Matthew 09
Reflection: “Jesus before Pilate”
Reading: Matthew 27:11-26
Reflection on painting - Jane Browne
Jesus, Pilate and the crowd
Jesus - I am the Son of God. My kingdom is not of this world. I have ruled in heaven with my father since the dawn of time. I thirst for Justice, offering the gift of living water, to refresh, renew and marks them as being reborn.
I am the way to peace and reconciliation. True peace not upheld by the sword of war or the tyranny of fear; but by the sacrifice of my life for theirs. It is the price that must be paid for truth and justice and to please my father. If only they understood.
Pilate - I am the emperor’s strong hand. My rule is of Judea; this hot, dusty and rebellious back water of the Empire. I hunger for glory and power. I offer stability, rationality. A pragmatic man, I'll do what needs to be done to keep peace, here and at home.
I am the peacekeeper, bringing order to a chaotic people. Peace is not given, it is hard won. If justice is compromised, truth is stretch, then that is a small price. If only they understood!
Jesus - I weep for my people, offered life in abundance, those who revelled in my kingship just days ago; now drown. Weighed down by the greed, selfishness and arrogance that hardens their hearts. Their eyes do not see and their ears not hear. Their hearts are like stone. They sink in the mire of daily life, ground to dirt by the hardship and injustice of life without Joy, without grace.
Pilate - This crowd are like children, cheering one day jeering the next. They grasp at any glimmer of hope that they might be set free from Roman rule. The fools don't see that no mere man can overthrow the Roman Empire. It is an idea, an ideal, greater than any mortal living or dead. And if they fight it, they will drown; washed away in the torrent that is the Empire.
Jesus - But I feel for this man, not one without sin, he’s arrogant with a hunger for power. He just doesn’t understand. He believes he controls my fate but he cannot do what is right: convention; expectations; love of power; and his own vanity bind him. The script is rit and he has no more ability to change the outcome, than fly to the moon. But even he can be saved if he would accept the forgiveness my father is offering - a mere drop of blood!
Pilate - But this man; is different. I look into his eyes and I see concern not fear; pity not disgust; resolution not anger; peace not conflict; forgiveness, not revenge; understanding not confusion.
Who is he that he can stand before me his only hope and not beg for mercy? He’s not like the fools in the crowd and yet he is one of them. He is not like the priest’s and teachers but he is wise. He’s strong but there is strength in him and gentleness I’ve not seen in any man, let alone the condemned.
Does he not know I have the authority to free him? What am I to do? Is he a god, an omen from Jupiter? No man has ever caused me to doubt myself, my judgement.
But now the crowd are on the verge of revolt. They disgust me! He’s done nothing deserving of death. Maybe, if I flog him, they’ll be appeased; but then those vile priests just whip them up again. Even Herod runs from this circus!
I wash my hands of them all!
The third voice - This story has a myriad of characters, a quixotic crowd, manipulative Pharisees and Pilate a very modern and dangerous man. In the name of “peace”, and at the expense of “truth”, Pilate embraced “tolerance”. Tolerance as an absolute good, but when in the name of tolerance and peace we allow: just a little injustice, a little lie; compassion, freedom, trust and justice become the real victims. People seeking freedom, become “queue jumpers” and we tolerate their incarceration for years with out trial or a voice.
Like us Pilate knew what he was doing, torn by guilt he sort absolution by washing his hands of the business. “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?“ Jesus didn’t come to tolerate, but to expose injustice. Rather than let blood and guilt condemned, to let it wash us clean. To teach compassion that softens our hardened hearts.