Mtr Mary Trainor

When on others you are calling, do not pass me by…*

Dear friend,

Pilate gets away with murder. Or does he? Get away, that is.

I find Pilate a curiosity and  a complication. He knows Jesus is innocent, but he sentences him to death anyway. His wife warns Pilate not to kill “that innocent man,” but he sentences him to death anyway.

He does it because of ambition, an interest in climbing the Roman ladder to success. That will not happen if he loses control of Jerusalem.

So he goes against what he knows to be true—Jesus being innocent. Pilate is in Jerusalem for Passover as an added measure of control lest an insurrection break out. That would be the end of his career.

So he goes against his gut instinct, his wife’s dream, and his political savvy that tells him Jesus is being set up.

He goes against all that for a chance of advancement.

Historians offer varying accounts of what happens to Pilate. But they agree that he loses favor with Rome, and dies a broken man—some say by suicide.

I wonder, if I listen hard enough, might I hear a despondent Pilate, on his knees, singin, “Savior. Savior, hear my humble cry….

Mtr Mary

Source: Matthew 27:11-23

*Pass Me Not. Words by Fanny Crosby, 1868. Listen to The Statler Brothers here.