Pilate gave the crowd what it wanted, set Barabbas free and turned Jesus over for whipping and crucifixion.  Mark 15:15 (The Message)

I looked up Pilate on the Internet to see more about him – where he came from before ending up in Jerusalem, what he had done as governor (besides sending Jesus to the cross), and where he had ended up afterwards. There is very little available, and most of that involves controversy.

Apparently, Pilate was governor of Judea for about 10 years, which argues that he was fairly competent as an administrator. He wouldn’t have lasted that long if he wasn’t any good. There are suggestions that he did not believe in kinder, gentler leadership but had a reputation for brutality. Nothing has been documented but there’s a lot of hearsay on both sides of these bits of history about Pilate.

There isn’t any documentation on where he came from or what his name really was. “Pontius” seems to indicate where his family came from in Italy while “Pilate” could refer to his skill with a javelin or that he was a descendant of a freedman.

Apparently, one of his duties as governor of Judea was the appointment of the High Priest. There seems to be a close connection with the Jewish Council and Pilate in that the appointment of Caiaphas lasted the entire time of Pilate’s governance. Because of the reluctance of Pilate to condemn Jesus, some denominations believe that both Pilate and his wife became Christians, becoming active in that religion. About the only thing we know about Pilate is what we read from the Gospels in the Bible.

The sad thing about people in charge is that their actions are judged by history. Pilate may have been a perfectly reasonable fellow who enjoyed spending the evenings with his family, playing the harp, and reading quietly. He may have created foundations to help the needy and been a good boss to work with – but we only know that he was the one to condemn Jesus to the cross, giving the crowd what it wanted.

Power sometimes does that. It becomes distilled through history so that it only focuses on one or two events. When we think of President FDR, one of the first things we think of is the picture of Roosevelt with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin after World War II. The New Deal was started by FDR as an antidote to the Great Depression, and some of those principles are still in effect.  Martin Luther King is connected with the Civil Rights Movement and the March in Selma, Alabama. George W. Bush is remembered for his actions around 911.

If a person is going to be associated with power, it would be better to connect to life-affirming events – rather than being remembered for condemning someone to death just because the crowd demands it. It’s something to think about!

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She is the author of “Jessie’s Corner: Something to Think About,” a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.