A Flogged God

12/24/2015

John 19.1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. – St. John

I often wonder about Pontius Pilate. I have read a bit about him and found him to be, well, a jerk. He was cruel, selfish, and arrogant. He had a rough assignment: procurator of Judea – that’s the ancient equivalent of trying to get the middle eastern countries of today to get along with one another. Tough task. Can you blame Pilate?

Pilate was usually in control of things. He knew how to get what he wanted out of the Jews, and if he didn’t, he simply killed those that got in his way – the power of bureaucracy. Pilate was a consummate bureaucrat. That being said, he also had to walk a fine line without going over said line because the job of a procurator was to procure, and ancient Rome needed stuff – food and those sorts of pesky things. In order to procure, the procurator had to be a bit of a politician to get the cooperation he needed from those from which he procured. Like I said, tough job; especially since those from whom he was procuring were viciously uncooperative with him on religious grounds – they hated the sight of him and the regime he represented.

So, in John 18 and 19, Pilate found himself in the midst of what he deemed was a stupid religious squabble between Jewish factions which he himself had little regard for save he had to procure from them and the people they represented…people who hated him, yada, yada, yada.

Because he was fairly good at getting what he needed to get and using just the right amount of force to do so, Pilate decided to do what he always did: get to the bottom of things, meet out the right amount of force, and subsequently placate these Jewish bastards giving them just enough to shut them up.

“…Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.” If this uncooperative zealot wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he would beat it out of him. Flogging was then (and is now) very effective at producing answers. The pain and brutality of flogging is quite useful in getting strong wills to weaken, and tight lips to loosen. Sadly, Pilate didn’t know (or understand) Who he was dealing with – God isn’t weakened by the futility of flogging. If it was so effective, why is it still done in large parts of the modern world? Maybe it’s a human thing.

Pilate, who demanded of Jesus, what is truth!?, and who are You!?, came up empty-handed; and in all of his creative procuring and politicking was forced to play the part of human governance: he came up short and caved to public pressure. Sounds like the way we still do things today… we never learn.

Father, I try to beat the truth out of life and wind up frustrated every time. Help me to cooperate with You and to trust that You are indeed in control; it's my job is to walk humbly with You showing love to others, and exalting mercy over justice. Power isn’t the answer; politics isn’t the answer; only Your love is the answer – in all I do, may I find satisfaction with that. And by Your stripes I am healed. Amen.