TO GET AHEAD IN ROME, you had to know the right people. In Pontius Pilate, Anne Wroe describes what she calls the "essential etiquette of Roman life: all paths to advancement lay through politeness, persistence, and the favor of richer and nobler men." Anne Wroe, Pontius Pilate (New York: Modern Library, 1999), p. 18 . And Pilate knew how to use those paths.
Now known to Christians as the man who condemned Jesus to death, Pilate was a fairly ordinary Roman civil servant. As he was growing up, it's unlikely that anyone would have predicted that one day he would be familiar to many people around the globe. Yet when he took up the Judean post as governor in about AD 26, he unwittingly became a key player in the world's most important trial.
Judea was a small, unglamorous posting, richer in bitumen than in culture. And then there was the problem of dealing with the feisty Jewish population.
That Pilate had a kind of diplomatic "tin ear" became apparent almost instantly. One of his first acts was to send troops to Jerusalem bearing standards with images of Caesar on them. To the Jews, setting up an image broke the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Ex. 20:3. And to do such a thing in their holy city was even worse.
Angry, the Jews journeyed from Jerusalem to Pilate's headquarters in Caesarea to demand that the standards be removed. While Pilate hung tough at first, the Jews' persistence forced him to back down. And this set a pattern he would follow during other incidents in his governorship.
Seemingly blind to the Roman policy of not offending the native population, Pilate continued to strike a sour note. And the protests followed. In fact, after he dedicated golden shields to the " divine Augustus," four sons of King Herod protested and threatened to complain to Rome about him. And Pilate, like many politicians far from their home territory, again chose to back down rather than risk offending, or even losing, a patron back home.
Like any governor, Pilate would have moved around his province, and it's likely that he had heard of Jesus before he had to stand in judgment of him. From Pilate's words as recorded in the Gospels, it seems clear that he felt Jesus was innocent. Yet there's no doubt that the political pressure on him to crucify Jesus was intense.
Despite Pilate's hesitation, Herod and the other Jewish leaders were probably pretty confident. They had seen him crumble before. And when Pilate began to move in the "right" direction, Luke records, "the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves." Luke 23:12.
Yet things didn't go entirely as planned. Herod and his colleagues are almost bit players in the Gospel narrative, See John 18:28-19:16 . while the judgment scene with Pilate shows a man in torment—and the man is not Jesus, but his crucifier. The encounter seems to pull out of Pilate something deeper than he has felt before. When he asks Jesus "What is truth?" perhaps he is being sarcastic or cynical. Or maybe he feels he is finally in the presence of someone who can actually answer this question—which now is forever identified with that encounter.
Mary Baker Eddy pointed out the great significance of the question, writing: "Pale in the presence of his own momentous question, 'What is Truth,' Pilate was drawn into acquiescence with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate was ignorant of the consequences of his awful decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for man." Science and Health, p. 48.
One wonders what Pilate thought about the resurrection stories that came later. Was he comforted? Did he believe them? The historical record suggests that he was recalled to Rome, and there disappeared into the mists of time. Yet his question continues to echo for today's leaders and for citizens of the nations. And the Science Jesus demonstrated, so well articulated by Mary Baker Eddy, provides daily powerful and practical answers.
