Thoughts on Pontus Pilate...
Rome had conquered the known world, after Alexander the Great conquered the known world for Greece. Rome’s plan was similar to Greece’s plan: conquer countries, allow their economies to flourish and tax them to death. In each country they conquered they would place soldiers to make sure the taxes flowed and they would place a governor.Many years ago I worked at Western Digital and they sent me to Singapore. Singapore was conquered by the British many years ago, and even though Singapore was independently governed with their own parliament and prime minister, England still had a governor who lived on the Island nation. He lived in a huge mansion with a fence around it. I think of this when I read of Pilate, the Roman governor living in a foreign land.
Pilate had authority in Jerusalem that the British governor did not have. Pilate could execute people without a trial, without due process and even without witnesses.
The high priest, Caiaphas, brought Jesus to Pilate in order to have Jesus crucified. Caiaphas was most likely thinking that his hands would be clean if Rome did the killing. So Jesus is delivered to Pilate in John 18:28 and he stays in Pilate’s custody until he is crucified.
Pilate and Jesus speak of kings and kingdoms and a little about truth. Pilate wants to release Jesus, so to placate the Jews, he scourges Jesus so that he is bloody, has open wounds on his back that would require hundreds of stitches today, and he has a crown of thorns trust onto his head and a rough cut purple robe placed on him. Still the Jews ant Jesus dead.
In John 19, Pilate and Jesus speak of authority. Pilate reminds Jesus that he has the authority to release or crucify Jesus. Jesus, in John 19:11 states that Pilate has authority only because God has given his authority. The word for authority in that passage means “legitimate authority to rule.” So Pilate is approve by God. In fact, we could say that Pilate was placed by God or even picked by God. God picked Pilate to be the man to crucify Jesus. So does this mean that God made or controlled Pilate so that he would execute Jesus? Did Pilate have a choice?
Jesus, in John 19:11 says that those who turned Jesus over to Rome, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, are guiding of a greater sin than Pilate. Pilate is guilty of the sin of crucifying Jesus, because it is a sin to crucify the Son of God. Caiaphas and his group are guilty of a greater sin because they had the law, knew the law and claimed to follow the law perfectly, but they threw the Law out the window to get Jesus on that cross. The Jews had the greatest revelation and light of anyone on the planet and they ignored it. Pilate was just a hired gun.
So, did God make Pilate kill Jesus? If he did, then Pilate is not guilty of any sin, he is just a puppet. Pilate made a series of choices based on his fear of people (not God) and those choices will be judged and sinful. So God made sure he picked someone who would crucify Jesus but Pilate was not a puppet.
Finally, In the cross, Jesus said, “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” This is generally, and I believe correctly meaning that at the final judgement, the guards who nailed Jesus to the cross will not have that charge brought against them. However, how far did this extend? Pilate clearly had no clue what he was doing, he was acting out of fear. So is Pilate’s sin of sending Jesus to the cross also forgiven by Christ, while he is in the cross? No one knows until that final day. I get the impression, however, that Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin knew what they were doing, so that promise of forgiveness would not apply to them. I believe only the gentiles get that offer.
#Sermon Reflections#
Comments
Post a Comment