Pilate: 4th Sunday of Lent
28 Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?”
John 18:28-29
2 They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.” 3 Then Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He answered, “You say so.” 4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no basis for an accusation against this man.” 5 But they were insistent and said, “He stirs up the people by teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to this place.”
6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him off to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
Luke 23:2-7
Also in Matthew 27:11-12 and Mark 15:1-5.
Response:
What is the truth about Pilate, Lord?
Was he capable and competent, or weak and unimaginative, or ruthless and hard?
Was his appointment to this explosive province a down-grading for previous mistakes?
And this was too much for him, wasn’t it?
He neither liked nor understood your countrymen or their leaders.
They’d bettered him three times already and he was wary of them.
Irritated to be dragged out before dawn, he then comes face to face with you
-and he knows he’s got a problem;
but when they mentioned Herod
he can see a loophole to avoid a difficult decision.
We pray for all in authority over others:
for all faced with difficult decisions today;
for all in the gray world of politics, where a good compromise is the best they can hope and work for;
for all who have to work
with people they don’t like;
and in the choices I have to make today guide me by your truth and love and help me.
Response:
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