Hello and welcome to this Maundy Thursday reflection as we continue our journey through the Passion Narrative and John during this Holy Week. What a great day to come together and have this devotional and have this chance to talk about what’s going on in the Passion Narrative as we look toward the cross tomorrow. 

Today we’re going to be looking at Jesus and how he interacts with secular officials. On Tuesday, we talked about religious officials, Annas in particular, and a little bit about Caiaphas, but they have handed Jesus over to Pilate.  

Now, before we get into the scripture, I think some background on Pontius Pilate is helpful in this case. 

Pilate is, of course, a Roman, not a Jew. He is the governor of this larger region that includes the Levant, the area where Jerusalem is and where the Jewish population lives. He reports to the Emperor Tiberius,  And he lives in Caesarea Maritima, which is on the coast of the Mediterranean. It’s in the Levant, it’s in the general area, and that’s where he rules from. His primary purpose is to keep the peace in that area. 

The Romans were masters at conquering people and then making them happy. Once they were conquered, they would make them really comfortable. They wouldn’t require the population to adopt, to change their, say, religious customs or other customary practices. The Romans would just levy taxes. And the people, typically, when they were conquered and after they’d had a chance to get accommodated to it, would realize they were much more secure under Roman protection. And, they were much more profitable because of the trade they were able to engage in, even with the taxes that the Romans levied. And so they could live life in greater peace.  

It was called, at this point, the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, with really, really good reason.  And so most people after they were conquered from North Africa into Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula and the area we now call Greece and Macedonia and that area, all of these people typically really appreciated that they were ruled by Rome. 

Not the Jewish population. They never accommodated. They never got used to it. They wanted to throw the Romans off. There were different factions of Judaism at this time. Some of them argued that independence would come in time and to do what you could to cooperate with the Romans until God acted. And then you had others that had middling perspectives. Then, you had others that were actively trying to subdue the Romans through terrorist at what amounts to really terrorist activity and guerrilla kind of warfare.

So, that’s what Pilate is dealing with. If you listened to the podcast back on Sunday, you heard this illustration: every year, right before Passover, Pilate would march into Jerusalem with a legion, a show of power saying, “do not cause trouble. Keep your weird religious Passover custom and just keep the custom. Don’t cause me trouble. Don’t try to overthrow the me or the Roman authorities. We’re going to keep you under our thumb.” Often, Passover was a time when they would attempt just that short of thing. There would be people who would try to overthrow the Romans. So this is what Pilate’s dealing with. And when Jesus gets handed to him, Pilate’s number one concern is keep the peace. 

Pilate’s doesn’t want to do anything that’s going to stir trouble with the local population. So he’s kind of caught between a rock and a hard place because as we’ll see. He doesn’t believe Jesus has done anything wrong, but the people are demanding action.  So as we hear this scripture, put yourself in Pilate’s shoes. What is he thinking? What is he experiencing? What is he going through?  What’s it like for him dealing with this?  See the world through Pilate’s eyes. 

Scripture: John 18:28-38a, 19:1-16a

28 Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The Jews replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” 32 (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”…

19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” 5 So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate[a] said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar.”

13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat[b] on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew[c] Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

Pilate’s wrestling with a vexing truth.  Notice with me the reaction of the crowd. And remember, Pilate is trying to keep people happy, trying to keep the peace,  Notice that the second time Pilate speaks to the crowd, in verse 12, Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.  

Now, first we should note that John often refers to “the Jews” but we should note that not all Jews, just like not everybody of any kind of ethnic grouping or religious grouping, is of exactly the same opinion. There were plenty of people who were Jewish, because there was no Christianity yet, who were following Jesus, who believed in Jesus. Think about the throng that just five days before this, on Sunday, had welcomed him into Jerusalem and cheered him on.  Some of them, undoubtedly, have had a change of heart and are in the crowd, but some of them are hiding.

So, not all Jews, as much as John might refer to the Jews in this passage, not all Jews are of this opinion. But the ones who are here at Pilate’s headquarters are saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. They’re playing politics. They’re trying to convince Pilate that Jesus wants to usurp the throne of Tiberius, the emperor. 

What’s amazing about this is that what did unite the Jewish population at this time was a desire to see Roman rule ended. There were differing thoughts about how you got there, but everybody was of the same mindset that eventually they needed to have independence again.  So they’re speaking here in verse 12 in a language that is not theirs at all.

It is completely trying to convince Pilate that this man needs to die and why. It’s just like Caiaphas is reported to have said in verse 14 of chapter 18: that Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people. Better that Jesus die and the people settle down then Jesus continued to draw a following that could undo the existing religious rule. 

Then, I think this is most remarkable of all, when Pilate says at the very end of what we read, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests, these are the religious leaders, answered: We have no king but the emperor. 

That’s incredible. It’s incredible because what the people, these chief priests included, ultimately wanted was a restoration of the theocracy they knew under David: where they’ve got a king, but their ultimate king is God. In that system, God lives in the temple, and God anoints the particular king they have at the time, but they want their own king, their own earthly king, and that earthly king to be anointed by God, their ultimate king. And here they say we have no king but the Emperor? That’s an incredible disloyal statement, and it shows you how far they’ve sunk from following the God that they claim. 

So this is one side of the rock, we’ll call this the rock, and then there’s the hard place that Pilate is stuck between. 

For me, Pilate’s a tragic figure. Pilate seems to recognize that Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong. I think John goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Pilate can’t find any wrong with him. He keeps trying. He keeps trying to justify doing what the crowd is demanding, but he can’t find any reason for it. So he’s wrestling with a vexing truth.

The truth that here’s a man who’s done nothing wrong, but the crowd wants him executed anyway. And it’s Pilate who gets to decide what will happen. In the end, of course, Pilate chooses the easy way out. And how many times have we seen leaders, and maybe we ourselves in our own leadership, have seen times where we have chosen the easy way out. It’s very tempting. It happens frequently, and that’s what Pilate does. 

It’s really hard when we’re wrestling with a vexing truth. That vexing truth creates disorientation, it creates tension, and we want that resolved. That’s what tension does. It demands resolution.  And so we want to find that resolution. 

But the thing to do, I think, is to sit with the vexing truth.  For me, when I was encountering this, it was when I found my way back to faith. I had left faith, you may recall. I was an agnostic for a time. I had decided that the God that people proclaimed to be the God of love and then acted in ways that were absolutely nothing at all of love could not be trusted. And they did not represent a God that I thought maybe didn’t even exist. But if God did exist, they really had it wrong. And so I just abandoned faith and decided that maybe God existed, but I didn’t think it really mattered for me.  

So then when we moved back to Macon, and some of you have heard me tell this story, Dana demanded that we go to church. So I said, well, I better go to church. I went to church and there I discovered unconditional love. I discovered that through the people of the church and I discovered that through them from God. And it took me a while to finally say, okay, I’m going to be a person of faith again. When I joined the church, it was on profession of faith.

It was me saying, I’m choosing to believe this again. But there was a tension. There was a time where I sat with this vexing truth of God’s love and my experience of God’s love. And yet I still had all these opinions about what terrible people Christians were.  So how was I supposed to reconcile my experience? It took sitting with it, wrestling with it, praying through it, and eventually God resolved it. 

And that’s the thing with vexing truth.  We have to allow God ultimately to resolve it.  So here’s our think, pray, do for today.  

Think

Here’s our think.  When have you experienced a vexing truth in your faith?  Some reality that God speaks to you that you have had to wrestle with.  

Pray

The way we find that is to pray with Lectio Divina. I think the best way to understand the answer to that question, and maybe even a truth we’re currently wrestling with, a vexing truth that we’re currently dealing with; the best way to do that is to sit with scripture. Lectio Divina means divine reading and there’s a process that we go through to do that and it involves a lot of silence. Click here to access a guide to praying with lectio divina. 

So I invite you to really study that process that’s outlined at that link. And of course you can reach out to me with questions or guidance on how to do this. 

The scripture I would encourage us to use Lectio Divina with is verses 37 through 38a of chapter 18. There’s where Pilate asked Jesus, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Pilate asked him, What is truth? 

We’ll sit in silence with that question four times. 

Do

Then, the do is to share about your Lectio experience and what God revealed to you through it with a friend. Call someone up, text them, send them an email, whatever it is; somebody else who is a believer, maybe who listened to or read this devotional. Share that with them and be encouraged in each other by sharing about your experience of Lectio. 

So we’re thinking about a vexing truth.  We’re praying via Lectio Divina, some scripture from our reading today, and then we’re going to share about that with our friends. Vexing truths can be hard. But let’s not take the easy way out like Pilate.  Let’s take the way out that God provides, for God’s resolution and showing us the release of that tension will come in time. And this vexing truth, once resolved, presents to us a beautiful new truth, a new reality that we can live into, just as when I embrace God’s unconditional love.

Pray with Me  

Let’s pray. God on this Maundy Thursday, we bring ourselves before you. Where we know tension or where we’re wrestling with a truth, show us what your truth is. Open our minds through our practice of Lectio Divina that we may hear a fresh word from you. In Christ’s name. Amen.  

I’ll see you tomorrow for the last time for our Good Friday Reflection.