In St. John’s Gospel, the meeting of Jesus with Pilate takes centre stage. We hear their conversation at some length, as well as Pilate’s negotiations with the crowd outside. To our minds, the trial of Jesus seems quite clearly unfair and unjust, but life is not so simple. To the Jewish elders this man was an upstart, who was, in His naivety, going to be the cause of trouble in society. Pilate too, eventually came to the same conclusion. It looked as if a riot was brewing, and it would be much simpler to sacrifice one man than to have the whole city in flames. But before Pilate reaches that point, he struggles with himself, trying to set Jesus free. Power politics and pragmatism are the name of the game. Standing on his balcony, Pilate might think he is the figure of authority here, but in fact it is the crowd below who carry the day. Pilate, in the end, does not make an honest decision. He yields to public pressure. In a moment of pure helplessness, he washes his hands of the business, and hands Jesus over to the crowd, to deal with as they please.
The man at the centre of this drama, Jesus of Nazareth, tells us, in court, exactly who He is: “Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to My voice.†Pilate’s refusal to enter a discussion about truth is not because he found it foolish. Something inside him told him that truth was being sacrificed today, in favor of political necessity. In fact the truth, the living truth, in the person of Jesus, was about to be crucified. Pilate’s own attempt to be truthful would come in a notice that was fixed to the cross – “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.†Under pressure to change it, Pilate would not be moved. He had been pushed around enough. “What I have written, I have written.†In Antonio Ciseri’s painting, the light from heaven, reflecting of the walls of Jerusalem, shines down on God’s own Son. And Pontius Pilate has his own moment in the sun, when he says to the world, and to every generation, “Ecce Homo – Behold the Man!â€