‘Pilate replied, ‘You are a king then?’ ‘You say that I am a King, and you are right,’ Jesus said. ‘I was born for that purpose. And I came to bring truth into the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true. ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked (John 19:37-38(a) NLT).
Pilate was a cruel and brutal man. History records that he routinely executed men without benefit of trial. He was the kind of guy who would as soon crucify you as look at you, and not lose a wink of sleep. His delighted in provoking the Jewish people at every conceivable opportunity. This style of governance resulted in many savage outbreaks of violence, followed by just as many bloody crackdowns, and the historical evidence suggests that he had been warned by Rome that no further mistakes on his part would be tolerated.
One might therefore have expected that when asked to deal with Jesus, a man who had purportedly defied Caesar by claiming to be ‘King of the Jews,’ Pilate would have ordered a summary execution. Instead, he equivocated. Not to his credit, unfortunately. His equivocations were most likely due to concern for his own skin. Jerusalem was a tinder box. The city had swelled to the point of bursting with Passover pilgrims. Of all the times for a riot to start, this was not it. And so, it seems that Pilate’s hesitation in deciding Jesus’ case was simply to ascertain the direction of the political wind. Would a riot be more likely if he killed Jesus, or if he set him free? By morning’s end, it was clear his safest course of action was the former. Jesus was a man of peace, neither he nor his followers would riot if he were killed. On the other hand, as the religious leaders had not so subtly threatened, if Pilate released Jesus, word would surely reach Caesar that he had failed to execute a man who challenged Roman authority (see, John 19:12). And so, Pilate’s decision was made. He sentenced Jesus, as he had sentenced many others, to death on a cross. He might have at least had the decency to spare him the flogging. But remember, Pilate was a cruel and brutal man.
And yet. When we look at the Gospel narratives concerning the encounter between Pilate and Jesus, we see two things happening simultaneously. First, Jesus reached out to Pilate. He explained to Pilate the nature of his Kingdom. He practically begged him to listen to his voice and hear the truth. When Pilate asked his famous question, ‘Que Veritas?’ or ‘What is truth?’ Jesus just stood there. Get it. He just stood there, as if to say, ‘Here I am Pilate. I am the truth.’ You must remember, of course, that Jesus gave his life for Pilate as much as for anyone else. Remember John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever [Pilate, Caiaphas, Judas…] might not perish, but have everlasting life?’ Yes, in the encounter between Jesus and Pilate, Jesus reached out. He wasn’t going to force himself on Pilate, but if Pilate wanted him, well, he was right there.
Secondly, as Jesus reached out, Pilate’s world was seriously disturbed. True, his ultimate decision was cold hearted, practical and selfish. But it is impossible to read the accounts of the encounter between Pilate and Jesus and not sense that Jesus had called into question everything Pilate had ever believed, and Pilate felt it. So much so that even a cruel and brutal man like Pilate was given pause.
A few years back a woman named Susan Boyle auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent. She was 47 and in no danger of being asked to pose for the cover of Glamour Magazine. As she took the stage, the audience snickered. They were, like Pilate, proud, hard-hearted, cynical, and cruel. Nonetheless, the judges (feeling rather smug themselves) let Susan sing. Her song choice was I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables, and the audience laughed out loud when she announced it (who was she to have dreams?).
But then the music started, and she began to sing.
Susan Boyle sang with the voice of an angel. Five notes in, and the once cruel and cynical audience was cheering wildly. The judges were stunned. Mean old Simon Cowell looked like a schoolgirl who had just caught her first glimpse of the High School Football Captain. Ms. Boyle literally took his breath away. By the time she had finished, everyone was on their feet. Every member of her audience, the proud, the glamorous, the hard-hearted, the cynical, and the cruel, had been won over by the beautiful, yes, beautiful, Susan Boyle. Susan’s performance was, as one of the judges said so well, the biggest wake-up call ever.
As soon as she finished, she put the mike down and began to walk off the stage, as if she had done what she had come to do, and that was that. But of course, that wasn’t that. The judges and audience begged her to come back. And of course she did – she wouldn’t force herself on them, but if they asked, well, she was more than willing to come back into their lives.
Keats said that beauty is truth, and truth beauty. And if that’s true, and it is, I wonder if perhaps behind Pilate’s question, ‘what is truth?’ may have been his desire to discover the true and beautiful. I wonder if perhaps, as he stood in the presence of Jesus equivocating, deep down there a part was reacting like that audience when they first heard Susan Boyle sing. True, it wasn’t a large part of him that day. He didn’t have his breath taken away by Jesus, as Simon Cowell did by Susan Boyle. Clearly, he did the wrong thing. But I have always wondered if, at some point, the memory of Jesus might have eventually taken his breath away – and brought him to his knees. If perhaps Pilate, thinking back on the song that Jesus had sung on that dark day of Calvary, thinking back on both the truth and beauty that Jesus was and is, perhaps experienced his biggest wake-up call ever. If perhaps Pilate, realizing that everything he had ever believed had in fact been wrong, finally got it, and embraced the truth and beauty of Jesus.
We have no way of knowing, of course. At least not until we touch eternity, or perhaps I should say, until eternity touches us. It may well be that Pilate’s heart was too hard. Not everyone appreciates the beauty of Susan Boyle. And not everyone appreciates the beauty of Jesus. But make no mistake people. Jesus is beautiful. Jesus is truth. And in the final analysis, I believe that most people – if given the chance to see Jesus in all his beauty and truth, as someday all will – will have their breath taken away. Most will fall to their knees. Yes, in the final analysis, there is hope for everyone, Pilate included. And if there is hope for a brutal, cruel man like Pontius Pilate, surely there is hope for you.
Do me a favor, will you? Just for a moment, close your eyes. Imagine the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you see him? Do you see his love? Do you see his beauty? Do you see his truth? Do you? It surely takes your breath away doesn’t it? It surely is the biggest wake-up call ever.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent