Pilate

In this part of Matthew, we are watching Jesus being led to the cross, and an interesting figure arises in the narrative, a man by the name of Pontius Pilate.

Not a lot is known about Pilate, but what we do know is that he did not have a good relationship with the Jews. The problem was, the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus shamed in the worst way, by crucifixion. And the only person who could make this happen...was Pilate.

So why this bad history with the Jews?

It started in AD 26, Pilate had just began his office in Judea, and one of his first acts was placing Romans standards in the temple, which contained carved images of the emperor on them. The problem with this is that the Jews were told not to worship any carved images at all, and the mere presence of these standards was a violation of the Jews religion.

The prefects before Pilate had been careful not to do anything this controversial to the Jews, but Pilate didn't care. Because of this, the Jews sent a delegation to Casesarea, where Pilate was stationed, to plead with him to take the standards down. They pleaded for five days straight.

After the five days, Pilate sent some of his troops out in the midst of the Jews with an pre-arranged order to draw their swords and kill the Jews. Pilate ask the Jews to go away and stop pleading for the removal of the standards. They didn't. So Pilate made the order and the soldiers drew their swords, and Pilate threatened them to leave or he would kill them. At this moment, Pilate thought he had the Jews beat by using brute force as a scare tactic.

It ended up biting him in the rear.

After Pilate threatened their death, the Jews all laid on the ground and exposed their necks, basically telling him to kill them, but they weren't going to stand for this disgrace of having carved images of Caesar in their temple.

Pilate lost, the Jews won. Pilate commanded his soldiers to step down, he removed the standards, and the Jews came away victorious.

This was the beginning of the animosity between the Jews and Pilate.

The second conflict between Pilate and the Jews that paved the way for the trial with Jesus had to do with the sacred treasury. Pilate seized funds from the treasury of the temple and used these funds to build an aqueduct. When Pilate visited Jerusalem sometime after this, the Jews besieged him with an uproar. Pilate, seeing the mob as a potential of an uprising, ordered his soldiers to dress up as civilians armed with hidden clubs and to mingle with the mob. When the protest got heated enough, Pilate made a pre-arranged signal and the soldiers drew the clubs from under their tunics and began beating the protestors, killing many of them.

Pilate won this conflict.

Now with the score tied, one to one, the Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate, to have him crucified.

The question that is in everyone's mind is who will win this battle.

And tomorrow, we will dive in to Jesus' journey to the cross.