Pontius Pilate did everything he could to avoid sentencing Jesus to death, yet he was still culpable for the sin. I’ve been mulling this over since Holy Week and felt it was worth thinking through.
I attended a Tenebrae service on Holy Thursday. In the Roman Catholic Church, this is a special instance of the Liturgy of the Hours AKA the Divine Office in which the Church obeys Christ’s command to “pray always.” At certain hours during the day, there is an office of psalms, scripture, and readings. During the Triduum, these prayers are very much like a funeral and commemorate the death of Our Lord.
I had also recently read something in the Fall 2024 issue of New Polity magazine. In the Overture to the issue, editor Marc Barnes discusses how materialism views reality as made up of primary ‘parts’ whereas a divine creation view “takes wholes as primary and views parts as abstractions- or extractions- from the wholes, that is, from creatures…You may be said, in a loose sense, to me “made” of organs and limbs. But in a strict sense, there are only organs and limbs because you were made” (4-5).
It’s funny how the Holy Spirit guides us to certain thoughts and ideas in order to prepare us for prayer and contemplation.
As I had this idea stewing in my mind, I attended Tenebrae, and it made the scene of Christ before Pilate take on a new dimension for me.
While listening to an absolutely exquisite choir chant these passages, I read along with the scriptures and this idea of guilt stood out to me. Particularly our tendency to shift blame either partially or completely to something outside ourselves.
When Christ was brought before Pilate, he could not see any reason to punish this man under Roman law. Yet the crowd was so incensed that he felt he had to appease them somehow. He had Christ scourged to satisfy the fury of the crowd, but it wasn’t enough for them. He even told them to follow their own law and apply justice accordingly. The reply of the crowd was that their law says that Jesus should die, but they “do not have the right to execute anyone.” This is a strange reaction from the crowd since in a previous chapter, the Jews of Jesus’s hometown we prepared to stone Him.
Pilate washes his hands but still bears the guilt. The Jews appealed to their law preventing execution, but they yelled “crucify him!” They slew Him at that cry. Pilate and the Romans slew Him a few hours later on the cross.
Sin clouds our judgment. We cowardly hide behind whatever we can to lessen our guilt by sharing it with others, but God knows the whole picture clearly. How pathetic we are to assume we can outsmart Him!
“So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered [him], “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”” John 19:10-12 (emphasis mine).
These are some of the parts to which we can reduce the passion (if we want to participate in the merely materialistic methods of observations). Accusation by Jewish authorities but passing responsibility to the Romans. An unjust scourging that fails to satisfy a mob. A washing of hands, yet an executed man. Pilate undoubtedly felt as if he absolved himself from blame and the Jews undoubtedly felt as if the justice of their law was achieved at the hands of the pagan Romans therefore protecting them from guilt. But Christ explains it all when he says, “the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” There is culpability on ALL of our parts for Christ’s death, and Christ in His divine view can see the whole. Pilate still bore sin, albeit a lesser sin than that borne by the Jews who handed Him over to be crucified.
In our striving for holiness, we are trying to bring our will into alignment with the will of God. We should be striving to overcome our narrow view and see the whole the way God sees it. This is impossible to achieve alone.
Proverbs 21:2 states “All your ways may be straight in your own eyes, but it is the LORD who weighs hearts.” Thinking and praying during Tenebrae made me reconsider times where I may have viewed myself as innocent because I failed to see the big picture. I’m sure that I have carried a lot of guilt even though I have “washed my hands” or seen my ways as straight. Thank God for sacramental confession that absolves me even of sins of which I’m unaware. And thank God for His guiding Spirit to bring these things to light so that I CAN address them directly in the sacrament.
We can see the big picture more clearly when we read the Gospels. Each individual acted in a way that best benefit themselves and therefore justified their actions by assigning the guilt to the other, yet all were guilty to some degree, including us.
God knows all things by their wholeness. We reduce creation to parts in a quest to understand, rather than passively observe the whole. When we stop trying to be the master and surrender in trust to the Master, we can and will be used for a glorious whole despite our (perceived) lack of understanding. Our understanding fails because reality doesn’t make sense when viewed in parts. It only makes sense when viewed as a whole, and it makes more sense that we could ever dream once we start to see it.
The scripture must be taken as a whole which is why we need the teaching authority of the Church. A man cannot be his own authority. Pilate had authority but feared Caesar more than God. The Jewish high priest had authority but punted the execution to the Romans. Christ established His Church, the bride of Christ, and therefore the Church shepherds us toward our highest aim; the divine perspective held only by God and the saints in heaven.
Strive to see with God’s eyes. Begin by doubting your own.
Sources:
Barnes, Marc. Overture. New Polity Magazine, Issue 5.4, The Institute for Political Philosophy and Theology, Fall 2024, pp. 4-5.
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Loved this thought provoking read. I came away with several different yet related items. I read your words several times then sat on them for a few weeks. Reread them again today. Two of my original thoughts were still ricocheting inside my skull while another has sprouted roots.
There are two players in this passion not mentioned. Pilot's wife said for her husband to keep his hands off Jesus. How'd that go? More advice from a well meaning, good intentioned source gone awry. More indirectly there is Nicodemus. I believed he learned/saw from the beginning what the purpose was for the Lamb of God.
Finally, our understanding or lack thereof becomes a lesser force when we whittle away at the subject, discovering obedience is the target. Stop looking for and exercising man's authority. Find then follow God's will.