Who was Pilate? (Mark 15:1 - 15)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church exploring the background, context, meaning, and significance of the account of Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Mark.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are continuing to dive deep into the book of Mark during this Lenten season. So today I want to talk about Pontius Pilate. After, in the way Mark tells the story, as we move into Mark chapter 15, the Sanhedrin, early on that Friday morning, take Jesus to Pontius Pilate because they need, they can convict Jesus, but they need Pilate to sentence him to death, to execute him. And they uh they want him publicly uh executed. Pilate was Roman governor um uh over Judea, the uh other parts of the land, um Galilee, uh Perea, they had some of Herod the Great's sons were still ruling over, but uh Judea itself, um one of Herod the Great's sons had actually been removed from power because he was a bit nuts, and they just put a direct um Roman governor, uh Pilate, over it. I mean, the entire land um paid taxes to Rome and Rome ruled over, but this was more direct rule here in Judea. And so Pilate's there. And Pilate, uh, we know he's a historical figure. They've found a uh tablet with his inscription on it in Caesarea Maritima. Josephus, the Jewish historian that we uh we get a lot of our first century Jewish um history from, uh, talks about Pilate. And um Pilate, there's a few stories that Josephus uh shares, one from the beginning of his his rule, one from the middle, one from the end, that I think just kind of fill out the picture of Pilate a little bit. We only know so much about him, um, but I thought I'd just share a little bit because I think it gives a sense um uh for just it gives a sense for the life of Jesus. So Pilate was uh uh he was governor um or prefect, you'll see that term used sometimes from around AD 26 to 37, uh, so about 11 years. At the beginning of his time there, um he often stayed on the coast and then would just go up to Jerusalem uh when needed. Uh and at the beginning of his time there, he's in Jerusalem, and there was this fortress, the Antonio Fortress, that was connected to the Temple Mount. And at the beginning of his time there, he spent some, uh he sent some troops to go up into the Antonio Fortress, and they they brought these standards, like these flags that had images of the emperor. And uh Jews of this day, they took the the commandment from the Torah to have no graven images very, very, very seriously. They interpreted it very strictly, and so these images of the emperor displayed near the temple offended them greatly. And so they surrounded Pilate's house for five days. Um, and then on the sixth day, Pilate ordered his men to draw their swords um uh to kill them. And uh these uh these Jewish men, they bared their necks and declared themselves willing to die rather than to uh transgress the laws of the Torah. And so Pilate uh relented, he didn't kill them, um, and he took uh he took the standards, the flags down. So that's the beginning of his time. And in that you get the sense of this pagan, Roman ruler who, for whatever reason, was sent to govern this, you know, um stubborn little territory, and trying to, he's trying to assert his power, but there's this pushback against the Roman pagan rule, and you get this tension kind of boiling under the surface, right? So that's the first story. Second story. Um Second story, uh Pilate wants to construct an aqueduct, transferring water into Jerusalem. And so he takes money out of the temple to finance this. And it's a little unclear if this was a uh a permissible and allowable use of temple monies. Um, but he takes the temple funds uh uh to build this, and um there's this huge uprising. And uh they don't uh historians don't know exactly why the people are so offended. Was it not the way he used the money, the route of the aqueduct, spending too much, what? But there's this uprising. Um people are protesting around uh where he, his tribunal about where he kind of reigned. And so Pilate has like his soldiers dress up in plain clothes, mingle among the protesters, and then pull out clubs and just start beating the protesters. And in fact, many of them are killed and the protest is put down. So again, you the same this tension of Pilate, you know, representing Rome, trying to keep this unruly populace under control, assert Rome's authority, and yet at any moment this thing can boil over. Um, the third story is at the end of the reign, this is after the time of Jesus. It actually has to do with uh the Samaritans, um, but I think you'll get some of the these similar dynamics. Um uh the Samaritans, um, there was a man uh who um claimed to be a Samaritan Messiah, and he gathered a large crowd of armed followers at the foot of Mount Gerizim. Um that's the that would have been right where uh Jesus met the woman at the well, um, where uh another Messiah pointed to that mountain. Um but this Samaritan he claimed to be Messiah, he he uh got a group of um armed followers together and they were gonna go up the mountain. But before they could do that, Pilate sent in a detachment of cavalry, um, and they went in and they attacked them and killed uh they killed the Messiah and the followers. And the Samaritans actually they complained to kind of the next Pilate's boss, basically, and Pilate at this point was removed. But it's the same dynamic. These this these religious tensions, a populace not satisfied with the Roman imperial rule at any point, it might boil over, and Pontius Pilate trying to keep control of the situation. Uh, do you are you getting that that picture? Um, and I just think that uh in in for me at least, in many ways gives a it kind of fleshes out what's going on at the beginning in the story of Jesus, uh Mark 15, um uh where we get the Sanhedrin, um, these Jewish leaders, they've convicted Jesus, who claims to be the Messiah, um, and they've brought him uh to Pilate. And of course, you know, uh in this time and place, if usually when people claim to be Messiah, they didn't claim to be the Messiah who claimed to suffer and die. In fact, that never happened. Usually, when they claimed to be Messiah, it meant they were gonna lead some kind of uprising. Um, and so here's this: they bring this man who claimed, they say this man claims to be the Messiah. Um, and Pilate's, you know, he's asking them questions and what's going on, and then um, and then the crowd starts chanting, crucify him, crucify him, and it starts, this thing starts to spin out of control. Um, and Pilate makes the decision um that hey, it it seems easier uh to kill this man, as I talked about Sunday, not about justice, not about truth, uh, but about maintaining control over this situation. This man, uh, I will offer him up to be flogged and then to be publicly crucified, was just um publicly tortured uh to death. And so um for me, I maybe just three uh maybe just to kind of pull this all together, you know, as we as we're walking with Jesus towards the cross, um, three thoughts. Um number one, uh the historicity of this. Uh this is not make-believe. Um we know Pilate was weird, we have historical records, we have archaeological records, um, the the factualness of uh the events of Jesus' life. Number two, uh the the real tensions. This is a Jesus entered into a messy world. This is not make-believe stuff, this is religion and politics and power and control and tension. Like this is a messy, tension-filled world that Jesus was in the middle of, that he was bringing his truth to, that he was bringing his redemption to. So, number one, historicity, number two, detention. So number three, I think these add together. And this would be kind of my um my takeaway thought for today. Our God is a god of the real world. Jesus is not the savior of the make-believe. And I don't know where in your life uh it feels too messy or too too complicated. It's like, well, Jesus couldn't be in that. He couldn't he couldn't bring bringing redemption and truth and hope into the there. I don't know if there's ways that that Jesus has started to feel make-believe to you. But my encouragement um from Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the reminder of a God who steps into all the reality of the human history and all the messy tension of real human life. And he did it then and there, and he's doing it for you and I still today. And so we can be encouraged because we have a rescuer who meets us in our real lives. Praise in peace.