Good Friday Meditation: Pilate's Truth
That was the truth confronting Pilate on that Friday nearly two thousand years ago. Not just a truth, but the ultimate in truth.
Truth is easier to deal with if it can be just pushed off aside; redefined into something more comforting: What is truth? There were many truths Pilate faced that day. He faced the truth that the leaders of Jesus’ own people were dead set to see blood, and that they would take whatever means necessary to get it. This was the truth that Pilate’s job was in danger from his constituents. All of Pilate’s goals and dreams were at risk; he was a man outside of his league who had been given a job of power through influential connections (Houston 76). Despite those connections, he was a bungling leader and truth was that it wouldn’t be hard for a few angry people to ruin it all for him. What if they tried to turn Caesar against him? A few years later just that would happen: a mob of people and an attempt to put down a feared uprising led to Pilate’s demise as a politician.
What is truth? Truth was that his wife had warned Pilate to avoid having anything to do with the death of Jesus. As a relative of Caesar’s, she clearly could weld some power over him if she wanted (Houston 81). But I think that’s only part of the story: it seems that her words rang true to Pilate. Jesus did seem innocent, strangely, peculiarly innocent – perhaps more so because he refused to do anything to defend himself. Pilate beheld the man, and saw a truth: he was innocent.
What is truth? Truth is that Pilate’s job was to uphold the laws of the land (Barth Outline 111). His job was to uphold the laws, but would he have a job if he upheld them? Situational truth arose, perhaps: it was truer that his job was at stake than that he was a defender of laws. Pilate had seen more than his fair share of bloodshed under his reign, why should one innocent man stand in the way of his continued power over Judea? Perhaps for a moment he puzzled at why he had to be stuck at this far flung outpost of the empire, but regardless of that, the truth was that this was his post and like it or not, Jesus stood before him and a mob awaited him outside. Maybe truth could be redefined just a bit.
Pilate wouldn’t know this, but truth had much to do with his place in the scheme of things. Truth, the truth of Jesus’ innocent death, would be attested to for all time because of his act. As the Apostle’s creed says: He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Pilate served a very important role to truth: he cemented the fact that the Word of God Incarnate, the Savior was not an abstract philosopher’s idea or some kind of supersized metaphor, but a real life, flesh and blood reality: in his contact with Pilate, Jesus broke away from merely being a figment of Israelite history and into the history of the whole world, at least as it was known at the time: the Roman Empire (112). No longer was the “Jesus Question” one that needed to be dealt with only by Jews; years before Paul became the great Apostle to the Gentles, the Gentile Pilate was forced reluctantly to ponder this matter of what to do with Jesus. He had to ponder truth.
What is truth? Pilate had to rationalize: he had to make “his” truth out of what he surely knew was a lie: if he simply washed his hands of the matter, he could be done with it. Truth is that the very act of washing his hands is what would immortalize him as the indecisive one: the one who betrayed truth, betrayed Jesus by indecision. His one memorable action was actively choosing inaction. Pilate was confronted by Truth incarnate and he instead made his own truth: if he didn’t take sides, if he just let everyone else sort things out, he could just go on with life. Truth isn’t that simple.
What is Truth? Truth is that Jesus was for Pilate, and yet Pilate lived a lie of self-deception. He really had no choice to make: had he chosen to side with Christ, he would have received the election that Jesus was going to earn for him on the cross. Maybe he’d have lost his outpost, or maybe not, but in a much more significant way, all would have been well. But Pilate deceived himself into thinking there was another choice. He was torn: as a power hungry statesman, he opted to the route of the corrupt, but, nevertheless, the ideal of the statesman still could not be entirely covered by his corruption: a glimmer of truth was in him and it forced him to declare Jesus innocent (112). He wasn’t blind to the truth, he blinded himself to it. Confronted with truth, he rejected it actively. The cast would be set for Pilate: Jesus was for Pilate, but Pilate would be known as against Christ for all eternity.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Pilate was not a man chosen by God to do this evil inaction. Instead, he was chosen, like everyone else to receive God’s good news. Yet, failing to do just that, God still turned what Pilate meant for evil into good. As Joseph said in Genesis 50:22, “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” This thing was bigger than Pilate imagined, and though Pilate’s choice would condemn him to infamy, it was a meaningless choice (113). He was deceived from truth: God’s “superior will” was going to be done regardless of what Pilate chose to do, it was simply a matter of Pilate choosing on what side of that will he was to be known.
What is truth? That question still rings true today. Confronted with that question, beholding the man, what will you do with him?
Originally presented on Good Friday, April 14, 2006 at St. Paul’s Evangelical Church, St. Louis, MO. Primary among sources consulted were Dogmatics in Outline (New York: Haper Torchbooks, 1959) and Church Dogmatics volume 2.2 (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: T. & T. Clark, 1957), both by Karl Barth. Also referenced was Where You There? Seeing Yourself in the Drama of the Cross by Tom Houston (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1987).
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Writers Block
It's funny. I have lots of ideas to blog when I don't have time to do so during the day, but then at night, my mind has been going blank lately. I should scribble my ideas down when I have them, I suppose.
Hopefully, I'll get more up tomorrow.
I hope you all had a nice Maundy Thursday.
Now I'm (more) Official
Well, I think that should take care of my pending business: the permanent Cranium Leakage linkage went up on over to your right a few minutes ago. That means asisaid has given up its life as just another independent blog in the sea of journals and become a major network blog!
Click the pretty graphic that the mad scientists over at Cranium Leakage designed to see what the official CL web site has to say. Of course you can also check out my blogroll, which has long linked to three of the four other active CL blogs (which are well worth reading, in my estimation).
Tee Hee Hee: I Made Some Spammers Mad
Well, my new SpamAssassin auto-rejection seems to be doing a good job. I got this automated letter letting me know I was removed from the EDEALSSUPER list (as if I ever cared to be on it to begin with). Note especially how impassioned it is about how this must have to do with the quality of my e-mail service. Content based bouncing of spam must be becoming common place enough that now spammers are trying to convince the user that the anti-spam savvy ISP is providing the user with bad service when the exact opposite is actually true.
From: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.VERSUS.COM
Subject: Your removal from the EDEALSSUPER list
Date: April 6, 2006 11:00:07 PM CDT
To: Address Removed -Tim.
Reply-To: EDEALSSUPER-request@LISTSERV.VERSUS.COMFri, 7 Apr 2006 00:00:07
You have been automatically removed from the EDEALSSUPER list
(eDealsSuper) as a result of repeated delivery error reports from your
mail system. This decision was based on the automatic error monitoring
policy in effect for the list, and has not been reviewed or otherwise
confirmed by a human being. If you receive this message, it means that
something is wrong: while you are obviously able to receive mail, your
mail system has been regularly reporting that your account did not exist,
or that you were otherwise permanently unable to receive mail. Here is
some information which may assist you or your local help desk in
determining the cause of the problem:- The failing address is TBUTLER@UNINETSOLUTIONS.COM.
- The first error was reported on 4 Apr 2006.
- Since then, a total of 2 delivery errors have been received.
- The last reported error was: Probe failed.
PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS MESSAGE. While you can of course re-subscribe
DO NOT LET TECHNICAL PEOPLE CONVINCE YOU THAT THIS IS NORMAL. It is never
to the list, it is important for you to report this problem to your mail
administrator so that it can be solved. This problem is not specific to
the EDEALSSUPER list, and also affects your private mail. This means that
YOU HAVE PROBABLY LOST SOME PRIVATE MAIL AS WELL. Anyone trying to write
to you during the same time frame will probably have received the same
errors for the same reason. The EDEALSSUPER list is but one of the many
people who may have tried to write to you while your mail system was
malfunctioning.
normal for a mail system to claim that a valid, working account does not
exist, just as it would not be normal for the post office to return some
of your mail with “addressee unknown” when the address was written
correctly. It is true that some mail systems are less reliable than
others, and your technical people may be doing the best they can with the
tools they have. But, ultimately, the level of service that you are
receiving is the result of a business decision, and not something due to
a universal technical limitation that one can only accept. Reliable mail
systems do exist, and it is ultimately up to you to decide whether this
level of service is acceptable or not.
I'm Leaking Now!
I received word last night that my kind blogging neighbors Christopher, Craig, Michael voted me into their Cranium Leakage blog-thingie (a.k.a. “network”). I'll be adding my new Cranium Leakage seal to the side of my blog in the next day or two.
Thanks, guys! I'm quite honored!
Y'all can listen to the podcast featuring the business meeting that voted me in over at CL. It's a funny listen. 
It sounds like I'm going to end up being a call-in guest on the “show” someday — I wonder what they'll do to me? Yikes!
In case you're fretting: don't worry. Asisaid will still keep the same quality (or lack thereof) that you've come to expect. Although, in honor of this event, I think I am going to drop the medieval spellings I announced the other day.
A Project Doth Approacheth
This Tuesday Ey am supposed to gyve a presentaytion on Karl Barth's doctryne of Elecksion. Right now Ey am almoste donne preparing it and Ey'm eksited to see how it will goon. Ye see, Ey'm using Aepple's Keynote presentaytion sophwear insteade of PowerPointe. Ey'm verie impressed with the programme's cinamaetical effeckts. I think it lookes far better thanne my typical PowerPointe documente.
It'll bee interesting to see if it works out as welle when I actually neede it to.
Now hath Aprill eeked unto the Yeare
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
Ey've desyghed thate Standard Engelishe is nought reallie al that much funne. It woode be better to ewse excyting, soote Chaucerian spellings to keepe all of ye from bordomme and and sew on. The spelling of kommon words was much more interesting before those nastie dyctionarie writers went and standardised it al, Ey saye.
It is Aprill now and I longen for something different thanne a pilgrimmage to the Oxford Dictionaries! Anon, all new postes will observe the great renaissance of late middle Engelishe once againe. Or maybe I shouldst go back further and ewse Olde Engelishe from before the Normanes came and rooined our greate Germanyck language. Too badde I do not ken howe to wright Olde Engelishe!
In othere news, Ey have decided to goon backe to Windowes for my operating systemme. Ey think it I shall find it harkens to mie needes much better than Aepple Macintoshe systemme (despighte Aepple now hath reached thirtee yeares of ayge). Ey've seked the beste systemme for mannie yeares now, but ye will shurely understande that Ey've ne'er founde anythyng better thanne Windowes.
We Got It Good
With the sole exception of when I'm returning from the Ozarks, I always find that taking a trip reminds me of just how good “we got it” (to use an old RCGA slogan) in St. Louis. Over the weekend, I went to Indiana for my grandfather's birthday. It was a fine enough trip, but I have to admit it felt really great to see the “The People of Illinois Welcome You” sign as I left Indiana and even better when I saw the “Welcome to Missouri” signs (complete with the official “Where the Rivers Run” stylized logo).
I may be biased, but I just love Missouri. The hills, the trees, the personality of the cities — I just love it. Indiana seems so flat and (no offense to anyone from there that might read this) bland. This wasn't the best time to visit, since the trees were all bare, but even when there is some green scenery, I still find something oddly uncomfortable there.
In other words, it's good to be home.
Melancholy
Time wafts by unthoughtfully.
Can't it turn back?
I don't know what it is. By most accounts this has been a good two weeks. Busy, yes, but good none the less. Yet a strange sense of melancholy has set over me the last day or two. I was rather gloomy at the end of last year, partly for reasons I've talked about elsewhere, partly for other reasons as well, but I thought I was pretty much moving beyond all of those reasons (at least to some extent). Yet something is bothering me tonight; I feel it in the pit of my stomach. I just don't quite know why.
The trickling of the stream outside only makes it worse, I'm afraid. It is so soft and peaceful, yet unceasing like time. Maybe that is part of it. I see a lot of endings ahead. Some within a couple of months, some within a year or two. There are some endings I know I must also bring about to accomplish what God wants me to do, yet I don't really want to relegate those parts of my life to the past (this is especially difficult since there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that which I must move beyond, it just isn't the right place for me to be right now). The last decade has seemed to teem with so many endings I tremble at more, and yet they must come, I suppose.
