Taking Care of Business

by Dave Wilkinson

John 18:29-40, 19:1-16, and John 19:19-22

May 18, 2003

Carol and I were in Edinburgh last August during the annual Fringe Festival. Each August, over eight hundred shows are performed in different venues around the city.

We passed on going to see a new production called “Jerry Springer, the Opera.” We should have seen it. It’s gone to London. It will probably come to New York and win a bunch on Tony awards. But we didn’t see it.

However, we did see Macbeth. It was acted outside through the streets of Edinburgh from Grayfriar’s Churchyard to the end of the Royal Mile.

One scene could have been written for Pontius Pilate. Lady Macbeth has urged her vacillating husband to seize the throne of Scotland by murdering the king and the other claimants to the throne.

Lady Macbeth seems unaffected by the murders. She goes coldly about the business of being queen.

But at night, as the castle sleeps, she walks through the halls and talks to herself. She rubs her hands together as if washing. Then she speaks:

“Yet here is a spot! Out, damn spot! Out, I say!

Will these hands never be clean? Here is the smell of blood still:

Wash your hands, put on your nightgown: look not so pale...I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out of his grave. What’s done cannot be undone.”

In the same way, Pilate might have walked the Antonia Fortress the night after Jesus was crucified -- “He cannot come out of his grave. What’s done cannot be undone.” In the same way, he took water and washed his hands and said: “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.”

We don’t know anything definite about Pilate’s early life. He must have been considered competent. Rome would not send a blockhead to a trouble spot like Judea.

But from the beginning, Pilate is in trouble. There were several early incidents.

The water supply for Jerusalem is inadequate. Pilate decides to build a new aqueduct. For the money, he simply raids the Temple treasury. When the people of Jerusalem riot against this sacrilege, Pilate dresses his soldiers in plain clothes and has them mingle with the crowd. At his signal, they club or stab many citizens to death. The Jews complain to the Emperor about Pilate’s sacrilege and brutality.

Another incident turns out even worse. In Jerusalem, he has shields made inscribed with the name of the Emperor Tiberius. These shields were votive shields -- designed for the honor of a god. It’s a real suck-up to the boss move. Pilate takes these shields and hangs them on the outside wall of the Antonia Fortress -- right above the Temple. After some trouble which Jesus refers to in Luke 13 where he speaks of the Galileans whose “blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices,” Tiberius himself orders Pilate to remove the offending shields.

This Imperial rebuke puts Pilate on borrowed time. The Jewish historian, Philo, writes of Pilate’s fear that the Jewish leaders will call for Caesar to investigate the rest of Pilate’s governorship. This would expose the “briberies, the insults, the outrages, the wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated, the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty!” Even if Philo overstates the case we can see that Pilate will not welcome an Imperial inquiry.

Pilate is with us today. He’s the businessman who’s been cutting corners — taking bribes, padding contracts, shaving specifications — fearful of exposure and vulnerable to blackmail. He’s the city official who’s taken too many “donations” from too many parties and now owes everybody everything. He’s the company CFO dreading the call from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pilate is the person on the hook. He’s put himself at the mercy of the people he’s supposed to govern. And now these Jewish leaders come to him with a prisoner -- Jesus of Nazareth.

Here are all the elements needed for more trouble for Pilate. He can refuse to do what the Jewish leaders want. But that might cause them to complain to Rome about a lot of things that Pilate doesn’t not want brought up. But if he punishes Jesus, what about all those people who had cheered Jesus and laid palm branches at His feet at the beginning of the week? Will they start a riot? Pilate can’t afford more blood in the streets.

Pilate is no diplomat. But he has to try. He needs to escape without yet another blot on his record. He needs to work for a compromise. At the same time he wants to hold on to the last shreds of his Roman dignity.

Jesus is brought to Pilate’s door with His hands tied. The Jewish priests refuse to enter Pilate’s house because that will make them ritually unclean to eat the Passover.

Now, Pilate has no use for Jewish religion. But he has learned not to offend their beliefs. He goes outside to hear what they have to say.

Pilate must have known something about Jesus -- at least enough to authorize Roman soldiers to participate in His arrest. But he plays it close to his chest...“What accusation do you bring against this man?”

Jesus’ enemies have no charge that will stand up in a Roman court of law. So, they reply with a generality. “If Jesus wasn’t a bad guy, we wouldn’t be here.”

Pilate won’t buy it. He says, “Well, if you know the facts in the case, take him and charge him in your own courts by your own laws. Roman law requires an indictment for a specific crime -- not just a charge like being an “evildoer”.”

Then their purpose comes out. “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.”

That’s true. The Romans had reserved the “eis-gladdai” - the right of the sword or capital punishment - to Roman officials. Only Rome could order Jesus executed.

Pilate walks back inside and calls Jesus to come in. He asks Jesus about the only charge he has heard. “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replies, “Are you asking this on your own initiative or did the others tell you about me?”

Roman law required that when a prisoner refuses to answer questions or defend himself, he be questioned three times before his case is allowed to be lost. Pilate will follow the proper procedure. But he allows himself a momentary sneer. “I am not a Jew, am I? Your chief priests brought you here. What have you done?”

Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.”

Pilate asks the required second question, “So, you are a king?” Jesus answers, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Pilate says, “What is truth?”

A lot of commentators have explored the motive for Pilate’s question. Some see it as the sarcastic reference by a practical man of action to the endless philosophical speculation of Greek-influenced culture. Pilate is not interested in philosophy at a crucial time like this. He needs deeds, not words.

But there is also, perhaps, a wistful longing in Pilate’s question -- a longing for some sort of certainty in the midst of his increasingly troubled life. It may be that Pilate’s question is a feeble jest at what he thinks is Jesus’ pretension to knowledge — an ignorant Galilean carpenter speaking of cosmic things. But if it is a jest, it is the jest of a man in despair. And the tragedy of Pilate’s life is that he doesn’t wait to hear the answer from the only One who has the answer.

Pilate asks, “What is truth?” He immediately turns his back on Jesus and walks out to where His accusers are waiting.

“I find no guilt in Him.” The accusers will not budge. So Pilate turns Jesus over to the soldiers to be whipped and mocked.

If he thinks Jesus is innocent, why does he do this? Maybe he is trying to create some pity in the crowd — bringing the beaten Jesus out before them in his faded robe and his crown of thorns and saying, “Here is your dangerous rebel!” “Behold, the man!” Maybe they’ll be satisfied with a taste of blood.

Pilate tells them that he is bringing Jesus out so that the accusers can see that he finds no guilt in Him. They respond “We have a law and by that law he ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”

Here is the true charge Pilate has been seeking. This charge has no standing in Roman law. But it is a charge that increases Pilate’s fear.

Pilate has been raised from childhood with stories of gods like Zeus and Poseidon fathering children by human women. He knew all about heroes like Achilles and their divine parentage. While Jesus is certainly no Achilles in bright armor, there is something different about Him. And earlier, as Matthew records, Pilate’s wife sent a message to him which read, “Have nothing to do with this righteous man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him”. Dreams are omens. They are to be listened to.

Pilate goes back to where Jesus is standing and asks, “Where are you from?” When Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate bursts out, “Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and I have the authority to crucify you?” Jesus finally speaks, “You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above -- Pilate there’s something bigger happening here than you know.”

When Pilate hears these words, he makes further attempts to release Jesus. Then comes the threat he had been dreading. “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Every one who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.”

The accusers have found the mark. They no longer accuse Jesus. Instead, they accuse Pilate. They accuse Pilate of the worst of all failures for an ambitious Roman -- the failure to be a true friend to Caesar. Pilate is no longer in a position of defending justice. Now, he must defend himself. That decides the issue.

He brings Jesus out and sits down in the judgement seat at the place called the pavement. Incidently, this pavement has been positively identified by archeologists complete with the betting marks left by the gambling Roman soldiers. Pilate sits down on his judgement seat and asks the question, “Shall I crucify your king?” They answer, “We have no king but Caesar.”

With this feeble concession -- this trade-off of professed political loyalty for political favor -- Pilate ends the trial. According to Roman procedure, he calls for water to wash his hands of Jesus’ blood and speaks the sentence required by the law, “Illum duci ad crucem placet.” “You will be taken to the cross.” Then he speaks the second legal sentence, “I, miles, expedi crucem.” “Go, soldiers, prepare the cross.” The trial is over.

I have focused this sermon on Pilate rather than on Jesus because Pilate is the one who is actually on trial. He is caught in a web of ambition, fear, and decent instinct that sends him plunging wildly -- first this way and then another, but doomed.

Pilate asks, “What is truth?” But doesn’t wait to hear the answer. He is no match for his accusers because they have found the small god by which he solves every equation, every question. “What will happen to Pilate?”

The crowd cried, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Pilate said inside his heart, “Not his man, but Pilate.” The great tragedy of Pilate is that He repeatedly said of Jesus, “I find no guilt in this man.” Then he sends him away to be crucified.

Jesus does not meet a moral monster in Pilate. He meets in him what He still meets in many people -- a life weakened by the love of popularity, by the habit of taking the line of least resistance, by the inability to face the unpleasant. Pilate says to Jesus, “I have the power to release you.” Officially this is true, but morally he has frittered away this power over the years of accommodation. He is not an unjust man. He is not careless about his work. He hears the evidence patiently. He tries to administer justice. But he is finally unable to be just, because justice will cost Pilate more than his small, internal god can afford.

Playwright Arthur Miller wrote of a man like Pilate in “Death of a Salesman”, “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. You may call him crazy, but you don’t have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted -- a small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.”

We are short on factual information about what happened to Pilate after 35 AD. We know that he was recalled from being governor because of the excessive brutality he used in suppressing a small rebellion in Samaria. While he was on the way to Rome, Tiberius died and Pilate’s case is lost in the shuffle of Imperial reorganization. There is a later factual report of Pilate living in Spain as an exile.

There are also ancient legends. There is a legend that Pilate died a suicide. There is another legend which has it that Pilate became a Christian and a member of the church. The Egyptian Coptic Church has even canonized Pilate as a martyr and saint.

I don’t know if Pilate became a Christian.

But, you know, it will not surprise me too much if we find him worshiping with us at the throne of God’s grace.

Part of this is in Pilate. He met Jesus and knew, “This is not an ordinary man.” Now, on the third day, his own soldiers come with a story of an angel, an empty tomb, a heavy stone lifted out of it’s track and thrown to the side. You can be sure that Pilate questioned them carefully. “What really happened? What did you see?”

He is still in Jerusalem when the followers of this Jesus begin to proclaim His resurrection. He witnesses the rapid spread of the gospel among the people of the city and, later in life -- as Paul tells us in Philippians, among the household of imperial Caesar himself.

I read some figures that indicate that the time of life people are most likely to come to faith in Jesus Christ are the teenage years. It’s a time of searching and asking the hard questions.

The second time is when parents have their first child. They’ve been part of a miracle and they ask the hard questions about what they want for the child God has entrusted to their care. That’s many of you.

The third time is after retirement, when the pace of life slows down. Life is reviewed, and question about the next step come to the fore.

It is interesting that the person least likely to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ is the 30, 40, 50 year old. Life is too busy to ask hard questions. We have a job to do and a house to pay for.

Or course, God can sometimes intervene. Heart attacks are one way to make people stop and look up. Financial failure is another. Being the judge at the trial of Jesus is a third.

Pilate is too busy to ask hard questions. He’s busy running a difficult country and keeping Caesar off his back. But now he meets the most amazing man. And this man reawakens all the hard questions Pilate had asked as a youth. All through this passage we see Pilate searching and struggling with his dislocated center. Behind his Roman equivalent of the three-piece suit, he has the soul of a searcher. And, you know, he’s met the most amazing man.

And, even on the cross this man had prayed, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Those words were meant for people like the priests and also for people like Pilate -- not consciously bad, but weak.

Jesus died for people who sin out of choice. He also died for people who sin out of confusion. He died for people who aren’t aware of sin at all -- who are just getting along, taking care of business and trying to make ends meet. He died for celebrities we get excited about when they announce that they’ve been “born again.” And he also died for the non-famous whose new life is known only to family and friends.

Jesus said, “There is joy in heaven over a sinner who repents.” He’s not just talking about the famous or infamous. He’s talking about you and me. God is not a respecter of persons. The cross is for all of us -- because Christ is for all of us.

There may be people here today who do not know Jesus Christ. You know something about Him. Maybe you know a lot about Him. But you don’t know Him in a personal way -- as friend, as companion, as Lord. If you would like to know Him, you can let Him know that during the prayer. You’ll have the opportunity to pray. You don’t have to be famous. And you don’t have to be infamous. You just have to be you, because you are exactly who Jesus died for.