John 19

Sunday, March 3, 2013

John 19

Reading the story of Pilate today, I am reminded of what I believe was a made for TV movie version of the Passion story that showed a conversation early in the Passover week between the Chief Priest and Pilate where they tried to play political games with each other for awhile then agreed that if Jesus was brought to Pilate, then the governor would take care of it.  Pilate's colleague gave him a slow clap once the Chief Priest had left for making the Chief Priest believe that it was Pilate doing the favor for him.

I always wish I had watched the rest of it to see if the movie played what happened with Pilate later as Pilate being so moved by Jesus that he almost breaks this deal.

Because I've always heard the Pilate part of the story as Pilate being moved by Jesus, really wanting to let Jesus go, really believing but washing his hands of the whole mess because he dare not actually stick his neck out.  That's what I've always heard as the take-away moral of Pilate's story.

But I can't help noticing today how brilliantly this all works out, politically, for Pilate - or, at least, how it looks like it will turn out in the moment.  The Jewish people - the people so famously stubborn the Roman Empire dare not challenge their protective and exclusive God, seriously think about that for a moment, the Roman Empire at (or near) its height - all cry out in one voice, "We have no king but Caesar."

And what does Pilate do (over the political objections of the Chief Priests)?  He crucifies the man he explicitly labels as the King of the Jews.  First he dresses Jesus up to look ridiculous, then he plays into the crowd, offering them this sham of a king.  And they answer in anger that they prefer Rome's authority.  That they already have a King - the distant Caesar to whom they have always struggled and resisted and threatened to call on their powerful Protector who nearly flattened Egypt.  And then the governor, representative of Rome, hangs their king on the cross, a label over his head declaring his royalty and the rival power Jesus represents to Rome.

Wow.  Good day for Pilate.  Until Christianity nearly tramples Rome in the dust, of course.

But there's something about petty politics being involved in all of this (I suppose not entirely petty but you take my meaning).  These days I often want to be upset about people's pain being exploited for political means, and of course that's nothing new, but there's something so moving today about the fact that even Jesus was temporarily caught up in politics not really about Him at all.

And that He transcended the attempts of Pilate and the Chief Priests to use Him into something they could never have imagined.