Pilate

Imagine for a moment that you are Pilate. 

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, "Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, `After three days I will rise again.' Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, `He has been raised from the dead,' and the last deception would be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can." So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone. -Matthew 27:57-66

Yesterday, during the reading of The Passion in our Good Friday service, I read the part of Pilate.

If you go back to yesterday's Gospel from John, you see that there are enough lines that Pilate says for an actor (not me) to develop a character.

I thought about that as I was reading my lines before the service, and I thought it would be interesting to start out with Pilate sounding like he was curious about Jesus.  

Not that he was empathetic, but that he might have been looking for a way out of the entire mess, and was hoping Jesus would give him a reason to let him go.

But with each answer Jesus gave, Pilate seemed to get angrier and angrier, not liking the way Jesus was putting himself on equal footing with him.

So, finally, Pilate gets so angry, he just gives the crowd what it wants, hoping that will be the end of it.

Now, here we are, and Pilates men come back with more bad news.

They believe Jesus will raise from the dead, they tell him.

Say what?

You couldn't have told me this before?

Pilate is now so frustrated and angry, he orders them to seal and guard the tomb.

Now, I wonder.  Do you think he may have wished he had never had this man crucified?

If death doesn't make this problem go away, nothing will.

That is the whole point, isn't it?  Death is not the end, but it could be the beginning.

More to come...