his word is true and good. This enlightenment, along with the blessing it confers upon us, also requires us to conform to the truth that we understand. If we fall away, it means death without the possibility of a resurrection: "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once for all been enlightened, and have tasted the sweetness of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the holy spirit, and have realized how good the word of God is and how mighty are the powers of the coming age, and then fall away—it is impossible, I say, to bring them back to a new repentance, since, to their own undoing, they are crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing him to open shame"— Hebrews 6:4-6, Weymouth. At this memorial season, let us make fresh resolves to be among those who "are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:39). He who has kept us from falling is able to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24)—if we remain faithful unto death. 1 Paul L. Maier, Pontius Pilate [third edition] (Grand Rapids Michigan: Kregel pubications, 1996), pp. 129-130 2 Jim Bishop, The Day Christ Died (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1957) p. 260 3 Max I. Dimont, Appointment in Jerusalem (New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1991) p. 105 4. Maier, op. cit., Preface to the First Edition |