Daily Office

Proper 8: Wednesday: A Dangerous Thought about Pilate

Today's Readings:

• Psalm 119:145-176
• 1 Samuel 12:1-6,16-25
• Acts 8:14-25
• Luke 23:1-12

Samuel begins to say good-bye. he challenges anyone to charge him with misdeeds, and gives the people a final warning to be faithful to God. (Note: he doesn't tell them to repent from their sins, just to stop them). In Acts, the Samarians believe in Jesus because of Phillip, and Peter and John come to annoint them with the Holy Spirit, because it had not come to them. Simon the magician tries to buy the Holy Spirit, and Peter tells him to repent. In Luke, Jesus is questioned by Pilate, who sees no wrong in Him, and sends Him to Herod, who was looking forward to meeting Jesus but his questions go unanswered, so he deliveres Jesus back to Pilate.
Here's a dangerous thought: PIlate has always seemed to me to be a non-villian in the story of Jesus. I got the impression, as a child, that I should hate Pilate, but I never could, because he seemed to be a nice guy who tried to help Jesus. So what if the Gospel writers tried to convince their readers to trust and work with gentile political leaders? They knew that the Chief Priests would not help the various Jesus Movements, and there was already a movement to bring gentiles into the movements. The leaders of the early Jesus movements knew that if the gentile leaders could be in the movement, or at least sympathetic, the teachings of Jesus could continue. The lesson the writers may have wanted their readers to get from Pilate was "be nice to the govenors, because they'll eventually be our allies." The tactic (if it existed) paid off in 323 A.D.
On the way home from a workshop last night, I listened to a Christian broadcast about the Holy Spirit and the speaking of tongues. During the broadcast, the speaker tried to explain how we can see the signs of the spirit. I wonder what it looked like in Samaria. How are people baptised into Jesus without the Holy Spirit? I've always understood baptism to be a door to the Holy Spirit.

posted by Josh English @ 2:57 PM