Some Holy Week thoughts as Christians consider the death and resurrection of  Jesus Christ

(Drawing from texts in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 18)

1.  After Pilate declared Jesus innocent, all subsequent acts were contrary to both the spirit and the letter of Roman Law.  Since Pilate knew that, that should give us some insight into the power of the fear that drove him. Note the role that intimidation and domination play.

2. Jesus’ failure to respond to Pilate is not incidental. The Roman government had no authority over Him, and He would not contribute to any illusion that it did. He was not defiant–He was unresponsive.

3. The Jews who are demanding Christ’s death realize that the penalty of crucifixion cannot be imposed without Pilate’s permission and cooperation. They were quite right in saying that they had no right to crucify anyone.

4. Notice the characteristics of the “religious mindset” (and this is not unique to Jews–I’ve seen it in Lutherans): they are very careful not to defile themselves in such a way that their participation in the Passover would be affected and, simultaneously, they are participating in lies, illegalities, manipulations, political lobbying…but how fortunate that they have kept themselves ceremonially pure.

5. In spite of Pilate’s claim in John 18:37 and pretended interest (What is truth?) he wasn’t on the side of truth. He recognized what was true, which is quite different than acting on what is true.

Messy decisions are still decisions. Gutless decisions are still decisions. Poor decisions are still decisions. The consequences of poor and messy decisions will play out with no further help. The intervening mercy of God may or may not alleviate the long range consequences: compare the post-denial state of mind of Judas, Peter and Pilate.

And, by the way, Pilate was not “weak-willed”–he was very strong-willed in his decision making. He had to go against his wife’s caution and fearfulness; his own conscience; Roman law and the piercing conversations with Jesus, so there’s no excuse available for him in saying, “He was a weak man.” Pilate was not a weak man.  He was a decisive man.

How did Pilate end? He was removed from office in AD 36 when he reacted too strongly to a meeting of Samaritans on Mt. Gerazin. He was enroute to Rome in AD 37 to be punished by Tiberius when, fortunately for him, Tiberius died.   Some historians believe Pilate committed suicide about AD 41.
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Some details sourced from Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible and Bible Almanac.