WHICH JESUS?

When push comes to shove, we do not always make the best choice. The scales may have been doctored. Heavy advertising may have swayed minds. We are told that time is short, that to dither may be as bad as to avoid choice. Afterwards we may regret what we have done but the vote is cast. The choice is made.

So it was when Jesus appeared before the governor. The crowd had been manipulated and the high priest and his party saw too it that they called the right name when it mattered. And that name? Jesus.

The governor had a prerogative. At festival time he could free one prisoner. He had two to choose from: Jesus the one they called the Messiah and Jesus known as Barabbas. Dutifully, and in compliance with their masters’ wishes they asked for Jesus Barabbas to be set free. Pilate might have heeded his wife; she was greatly disturbed by what was happening. But the governor did what governors do: he counted the odds and saw the balance lying with a scurrilous character who had the same name as Jesus the Christ. He set Barabbas free, had Jesus flogged and handed him over for crucifixion.

Pilate dealt in political realities. He was always looking over his shoulder at the Jerusalem hierarchy and their command of the crowd. How Matthew knew about the scheming and manipulation that went on we do not know. But our generation knows enough about rigging elections and putting on pressure to be aware that a governor or a hierarch or a mob member can get what he wants.

The crucifixion can be described – and is so described by Paul – as an act of power. It was preceded by a piece of chicanery the outcome of which must have caused Pilate and his wife some passing unease and the world at large (though it could not know this) a great and astounding benefit.

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