April 19, Good Friday (John 18:1-19:42)
When I say the creeds, Pilate’s name stands as a warning back to myself.
On Good Friday, John 18 invites us to observe an interaction between Pilate, the provincial governor of Judea, and Jesus, an arrestee suspected of whipping up insurrection. As a Roman governor, Pilate was a middle man in the architecture of Pax Romana. His primary job was to exact order from a volatile political landscape, and he had almost complete control over his local jurisdiction—the power of life and death over those he ruled. In the writings of Philo and Josephus, he is described as capricious and cruel.
Yet, in John’s Gospel, Pilate appears subject both to the demands of the religious authorities and to Jesus, who voices enigmatic questions that befuddle this hapless mediator. Pilate’s confusion and bumbling are embodied in his physical movement. He goes back and forth, in and out of the praetorium, out of control over the situation that is unfolding.
Herein lies John’s inversion of power. What we imagine, what Pilate imagines, is that he decides the fate of Jesus. Pilate operates under the incomparable power of Rome. In the scene of Jesus’ trial we begin to see the unraveling of Rome’s grasp on history through coercion and terror. As the story moves on we end up at an empty tomb where we discover that love is stronger than death. Before Pilate, we begin to understand that Rome’s authority is temporal, of human origin; Jesus’ power is eternal, given to him by his Father.
