I want you to for a minute think of Jesus of Nazareth. Not Jesus our Lord and Savior, deity to more than a billion Christians around the world, but Jesus the carpenter, activist, revolutionary, the human being. It is thinking of Jesus in this sense, removed from his Godly nature, where I find much insight into both my faith and my life.
During this Holy Week, as in every Holy Week, the minds of Christians and non-Christians alike are drawn to reflect on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Every year, I focus much attention on one of the most fascinating individuals in the Bible - Pontius Pilate. Pilate is the notorious Roman governor of Judea who condemns Christ to death on the Cross. His notorious washing of his hands prior to giving into the will of the crowds calling for Jesus's crucifixion and inability to stand up for the law and his own beliefs in the face of the overwhelming opinion of the crowds facing him have condemned Pilate to eternal infamy in the annals of history.
But, should we not have sympathy for Pilate? Are we not surrounded by Pilates every day of our lives? Do we not ourselves give into the crowd and public opinion and authority rather than speak the unpopular or harsh truth?
My view on this, as with many things spiritual, is influenced greatly by my parish priest growing up. Father Tom's favorite and probably most profound sermon was on Pilate. He ended it in his usual crescendo and dramatic effect by saying "I know Pontius Pilate. I see him in the mirror every day." I keep coming back to this view of Pilate as my spirituality and reading of the Gospels grows within the Episcopal Church.
Pilate's ultimate failure is cowardice. It is clear from the Gospels that Pilate did not believe that Jesus had done anything to deserve death. He repeatedly states that he has no basis under the law to put him to death. He tries to foist Jesus off on the Jewish authorities to no avail. He does everything he can to clear himself of the responsibility for this rabble-rouser who is brought in front of him. Yet, ultimately, he accedes to the cries of the crowd to crucify Jesus and against his own judgment and belief, sentences Jesus to die.
When looking at the circumstances, if we are honest with ourselves, it's really not all that difficult to understand why Pilate would do this. After all, here he is in God-forsaken Judea, probably the least attractive of all of the far flung assignments for a Roman bureaucrat. He is constantly dealing with insurrections, revolts, someone or another claiming to be the Messiah, and an unruly foreign group of people over which he was given rule. What would be the harm to him of sending another trouble maker to be hanged on a cross? It might even help him politically, after all.
Unfortunately, we have seen this act repeated throughout history right up to today and we will continue to see it in our future. How many people who, like Jesus, stood up for what is right and speak the truth even when it is unpopular end up meeting a similar fate to that of Jesus. Just in the last century, the list is frighteningly long. Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu who followed the radical life of Christ forsaking his wealth and standing up to the greatest Empire of his time, assassinated. Martin Luther King, who in the face of the most vicious violence and racism refused to back down from his enemies while at the same time refused to give into violence, assassinated. Robert Kennedy, who dared us to see a world without poverty, without discrimination, without inequality, assassinated. Nelson Mandela, who stood up to one of the most evil governments of our time, challenging racist Apartheid through the use of law, imprisoned for 27 years. Even today, those that speak truth to power, Thomas Drake prosecuted for blowing the whistle and bringing attention to illegal wiretaps; John Kiriakou currently in prison for standing up to the government and exposing the horrific use of torture against prisoners at Guantanamo; Bradley Manning, facing life in prison for exposing U.S. military misdeeds and illegalities during the Iraq War; Julian Assange, who has become an international pariah and is stuck in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, due to his wide scale exposing of illegality around the world and publishing the truth for all to see.
I'm not saying that any of these people should be compared to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, King of Heaven and Son of God. Remember, I'm asking you to look at the human nature of Jesus - the man courageously standing against the authority of his day both politically and religiously, professing radical truth to those who refused to hear it. What I am saying, is that for each of these individuals, there was at least one Pontius Pilate who refused to do the right thing and allowed their persecution or death to occur.
What's worse is how many times have we ourselves refused to stand up in the face of overwhelming opposition to do the right thing, to stand up for the person being treated unjustly, to voice the unpopular opinion, even though we knew doing so would be the right thing to do?
This is what we are called upon as Christians to do. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to do as he did, to stand up for the downtrodden, to voice the radical truth to those in power, to express the unpopular opinion because we know it is right, even though we may suffer persecution, ostracism, or even in extreme cases death.
This Holy Week, we must dedicate ourselves to act more like Jesus and act less like Pilate. Our world could use a lot more truth, and a lot less cowardice.
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