(Christ the King (B): This homily was given on November 23, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read John 18: 28-19: 16.)

"The Many Faces of Pontius Pilate."

Pontius Pilate was a man of many faces. We know about him, not only from the New Testament, but also from the writings of two Jewish historians of the time, Josephus and Philo. Neither of them, by the way, was ever a member of the ‘Pontius Pilate Fan Club.’ That’s because Pilate seemed to derive great pleasure from antagonizing the Jewish people. For example, when he decided that Jerusalem needed a new aqueduct to bring more water into the city, he took money from the Temple treasury in order to pay for it. Can you imagine what the Jews thought of that? The man stole money from their most important religious shrine! He also became famous for displaying the emperor’s name and image all around Jerusalem. To the Jews, of course, that was an abomination, since the Romans worshipped the emperor as a god.

And so one day, in the year 33, the chief priests and religious leaders of the Jews went to see this very same Pontius Pilate about a troublesome rabbi. They probably didn’t want to go to the procurator, but they had no choice. You see, even though they had already convicted this rabbi of blasphemy in a religious trial, they could not put him to death. They needed Pilate’s help for that, since the Romans ruled the land. They also knew that Pilate, since he was a pagan, wouldn’t care at all about their charge of blasphemy; so when they brought the rabbi before him they very cleverly changed the accusation. They said, "Procurator, here’s the problem: this man claims to be a king." Well, immediately, they had Pilate’s attention. As the emperor’s representative in Palestine, he was extremely concerned about anybody who claimed to be a rival king to Caesar.

And so Pontius Pilate gets to meet the troublesome rabbi face to face. And it’s here that he shows us his true character. In his dealings with Jesus, Pilate shows us what I would call his "many faces."

Pilate begins with the all important question: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus responds by making clear to the procurator that he’s not a king in the traditional sense of the term. Earthly kings rule by fear and conquer by force. King Jesus rules with love; King Jesus conquers human hearts, always respecting the freedom of the individual in the process. And so our Lord says, "My kingdom is not of this world." This puzzles Pilate, so he reiterates the question: "So then, you are a king?" Jesus answers by getting more specific about his kingdom. He says that his kingdom is built upon and rooted in the truth: "Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice." Pilate retorts, "Truth, what is that?" Here we see the first face of Pilate: Pilate, the skeptic. I can hear the tone of sarcasm in his voice: "Truth, what is that?" Sound familiar? It should. Right now we live in a world that’s filled with people who say very similar things: "There’s no such thing as objective truth." "There are no moral absolutes." "Nothing is black and white; it’s all gray." Pilate’s skeptical face is still with us in these individuals.

Then Scripture tells us that Pilate goes out to the chief priests and says to them, "I find no case against this man." So here we have an admission on the part of Pilate: he knows that Jesus is innocent of the charges against him. He knows it! Now what should any good judge do when he knows that the person on trial in his courtroom is innocent? He should let him go, shouldn’t he? But that’s not what Pilate does! He tries to avoid condemning Jesus to death (at least at first), but at the same time he tries to pacify the Jewish authorities. Here we meet up with the man’s second face: Pilate, the fence-sitter. He just couldn’t commit himself completely to the innocent Jesus. This is also a common problem in our world today: Catholics who won’t commit themselves fully to Jesus and his gospel. Catholics, in other words, who approach their faith like a buffet dinner: they pick and choose what parts of Church teaching they like, and the leave the rest behind.

Now if you’ve ever tried sitting on a fence, you know that it can be a very painful experience! Pilate found this out for himself in his dealings with Jesus. In sitting on the fence, he was forced to let a hardened criminal go free. That must have upset him deeply. You see, he thought the Jewish leaders would soften their attitude toward Jesus after he had him scourged; but he underestimated their hatred! So, after the scourging, when he gave them a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, it proved to be no contest: they immediately chose the murderer over the Son of God! Now at that point, unquestionably, Pilate should have asserted his authority and stopped the madness. But he didn’t. He let it continue. Even though he could have done something, he didn’t. Here we see yet another one of his faces: Pilate, the weak pawn of Satan. Which gives us another important lesson: in this life, we must have more than good intentions. Pilate, at least to some extent, had good intentions in his dealings with Jesus--but he didn’t act decisively! In the end, he still sent our Lord to death! What finally brought him to that point were the threatening words of the chief priests who screamed at him, "If you free this Jesus, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who makes himself a king becomes Caesar’s rival!" I can just imagine what Pilate was thinking when he heard those words: "They’ll report me to the boss! They’ll tell the emperor that I let a man go who claimed to be a rival king! Oh no!" So the procurator put his career first. He was not willing to accept the truth and act on it. And so he sent our Lord to the Cross. Here we have the face of Pilate, the political opportunist. I suppose you could say that he’s the spiritual ancestor of all those who compromise their faith and morals to get ahead socially or professionally or politically. It makes me think of people like our own president--who used to be pro-life early in his political career! (I’ll bet some of you didn’t know that!) William Jefferson Clinton, believe it or not, once was pro-life! But, just like Pilate, he sacrificed that moral conviction for political gain--for eight years in an oval office, inside the D.C. beltway! Wonderful. I wonder what that will count for on Judgment Day?

Which brings us to Pilate’s final face: Pilate, the personally opposed. Scripture tells us that he finally sat down and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just man." I was reflecting on this event earlier in the week, and I said to myself, "If all of this had happened in 1997, how would Pilate have done it?" I came to the conclusion that he would probably have done things a little differently. I don’t think he would have washed his hands in front of anyone. Instead, I think he would have called a press conference, and read a statement to the general public. The statement would have begun in this fashion: "I Pontius Pilate, procurator, hereby declare that, as regards the death of Jesus of Nazareth, I am personally opposed, BUT . . . " After all, that’s the way modern- day Pilates do it regarding abortion and a host of other evils, so it’s safe to say that’s probably how the original would have done it.

These are the faces of Pontius Pilate that we see in the New Testament. But I pray this morning that there is one more--one that the Scriptures do not show us. You see, in spite of all his sins, in spite of all his weaknesses, in spite of his constant compromising, Pilate was loved by Jesus. In fact, Jesus died, so that all people might be saved--including Pontius Pilate. I pray that many years later, Pilate came to understand this. After Caesar took him out of office, I pray that he sat down did some serious thinking about his life. I pray that somebody, perhaps one of the apostles, preached the gospel message to him. And most of all, I pray that he accepted it! I pray that he opened his heart to Christ and received Baptism--for the forgiveness of his many sins! If that did in fact take place--if this man was converted, and if he lived a life of faith afterward until he died, then the final face of Pontius Pilate is actually the face of Pontius Pilate, the saint! Imagine that: Pontius Pilate the saint! Now there’s a face that should give us all a lot of hope: hope for ourselves, and hope for all those in the world today who need a radical conversion to Christ.