Jesus Through the Eyes of Pontius Pilate--First-Person Sermon for Easter

(This sermon is a first-person sermon, which I like to do at Christmas and Easter. A first-person sermon is one in which I speak as if I were one of the characters in the story.)

            Good morning, my name is Pontius Pilate. I think most of you know about me from my role in Jesus’ death. I must admit, it is rather awkward for me to speak to you today because I did play a part in crucifying the man whom you worship as God. But I’m not afraid to be here, because I have always received an unusual kindness from Christians that I really don’t understand. Even the men who wrote the Gospels in your Bible were very careful to point out that I believed Jesus was innocent and did not want to sentence him to death. So why did I allow it to happen? That’s what I’m here to explain.

            During the last years of Jesus’ life, I was the governor of Israel for the Roman Empire. Our Empire had conquered the entire area around the Mediterranean Sea, and each time we conquered new territory, we tried to maintain a delicate balance between local government and oversight by the Emperor. We weren’t very interested in spreading culture like the Greeks did, so we allowed people to keep their local customs and some form of local government. As long as they paid taxes to us and remained loyal to the Emperor, well, that was good enough for us!

I had been appointed as the governor of Israel after a successful career in the Roman military. As far as governorships were concerned, it was not exactly a glamorous position. For one thing, I was off in the far corner of the Empire, and I believe you have a saying that sums it up well—“out of sight, out of mind.”

Also, the Jews were a notoriously difficult people for the Roman Empire to govern. They had their peculiar religion that only allowed them to worship one God, and the way we honored our Emperor was far too close to “worship” for their liking. They also had a strong hatred of statues and pictures of gods—“idols” they called them—and this caused me no end of headaches when my soldiers would display their shields with images on them to honor the Emperor. The Jews also had these “prophecies” in their holy books about a king who would one day come from among them to rule over the whole world. You can imagine what kind of conflicts that lead to when people would speak up from time to time, claiming to be that king!

I tried to keep the peace with these people, but honestly, I never did understand their ways. One time, I made some significant improvements to the aqueducts that brought water into the city of Jerusalem, but they were mad at me because I used money from their Temple treasury to do it! I also tried to be a fair and impartial judge, but as you can imagine they didn’t always agree with my rulings. So, as a gesture of goodwill, I made it a custom to release one of their prisoners to them during their Passover Feast.

All in all, I felt that I was very generous to the Jewish people, but they didn’t see it that way, so, on several occasions, I had to maintain law and order with the sword. The Jewish people remember me in a very negative light because of it, but please believe me when I say that I just wanted to maintain peace for the Empire.

Well, I know you’ve been thinking about Jesus’ death this last week, so let’s get to the details surrounding that incident. It happened at the time of the Jewish Passover Feast, when they celebrated their escape from slavery in Egypt. During this feast, all of the Jewish people would congregate in the area around Jerusalem. Normally, I lived north of there in the town of Caesarea, but I always made sure I was in Jerusalem during the feast because there were so many people there. The possibility of a riot or a rebellion taking place was just too great to ignore, so we always increased our troop presence, and I made sure that I was on hand to give orders.

The feast lasted for seven days, and on one day toward the beginning of the feast, the Jewish leaders came to my palace very early in the morning to ask me to hold a trial for a prisoner who was in their custody. Normally, I would have conducted the trial inside the palace, but the Jewish leaders thought they would become “unclean” by coming into my home, so I went out to speak to them in the courtyard. I knew that I wanted no part of this trial when I asked for the charges against the man (who was Jesus, of course) and they said, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you.” I thought they must have had some kind of conflict about their customs, so I said, “Take him yourself and judge him according to your own law.”

But the situation took a more serious turn when they mentioned that they wanted to seek the death penalty against Jesus. In Roman law, we did not allow conquered peoples to administer that punishment, so if they sought that penalty, I would have to be involved. So I asked again for the charges, and this time they said, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”

Obviously, that statement got my attention, so I asked Jesus, “Are you the King the Jews?” To my surprise, he said nothing in His defense. He just calmly said, “It is as you say.” As you might suspect, this was very unusual behavior for a man who was facing the death penalty. He was strangely calm, and he did not possess any of the arrogance or defiance that you might expect from a man who wanted to lead a rebellion.

The Jewish leaders began to press me for an immediate verdict, but I needed to hear more from this man, so since the leaders would not come into my palace, I ordered that Jesus be brought inside so I could speak to him alone. As I suspected, He was willing to speak freely once we were alone. I asked Him again, “Are you the King of the Jews?” and to my surprise, He began to question me! He asked, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” I thought He was about to put me on trial!

I replied, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” I expected Him to talk about some dispute over their religion, but instead He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

I will admit that I was a little confused about His statement, but He made one point loud and clear—if He were leading an armed rebellion, His servants would have been fighting to save Him. But they weren’t, so I had to agree that He seemed to pose no threat to Rome.

I still don’t know what to make of His words about His kingdom, so I simply said, “So you are a king?” He replied, “You say that I am. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

I was taken aback by that reply, too. This trial was quickly becoming the most unusual case that I had ever heard. I could tell that Jesus was a man of lofty ideals and convictions and that He was willing to hold to His convictions even though the leaders of His own people were calling for His execution! I confess, part of me was envious of His courage. In my world of politics, it seemed that principles were easily set aside for whatever felt “practical.” “Truth” normally meant whatever I needed it to mean at the moment to keep my head! I admit that this had fostered some cynicism within me, so I simply said to Jesus, “What is truth?”

I don’t know why the religious leaders hated Him so much, but I could tell Jesus was not guilty of treason, so I announced to them that I found no guilt in Him. This decision did not sit well with them, and they began to accuse Him again, saying that Jesus was stirring up trouble all over Judea and Galilee. When they mentioned Galilee, I thought I had found a way to wash my hands of the whole ordeal. Galilee was under the jurisdiction of the Jewish king Herod Antipas, and I knew he was in Jerusalem at that time, so I ordered them to take the case to Herod. This was a perfect solution! Herod knew more about their customs, anyway, so he was in a better position to hear this case.

I was just beginning to move on to the rest of the day’s business when I received word that Herod was sending Jesus back to me—and worst of all, he’d done nothing to settle the case! Now it was back in my lap, and the whole ordeal seemed more foolish than ever. Neither Herod nor myself were very interested in the religious leaders’ case, so I just told them again that I found no guilt in Jesus.

But the leaders would not be pacified, and they became more vehement than ever. In the midst of their accusations, I overheard some others in the courtyard calling out to me about my custom of releasing a prisoner at the feast. Aha! That was the perfect way to get all of them out of my sight. I decided to offer Jesus as one of the prisoners for release, and to tip the scales in His favor, I chose a notorious criminal named Barabbas as the other option. Why I hadn’t I thought of that before? I could dismiss the charges against Jesus and make it look like it was the people’s own doing!

But what happened next was something that I did not bargain for. The religious leaders started to encourage the people to ask for Barabbas! What had possessed these men? They would not give up until they saw this man’s blood, so I decided that I might be able to pacify them by having Jesus flogged. Surely the sight of Him after that would be enough for them.

But when I brought Jesus out to them again, the situation just spiraled out of control. They demanded that He be crucified, saying that He had portrayed Himself to be the Son of God. That statement struck fear into my heart, because my wife had already told me that she had suffered in a dream because of Jesus and that He was a righteous man. Who was this man?

I took Jesus into my private quarters again and asked Him, “Where are you from?”, but He wouldn’t answer me. This whole situation was trying my patience. I was trying to help Him, and now He wouldn’t even speak to me! I lost my composure and shouted, “Don’t you know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Then Jesus calmly looked at me and said, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

The greater sin? Now this man was claiming to have the right to judge the severity of sins! I can’t tell you who this man was, but I knew that I didn’t want to have anything to do with condemning Him. I went out to the leaders again and announced my intention to release Him on the basis of the flogging He had already received. But the leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”

I had just asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Well, here was my truth—I had to stay in Caesar’s good graces. Just a few years earlier, a friend of mine in the Emperor’s bodyguard at Rome had been executed on suspicion of treason against the Empire. I had to think that the Emperor was keeping a close eye on me, so if I released Jesus, how could I explain that I released a man who was brought before me on charges of rebellion?

What is truth? Here was my truth—it had come down to Jesus’ life or perhaps my own. I’m not proud of it, but I chose for Jesus to take the fall. But I wanted everyone to know that I did not approve of this travesty, so I called for a wash basin, washed my hands, and said, “Take Him yourself and crucify Him.”

With that, I went back into the palace, feeling defeated. I may have kept myself out of trouble with the Emperor, but at what cost? This man had spoken about sin on the part of those who arrested Him—what did that make my actions? And just who was this man? I couldn’t get that question out of my mind.

A few hours later, a man who was prominent among the Jewish leaders came to the palace to ask if he could have Jesus’ body to bury it. I was surprised to hear that Jesus may have been dead so soon. It wasn’t unusual for a crucifixion to last an entire day, so I asked a soldier to confirm for me that Jesus was dead. Now, let me say something briefly at this point. I’ve been told that some people in your world today have claimed that Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross—instead, He just passed out, and then He revived in the tomb, which made it look like He came back to life. You modern people must think that we were a big collection of buffoons! Do you think I would allow a man to be taken down from a cross without making sure he was dead?

The soldier told me that Jesus had already died, but just to make sure, one of the soldiers on guard had thrust a spear into His heart. I can tell you for certain that Jesus was dead, so I allowed Him to be taken down and buried. After that, I thought I was finally done with the whole ordeal, but the religious leaders came to me again and said that Jesus had made certain predictions about His death and said that He would come back to life. They wanted me to post soldiers at His tomb to ensure that His followers didn’t steal His body and claim that His predictions had come true!

That kind of story was the last thing I wanted! I was ready to put that whole memory behind me, so I sent some soldiers to guard the tomb. As for what happened next, well—you’ll have to make up your own mind about that! I began to hear reports that something strange had happened at the tomb. I summoned the soldiers to ask them what had happened, but the religious leaders came instead to speak on their behalf. They begged me to excuse the soldiers because they had fallen asleep at the tomb, and while they were sleeping Jesus’ disciples came and stole His body.

I don’t know how dumb the Jewish leaders thought I was! If my soldiers were asleep, HOW DID THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?? Besides, I was a military man myself; our soldiers would not have allowed that to happen. I never did get a good explanation of what happened at the tomb, so I can’t tell you what took place. You’ll have to check out the facts for yourself. But I can tell you this—Jesus was an innocent man who did not deserve what happened to Him. There was no reason that He should have been crucified—He was an innocent man! And yet, He wouldn’t defend His innocence. It was as if He were giving His life—willingly! Why He did it is beyond me, but I know His disciples have written about it extensively in the Bible. You’ll have to examine the facts about Jesus for yourself, and as you do, take this word of encouragement from me—don’t compromise what you find to be true for anything! I knew Jesus was innocent, but I let Him be crucified. Don’t make the same kind of mistake; don’t be cynical about the truth like I was. Find out what is true, and cling to it no matter what!