In a page two opinion piece last week in The Chicago Tribune, headlined “The campaign’s over, Obama; it’s time to lead,” veteran columnist John Kass observes, “In Europe, he chastised America for what he called our ‘arrogance.’ In the Caribbean, he gave the dictator of Venezuela a warm smile and a handshake, and called him ‘amigo.’ Before the Saudi king, he bowed low and long.

“And just the other day, in a cynical nod to Turkish generals, the American president who campaigned for human rights quietly avoided the word ‘genocide’ in a resolution marking the anniversary of the 1915 Ottoman Turkish slaughter of more than a million Armenian Orthodox Christians.

“A few years after that slaughter; as he prepared to engage in his own genocide of the Jews, Adolf Hitler was credited with saying: ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’ The United States may remember, but our president can’t call it genocide.”

*****

At the time of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, Pontius Pilate, the coward compromiser of all time, let the Jews blackmail him and apply political pressure on him to get done what they wanted done.

“Here’s the governor having an innocent guy whipped and beaten and the question is, ‘Why Pilate?’ ” says Jordan in an old study I have on tape. “Why is Pilate doing this? Well, in his mind it’s a compromise. Pilate’s a coward and the Jews have him over a barrel. In Pilate’s mind, there’s no logical, legal reason to do it; he’s just gonna do it because he’s trying to get out of the spot he’s in.

“If Pilate had followed the law and his own conscience, and his own deliberations and his own convictions, Christ would have never gotten any stripes.”

*****

In John 19:2-3, it says that after Pilate scourged Christ “the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.”

Jordan explains, “Now they’re being satirical. They look like they’re just having some fun here and they’re turning their works into pranks and merriment.

“When they say there in verse 3, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ that’s pure mockery. That’s saying, ‘Hee-hee, look at what we’re doing with the king here! This guy thinks he’s a king! Ha, look at this dope!’ And they put on him the crown of thorns and in their mockery, unbeknownst to themselves, they’re reaching back to Genesis 3.”

*****

The Jews cry out, “Crucify him, get rid of him, away with him,” and Pilate simply responds, ‘Take ye him and crucify him for I find no fault with him.’ There are actually five times in the records where Pilate says, “I find no fault against him.”

Jordan says, “Pilate’s desperate to get him off of his hands. Rome has no claim against him so he says, ‘You take him and you kill him.’ When the Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God,’ it says Pilate ‘was the more afraid.’

“Literally what happens to Pilate in the psychology of what’s going on here—Pilate was already afraid and now he’s more afraid. Pilate goes into a panic attack and is on the very verge of becoming a raving maniac.”

*****

As the passage in John 19 then reports, Pilate “went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.”

Jordan explains, “Pilate going into the judgment hall—now that didn’t help. When you’re having a panic attack and you’re right at the point of a frenzied rage . . . Psalm 2 says, ‘Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?’ and that’s what’s happening here. Psalm 2 is quoted in Acts 4 as being fulfilled in the crucifixion of Christ and Pilate is right on the border of a manic seizure of a raving maniac and he asked Jesus ‘What about it?!’ and got no answer.

“Now, there’s a couple of reasons there were no answers. The main one is back in Isaiah 53:7. Prophecy’s being fulfilled.

“But in John 19:10, you see the old boy get madder and madder. He’s teetering on the edge. They got him on the spot. Pilate says to Christ, ‘Why, how dare you not talk to me!’

The passage reads, “Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
[11] Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.”

Jordan explains, “You see the problem Pilate’s got? ‘I’ve got to make the decision, guy, whether you live or die.’ That’s the whole problem—he could have let him go but Pilate is a cowardly hypocrite. He can lose his soul or he can lose his job.

“Now, in verse 11, Jesus answers him because that was a legitimate question. The other question wasn’t legitimate. The other question was illegal, false. Here’s a legitimate question

“You know, there’s a verse in Proverbs that says, ‘Answer a fool according to his folly,’ and the next verse says, ‘Answer a fool not according to his folly.’ But if you read those proverbs in whole, they’ll tell you why. Certain situations you need to answer and others not, based upon where the question comes from.

“So now Christ’s gonna come answer him: ‘You think you’re in control? Somebody else is in control—they’re running your life!’ You see, Jesus knew what the real problem was and He cuts to the chase with Pilate.

“He said, ‘Pilate, you just think you’ve got this power. Those religious hypocrites out there wanting me dead—they’re running your life! You either stand up to them or don’t, but that’s the question that’s really behind all this.’

******

The account goes on in verse 12, “And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.”

“You see, they’re blackmailing Pilate. Now, you have to understand something about Pilate in these people he’s dealing with. Pilate was the governor in Jerusalem between 26 and 35 AD.

“When he first became governor, he had his headquarters on the Mediterranean Coast in Caesarea, but the first time he came to the city of Jerusalem where the Jewish capital was, his soldiers carried (flags which had an image of the Roman emperor) and the Romans believed their emperor was a god.

“Of course, the Jews believed, ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me,’ and ‘don’t make any graven images,’ so they demanded that Pilate take down the standards (or flags) his troops were carrying.

“Imagine, here comes the conquering Roman ruler and he’s got these flags and these Jews out there say, ‘You take those things down,’ and he wouldn’t, so a riot ensued. (Pilate’s) got the leaders rounded up at the end of a sword and he says, ‘Either you shut up and go home or I’m gonna kill you.’

“But the Jews turned around and said, ‘Well, then you kill us, but we’re not gonna stand here and let you put that flag up!’

“You never want to call someone’s hand in a power play unless you’re willing to win and Pilate backed down, and the first day he went into Jerusalem these leaders of Israel broke him. They won.

“Have you ever noticed that when you’re raising your children? They get to a place where there’s a test of their will against your will, and you either win or you lose, and if you win, you can enjoy being a parent, but if you lose, you’ll suffer the misery and indignity of being run by a child the rest of your life.

“Well, that’s what happened with the Jews and they literally won the battle with Pilate the first time they got into the thing with him and he backed down.

‘So, some years later, Pilate went to Jerusalem and established a headquarters there and took again some of these banners (it’d be like you go to United Center and you see the Bulls championship banners around). He hung shields on the wall and they had the Emperor Tiberius’ name and image on them.

“And the Jews came again and said, ‘Hey, we had this conversation before. Remove all that stuff,’ and Pilate wouldn’t do it, but this time he had the emperor’s name on them. So the Jews appealed to Tiberius, sending a delegation, and Tiberius sent a message back to Pilate to take them down. Now, Pilate thought because they were Tiberius’ he wouldn’t take his own images down but he did!

“So now again, after two strikes, they’re saying, ‘Hey, three strikes, you’re dead meat! You don’t do what we want and kill this guy—we’re going to go tell Caesar you’re not his friend!’

“So there’s this blackmail pressure against Pilate. As you read the whole account, you begin to see the psychology he pushed and Jesus said to him, ‘Hey, Pilate, you say you got power. You don’t have any power! These guys out there are running your life. Be a man and stand up! Do what you know’s right. Don’t lose your soul!’

“But Pilate says, ‘If I do that, I’ll lose my job.’ You know, there are a lot of people just like that. Their possessions, their job, their car, their bank account is a lot more important to them then their soul. That’s where Pilate was.”

*****

As John 19:13-22 reports, “When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.
[14] And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
[15] But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar.
[16] Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
[17] And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
[18] Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
[19] And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
[20] This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
[21] Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.
[22] Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.”

Jordan explains, “When the Jews say, ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ making it clear God wasn’t their king; they weren’t going to be his subjects, this is the place where Pilate takes the basin of water and washes his hands and says, ‘I’m innocent of the blood of this just man.’

“And it’s here where the Jews say (as Matthew 27 records), ‘Let his blood be upon us and our children.’ They’re saying, ‘Just kill him no matter what the consequences.’ It’s willful, purposeful rejection and hatred. It’s the vile depths of sin to take One who’s done nothing and send Him away.”

John 19:19 says, “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

Jordan says, “You say, ‘Whoa, where did that come from?! All of a sudden Pilate’s got a backbone!’ And in verse 22, he says, ‘No, I’m not gonna change it. What I’ve written I’ve written!’

“Pilate saw an opportunity to take a shot at these guys when it didn’t cost him anything. Remember, he’s a coward. When he says, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,’ that’s just bitter cynicism. He knew it would insult them.

“In chapter one of John, Pilate says, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ He knew it was going to be an insult to them: ‘King of the Jews. Look at your king—that’s what we think of your king.’ It’s mockery. It’s, ‘Look at how debased he is in our eyes up here on a pole on a highway outside the city.’ And he wrote it in three languages—the language of religion (Hebrew), the language of culture (Greek) and the language of power (Latin).

“And he stood his ground. Pilate was stubborn about things that didn’t really matter while he was weak on things of supreme importance. He had a conviction about the wrong thing at the wrong time.

“I read that and I have to remember there are times in my life I’ve got big convictions about what the Bible says ‘over there’ but where the Bible’s talking to me right here, I forget about it. Well, that was Pilate.”