CRAFTY, self-seeking, and relentlessly cruel, Pilate was a scheming politician, who regarded the rights of no man if to maintain them might prove an embarrassment to himself. Thoroughly convinced, both of the innocence of Jesus and the enmity behind the accusation of the leaders in Israel, Pilate quailed before the threat embodied in the words, “If thou let this Man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend.” Fearing that his political enemies might misrepresent him before the emperor, he chose to sacrifice the Lord Jesus, who in his eyes was an unimportant Galilean artisan, turned teacher, in order that He might retain the favor of Rome. Consequently, his name has gone down in infamy throughout the centuries, as embodied in the words of the creed, “Suffered under Pontius Pilate.”
“I see the crowd in Pilate’s hall,
I mark their wrathful mien:
Their shouts of ‘Crucify!’ appall,
With blasphemy between.
And of that shouting multitude
I feel that I am one;
And in that din of voices rude
I recognize my own.
‘Twas I that shed the sacred blood,
I nailed Him to the tree,
I crucified the Christ of God,
I joined the mockery,
Around the cross the throng I see
Mocking the Sufferer’s groan;
Yet still my voice it seems to be,
As if I mocked alone.”
—Horatius Sonar.