Tuesday, March 24

Scripture: John 18:33-38, Matthew 27:19
So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”

PONTIUS PILATE

Pontius Pilate is an enigmatic character in the Passion narrative. Historically we know little about him. We know nothing of his birth and accounts of his death are uncertain. This prefect of Judaea seems to appear on history's stage for the sole purpose of interrogating Jesus and sending him to death on the cross. So what are we to make of him? He would seem to play the most unenviable role in all of human history. We know that Christ must die to be the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. Yet, who will be the one to put the Savoir of the world to death? It is dirty work, indeed, but someone has to do it. It falls to Pilate to do the deed. 

Pilate is uneasy in his role to be sure. He is lawyerly in his questioning of Jesus. He is aware that the Jews have it in for Jesus. He knows the law and he knows both the Jews and the Romans would be troubled with anyone declaring himself a king. Yet, he struggles with the injustice he sees taking place. He wants a way out. He does not want to take responsibility for the death of a man in whom he finds no guilt but he knows is unpopular with the crowd. So he seeks to find the truth. Maybe he can find a way out if he just asks Jesus the right question.  In his probing he asks the ultimate question that all mankind asks; "What is truth." To this eternal question Jesus makes no answer. There is no way out for either Pilate or Jesus.

In some ways Pilate's struggle is our struggle. We too face difficult decisions; some large, some small. But in all of them we yearn to know the right path to take. We want to do justice, to love mercy, but being frail flesh we fall short. Our decisions have unintended consequences that cause us to doubt our good judgment. It seems it would be much easier if we only knew the truth. So we ask, as Pilate did, "what is truth?" Knowing Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, is the essential answer to be sure. But even those who know Him still endure the challenges of daily life. Until that time when we see the Lord face to face we struggle after truth.  Some of our struggles may be public ones, like the Pilate in Tintoretto's Christ Before Pilate where we must make a decision amid the teaming crowd. While at other times we struggle after truth in an intimate moment, with only ourselves and the Lord present, as represented in Ge's painting "What is Truth?"

Only intimacy with Christ will bring us closer to the truth. It may have been that realization that led Richard of Chichester to pray:

PRAYER
Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love Thee more dearly,
Follow Thee more nearly. Amen.

Gregg Geary, Dean of Library & Media Services