Palm Sunday
Pilate
I, Pilate, ruled a foreign country, a real back water country, certainly not my choice of an appointment. Some of the people who lived there were the Jews. They were an odd group of people who had many superstitions and religious beliefs. They brought Jesus to me, for as procurator I alone made life and death decisions.
I could see from the beginning that Jesus was innocent. The chief priests were hysterical because they said Jesus claimed to be king of the Jews. They obviously felt threatened by Jesus. I didn’t care about his claims. I asked Jesus if he were king of Jews. He gave a curious response. He said, “As you say.” Now what was that suppose to mean? He just stood there silent as the chief priests and elders threw out all sorts of accusations.
I could see that Jesus had not done anything wrong. Also, my wife had a dream about him. She said he was a holy man and that I should not interfere with this case. I was in a dilemma. The Jews were extremely agitated, and this Jesus wasn’t very cooperative with me.
Well, I had an idea to escape this predicament. Often on the occasion of a festival, I would let the people choose a prisoner to be set free. So, I thought I would present Jesus along with another notorious prisoner and ask the crowd to choose the one to be released. I had the guards bring our Barabbas, a known murderer, a real scoundrel. Surely of the two of them, the crowd would choose Jesus to go free.
What I did not anticipate was the reaction of the chief priests and elders. I could see them out among the people, working the crowd, convincing them to choose Barabbas. The people kept shouting, “We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas! So, Barabbas was released.
I asked the crowd just what I was to do with Jesus. At the urging of the chief priests, they yelled: “Crucify him!’ I couldn’t believe the anger and the frenzy of the crowd. I asked what crime has he committed. They kept screaming “Crucify him, crucify him!
I was about to have a riot on my hands. Just the kind of report I did not want to go back to Rome. I could hear Rome’s criticism: “Pilate is out of control. He can’t rule the people. He lacks authority. “
There was no reasoning with the crowd. I couldn’t be heard over them yelling “Crucify him, crucify him.”
I washed my hands of the whole situation. To make my point, I even had a bowl of water bought to me and I literally washed my hands in front of the people and told them: “I am innocent of any wrongdoing toward this man. His blood will be your responsibility. They eagerly took that responsibility. What a deplorable group of people.
Jesus was in their hands. They took any guilt—not I. I ordered that Jesus first be beaten and then crucified.