The Quiet One Within

A short meditation

Pontius Pilate has a problem.  A bunch of raging religious zealots are clamoring outside his palace, and an intriguing but a curiously quiet and troubling young rabbi is inside the palace with him.  One has the feeling that Pontius Pilate feels trapped. 

There is a mass of swirling chaos all around him, as the demanding crowd pressures him to do something he doesn’t want to do.  This isn’t his fight.  He’s not a Jew.  And he is probably both resentful and a little anxious about the spot he’s in. Resentful, because these hot-blooded people can be such religious maniacs and get worked up into such a frenzy that they can demand the most obscene things. And anxious, because if he doesn’t accede to their demands, Pilate could have a riot on his hands.

But this quiet One, who is here inside his palace, for some reason is not one you can dismiss so easily.  There’s something about him…

It’s a scene of madness, swirling all around him, and ultimately, we know, Pilate gives in to the hysteria. He has a quiet moment with the Prince of Peace, but it doesn’t last.  And although he will later address the crowd and publicly proclaim that he’s washing his hands of this innocent man’s blood, it’s hard to believe that Pilate will not forever after be haunted by the fact that on that day, when he had a choice to make, he gave in to the tumult, the madness; and he turned his back on One whose peace and centeredness seemed to come from another world. He had missed an opportunity.

In Eugene Peterson’s translation of this passage from John’s Gospel, Pilate asks Jesus, “So, are you a king or not?”  And Jesus answered, “You tell me.”

You tell me.  You have to decide this one.  It’s up to Pilate, just as it’s up to all of us.  Pilate went with the swirling madness outside his palace.  Our lives will ultimately tell the story of whether we went with the coercive crowd outside, or the quietly persuasive Prince of Peace within.

This Gospel lesson is not just about a decision faced by a Roman governor 2,000 years ago.  It’s about a decision facing ordinary people like you and me every day. 

John 18:33-37