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Suffered Under Pontius Pilate
Matthew 21:1-14

March 30, 1969

Rev. John M. Buchanan

High up in the Swiss Alps, picturesque Lake Lucerne sits at the base of Mt.
Pilatus. According to legend, when the mists and fog extend from the water all the
way up the mountain the ghost of Pontius Pilate may be seen, washing his hands
over and over, monmning -— "What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?"

Did you ever wonder why, of oll the people historically associated with Jesus,
of all the heroic saints who lived with him and died for him, the name of Pontius
Pilate is the only one, besides Mary his mother, immortanlized in the Apostles'
Creed? Pilate - the pathetic puppet governor — guilty of allowing the most monstrous
crime history has ever seen.

Why Pilate? Why not Peter or John? Why not Andrew or §T. Paul? Pilate's
name is in the Creed because it places the life and person of Jesus Christ squarely
in history. It is there to guard against the idea of a transcendent Christ about
which it is exceedingly ensy to forget that he was a man. The name Pontius Pilate,
mentioned regularly in the text of the Creed, is a reminder that Jesus was a man;
that his life and ministry occurred at a certain time, in a certain place. But
more than that, Pilate is a symbol of the power structure of the world - which
when confronted with the absolute love and absolute integrity of Jesus Christ could
do none other than consent to his crucifixion. He is the symbol of the way men
dealt with Jesus 2,000 years ago, and the way they have been dealing with him
ever since - washing his hands, desperately trying to avoid making a decision
about him.

We have been thinking about the meaning and relevance of the ancient
Apostles' Crecd. Today we come to the phrase "Suffered under Pontius Pilate."

We come to it now also because on this day the final, symbolic confrontation
between the two mon - Jesus and Pilate - the two opposing forces, if you will,
set in motion.

There were, it is estimated, more than two million pilgrims crowding into
the city of Jerusalem during the week before the Passover. Many of them were
from Galilee: from the towns and villages Jesus had visited. These people heard
that he was coming into the city and decided to meet him. When they went outside
of the city gates to accompany him they were greeted by 2 strange and thrilling
sight. He was riding on the back of an ass - something he rarely did, something
uncharacteristic and unnecessary because he was travelling just from Bethany, about
a mile and a half away. Immediately they recognized what they were seeing: “Lo,
your king comes to you, humbly and lowly, and riding on an ass." The prophet
Zechariah had promised that centuries before, and they could not help but believe
what they were secing. It was actually happening. He was coming. This one —- this
Lord ~ was coming in to the historic city of David, the city of the Tumple with
its rich heritage - in the precise way the Messinh was supposed to come. And s0
they tore the clothes from their backs, and the branches from the trees and laid
them in his path, cheering, yelling "Now save us! Hosanna! Hosanna!"

The accounts differ at this point, but Matthew's Gospel relates that
Jesus went directly to the Temple and there forcibly and violently ejected the
money changers and the salesmen of sacrificial animals, Then he taught and
healed. Apparently he entcred the city every day and left again in the evening.
But on this, the first day in the week of the Passover he set in motion the forces
that would destroy him five days later. It was sone thing to go from town to
town in Galilee, teaching and healing among its rolling hills and gontle people.

It wos another thing altogether to ride right into the historic capital of the
nation with a2 noisy mob clamouring something about him being a King.

If it was the most crucial week in the brief life of Jesus Christ, we might
assume that it was the most miserable weck in the pathetic life of the Roman
Governor, Pontius Pilate. All he wanted was a measure of tranquility - a Passover

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week without any of the ugliness and violence that had marked some of his other
relationships with his subjects. The fact of the matter was that Pilate was on
the spot. IOn several occasions in the past he had badly misunderstood the
religious sensitivities of these strange Jews with their one God. On more than
one occasion things had gotten out of hand when Pilate turned his legionnaires in
crowds of Jews protesting an affront to their religious convictions. Word of
unrest had been sent to Caesar ~— and Pilate could ill afford to have it happen
again. His political career - his very life was at stake.

Sc it is that we find this personification of Imperial Roman power spending
much of this time during the week trying desperately to find the least common
denominator; trying desperately to avoid making o decision that might endanger
his own oarerr.

It is obvious that he felt no ill will toward Jesus. It is obvious that
he wasn't very impressed with the charges brought against him by the Jewish
Sanhedrin. In fact, there is a faint hint that the prisoner touched something
deep inside Pilate and that there was a bond of empathy between them - two men ~
caught by circumstances. In any case, when the Temple authorities first brought
Jesus to him, Pilate placed the whole matter before the puppet king of Galilee,
only to have it thrown back in his lap. Thon he had Jesus whipped with thongs
of leather with sharp bits of lead on the end, and presented him to his accusers,
bloody, beaten— hoping that the ghastly sight would draw feelings of mercy from
them. Then he appealed to the crowd — he would grant the traditional Passover
favor - he would release this prisoner who obviously was not guilty. But the
crowd chose a murderer and a revolutionary instead. Finally there wore no other
options. By now the crowd had become a mob — and was demanding his execution.
That was the least common denominator. All things considered, that was the path
of expedicncy. And so Pontius Pilate, the one man with the authority to pronounce
the death penalty in tho province, did what he had to do. He ordered his men to
carry out the crucifixion. Oddly, he mustered his courage — and before the cyes
of the mob - their mad desire having been granted - he washed his hands of the
whole affair.

The ultimate suffering of Jesus Christ, his arrest and public humiliation,
his physical torture and terrible death on the cross - a11 came at the washed
hands of Pontius Pilate. And the lingering irony is that Pilato didn't
intend for any of it to happen. Jesus suffered because he came to Jerusalem -
and because a man called Pontius Pilate acted like a man, in a very understandable
way. He took the path of expediency.

This day, Palm Sunday, plays a contrapuntal melody —- two thomes ~ in
direct opposition to each other. Jesus forcing the decision: coming to the city-
to the place where the nation lived. Pilate — back-treading, doing everything
humanly possible to avoid making a decision, and finally allowing the crucifixion
to be done.

A lot of comfortabel myths were laid to rest by the events of that fateful
day. First - that the Gospel of Jesus Christ - the good news he camo bringing -
has fundamentally to do with individual comfort and succor: that faith is
individual belief and has nothing to do with large groups of people gathered as
corporate entities. I suspect the friends of Jesus wanted it that way. I can
almost hear them warning him not to go into the city. But he came; he brought the
word of God to that place where the Jewish nation received its identity. He came
to the focal point of the whole people of God, to Mt. Zion, there to be received
or rejected — not individually — but corporately.

Second, the myth that religion can be convenicntly segregated from the rest
of life = the secular and worldly, was dvamatically destroyed. Jerusalem was the
capital: politically, it is where the decisions were made: socially it is where
words like justice were given moaning: economically, ‘it was the hub of the
nation's commercial life. That is where Jesus came - as King - to the very heart
of secular life - to the center of all things secular.

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Third, the myth that he represented just one more religious cult: that his
was a philosophic concept that could be accepted, rejected or ignored was finally
and totally eliminated. His deliberate manner of coming into the city forced
everyone to decide. There could be no neutrality after Palm Sunday. Por those
who preferred to remain on the fence, like Pontius Pilate, were terribly guilty
of collaborating in his doath. He left no room for the comfortable myth of
neutrality.

This day destroyed all those myths - but somehow they still oxist. Somehow,
through the grossost kind of self deception religious people insist on embracing
the myths that died on Palm Sunday.

We are still hung up on a definition of Christian evangelism as the saving
of a lot of individual souls. Even though our Lord moved beyond this and came to
the city - we would like to insist that the faithfulness of a denomination or a
congregation can be measured in terms of the number of names on its roll.

Even though he bravely marched into the maelstrom of 211 that is worldly
and political ond secular, the myth that religion and politics, religion and
economics, religion and socinl problems do not mix, still enjoys vigorous health.
In 1964 the Internal Revenue Service revoked the tax-exempt status of an organization
called the "Fellowship of Reconciliation" with the public rationale: "The pursuit
of peace, disarmamont and the reconciliation of nations is not a religious but
a political activity." (Christian Century, March 20, 1963, p.357) That is
prophetic. That, in a real sense, , ttells it like it still is."

Because Jesus Christ chose to confront Jerusalem, the fact that poonlbut are
dying in Viet Nam, and childron starving in Biafra, and little ones retarded
because of malnutrition in this nation, and adults languishing in hopeless despair
in the rotting ghettocs across the land - is a religious problem. Or the fact .
that a whole community adamantly refuses to acknowledge its own racism ~- or that
people can't find jobs or homes — or others who genuinoly care - is a religious
problom.

Even though Jesus Christ consciously and deliberately forced every
individual in the city of Jerusalem to make a decision about him - the myth is
still very much alive that neutrality about things religious is still possible.

Not very many people are overtly hostile toward Christianity and the church
today, in the same way that Pilate was not opposed to Jesus Christ. But about
half the people belong to the church and about half that numbor participate: and
that means that at least three quarters of the people of this nation and this
comm unity are still trying to play the game of neutrality. But it can't be
played. Jesus Christ has made it impossible. Pontius Pilate tried and is
remembered ctcrnally as the man with the blood of the Son of God on his hands.

Legend has it that the ghost of Pontius Pilate hovers over Lake LUcerne,
washing his hands and moaning, “What shall I do with Jesus who is called the
Christ?" By indecision — by tragic, unnecessary, impossible neutrality — Pilate
had him crucificd.

On this day we remember that our Lord came to the city of Jerusalem and for
one fleeting moment of time was grected as the King. Let us not forget the
eternal significance of that sojourn. Let us not forget that the myths were laid
to rest and that neutrality crucified him.

Let us acknowledge that the significance of this day is that Jesus Christ
comes into the midst of our common life - and right inte your life and mine. Let us
acknowledge that there is nothing in our common life - nor any area of our individual
lives that does not have to do with him. Let us acknowledge that he has made
our safe, blase neutrality quite impossible.

Let us sing our “hosannas" and remember that on this day he "Suffered
under Pontius Pilate."

Amen.