Pontius Pilate is my Favorite

Pontius Pilate is my favorite character in the Easter story this year because he was a coward and a weasel, and I can relate to that.

I feel so often like Pilate. Empty hope, wishing the obvious was somehow not true. All I see in him is fear and angst.

Trapped.

His neck was on the line, though, and he had to choose. So he chose to violate his conscience. He knew the right thing to do. He knew Jesus was innocent. In the same sentence he says, “Take him and crucify him,” and “I find no fault in him at all.”

My other favorite character is Jesus because I cannot relate to him one bit. He makes me question everything I know.

For example, he would still offer Pilate forgiveness, whereas I don’t think I would. If I came back from the grave I would butcher him.

Then again, if I was dead for a few days and tasted the sweet delights of the next life with Father, I would probably come back a very different person.

Exactly what did Jesus see or know or experience that made him able to forgive his torturers so easily?