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Gospel: John 18: 33-37
Pilate said to Jesus,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Who are the three people whose names are most frequently spoken at Mass?
Certainly Jesus, then Mary.
Who might be the third?
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Not Joseph. Perhaps not even Peter or Paul.
But Pontius Pilate.
Catholics say his name every Sunday while reciting the creed.
“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ… For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried.”
We include Pilate’s name to emphasize that this was a real historical event. It happened. It matters.
But who, exactly, was Pilate?
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He was the government official put directly in charge of maintaining Roman rule in Judea. Thus, when he speaks to Jesus in today’s Gospel, he speaks with the authority of the most powerful empire the world had ever known.
Pilate reminds Christ of this as the Lord stands trial before him, saying, “Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?”
Yet the Lord never asks to be released. His sole concern throughout this sham trial is Pilate’s soul. Even in this horribly heated environment when the stakes couldn’t be higher, Jesus attempts, “to seek and to save what was lost.”
This will be the final encounter the Lord has with a human being before being sent off for execution. His final act is to turn the tables on Pilate, putting him on trial, causing Pilate to make a decision.
Like all of us, Pilate must decide for himself, “Who is this man? Is he a king? Is he my King?”
This is undeniably a day of judgment.
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Pilate’s decision is neither easy nor immediate, revealing just how torn he is. If he were not intrigued by Jesus, then he would’ve sent him off immediately for execution to quell the bloodthirsty crowds.
Yet he staves them off for a time, oscillating between his honest questions, his search for Truth, his fear of an uprising, and his desire to stay in power.
His indecision is magnified by the fact that he rushes between Jesus and the crowds seven different times. In the process, he asks Jesus more questions than anyone else in the Gospels.
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If Pilate comes to faith, then his first lesson in discipleship will be one of the hardest. As the Lord taught openly during his public ministry, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”
A cross for Pilate that would include rejecting the crowds’ demand for blood, saving an innocent man, and dealing with the consequences of a city on the verge of a riot, which very well may cost him his job, even his life.
Stuck in the prison of indecision, Pilate tries to compromise by having Jesus scourged, then offering to release either him or Barabbas in honor of the impending Jewish celebration of Passover.
Interestingly, Barabbas in Hebrew means, “son of the father.”
John uses this tension between Christ – the Son of God the Father – and Barabbas to highlight the stark difference between these two men. One is God, the other is a violent revolutionary.
And who does the crowd choose? Barabbas.
Throughout history, humankind has chosen the way of Barabbas, the way of brute force and violence, instead of the way of love.
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So, what might this high-stake encounter between Pilate, the crowds, and Christ say to us today?
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Faith always comes at a cost.
Although Pilate declares before the crowds, “I find this man to be innocent,” he buckles under pressure, having Christ crucified anyway – and releasing a violent man, Barabbas, back into society in the process.
At times, we, too, experience this pressure to buckle under the weight of the world, instead of making faith-based decisions.
Whether that includes honesty at home or at work, moral decisions when we think no one is watching, or speaking out against the crowds, making an unpopular, but right, decision.
For every believer, faith comes at a cost.
What are some of the pressures we face? Or when has it been difficult to choose Jesus over someone or something else?
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Every Sunday we profess that Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate, not only to say his death matters; it also has consequences for our lives today.
May all of our actions this week reflect our faith in Jesus Christ, not only King of the Universe, by our King.
My King.
My Lord and my God!
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Image credits: (1) Miles Christi (2) iStock (3) The Oneness of God in Christ