Why Pilate kept asking Christ if he was a King
In the face of Pilate's questions, Christ declares Himself born to reign through truth – and calls every soul to hear His voice.
In the face of Pilate’s questions, Christ declares Himself born to reign through truth – and calls every soul to hear His voice.
Editor’s Notes
In this chapter, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How Christ reveals His Kingship as a reign founded upon truth, not earthly power.
Why Christ’s claim to kingship becomes both a judgment and an invitation to every soul.
That Pilate is offered a personal summons to recognise the King standing before him – and fails.
He shows us that Christ is not merely a King, but the King of those who are of the truth.
For more context, see Part I.
See also:
Pilate and Christ the King
The Passage of Our Lord to the Father
Chapter VIII: Pilate
St. Matt. xxvii. 11-25; St. Mark xv. 2-14; St. Luke xxiii. 2-17; St. John xviii. 28-40; Story of the Gospels, §§ 165-167.
Burns and Oates, London 1892.
(Read at Holy Mass on Christ the King)
Why did the priests tell Pilate that Jesus claimed to be King?
Why did Pilate keep asking Christ whether he was really a King?
‘Art thou a King then?’
Pilate half understood Him, though his ideas of a kingdom not of this world may have been somewhat confused and indefinite. He said, ‘Art thou a King, then?’ Jesus answered, ‘Thou sayest that I am a King. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.’
In these few words, if Pilate could have understood them, he might have learnt the whole truth concerning the Kingdom of our Lord, which He had come into the world, that is, had become Incarnate, to found, and which was to be established by the testimony which He was to bear to the truth, which the subjects of the Kingdom were to embrace, and by embracing it were to spread everywhere.
His Kingdom then was the Kingdom of truth, and all those who were of the truth were to hear His voice and to receive His testimony. It is of those, then, that His Kingdom consisted. The truth concerning Himself here set forth is the same as that with which we are familiar in the words of St. John.
‘He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His Name,’ and the rest.
Our Lord’s joy at the opportunities of souls
We may here remind ourselves of the joy which was constantly occasioned to the Sacred Heart of our Lord, whenever He had the opportunity of speaking for the first time to a soul across which He had not come, concerning the Mission entrusted to Him by His Father for the salvation of the world, when He could see in that soul the faintest indication that the truth with which He had the power of enriching it would not be altogether unfruitful.
Pilate was not like Caiphas or Herod, both of whom had in themselves, their past and present condition and moral state, so much which was likely to hinder them from receiving the witness to the truth favourably or willingly. He had, as we see in the course of the history, fatal deficiencies and impediments, but they would not have prevented our Lord from doing him some good which might have ripened into a conversion, instead of leaving him a name which Christians loathe as one that represents a man who had great opportunities and responsibilities, and who failed in profiting by them and discharging them faithfully.
But our Lord was He of Whom it was written that He would not break the bruised reed nor extinguish the smoking flax, and He could see whatever there was of possible promise, or faint hope of success, in the particular soul with whom He had to deal, in His merciful mission of enlightening the masses of men who came one after another before Him.
He could in a very few words have led Pilate to the verge of the truth about Himself—the prisoner who stood before Him in so meek a manner, already bearing so many signs of the contempt and ill-treatment of the world, the object already of so many charges, against which He would not say a word.
End for which He came into the world
Our Lord had already spoken of Himself as having been born with an end which He had to fulfil, and the service of and witness to the truth was implied in what He had said as being the end for which Pilate also and all men were born.
He had added that He had come into the world, alluding to His Mission from God as the Incarnate Son, for the singular and special purpose of bearing witness to the truth, on which eternal life depended, and in this we are reminded of His own words to the Father, that ‘this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.’
These truths were lying behind what He had already mentioned, and it might have required a little, and but a little, thoughtfulness and reflection on the part of Pilate to draw them forth. He had received, we may almost say, an invitation to question our Lord yet further, conveyed in the gracious words, ‘Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.’
The words contained the promise that, if Pilate was a servant of the truth, he would find himself led on by his sense of right and duty to listen to the voice which was now sounding in his ears, and an echo to which voice was moving his conscience.
The whole of what our Lord now said was an answer to the question Pilate had put to Him in the first instance, ‘What hast Thou done?’ The answer comes to this—that He has come into the world to bear witness to the truth, and that every one who is of the truth hears His voice. This is also an explanation of the declaration that He is a King and that His Kingdom is not of this world.
Opportunities and heedlessness of Pilate
But if Pilate had thus an opportunity, which would have led him on to true greatness and liberty, and almost inconceivable spiritual blessings, it is sad to think how easily he lost it, by the heedlessness and childishness of his character, or perhaps by some possible vanity and imprudence.
As we read of these persons who come before us one after the other, in taking a part, more or less prominent in the great history of the redemption of the world, of which they were not dreaming, we are very likely to make mistakes in our estimate of the amount of knowledge which they possessed concerning the antecedents of the history, which are familiar to our minds, as also as to the amount of serious thought or reflection which was spent, by one or the other of them, on the great facts with which they had to deal and the issues involved therein.
We take up the record of Pilate’s dealings with our Blessed Saviour, and are apt to take it for granted that he may never have heard of Him before this day, and that He was to this Roman Governor no more than any other criminal who might have been led before him. The mistake may be made, either in supposing in Pilate greater ignorance or indifference, or in supposing that he knew a great deal more than he did know.
It is natural to think that a man in Pilate’s position did not care very much for the religious questions which moved the Jews of the day, but if he was only ordinarily well informed and vigilant for a man who had a position of so much moment and so many possible dangers as his, it is most likely that he thought a great deal more of the importance of such matters and questions than we suppose from the extremely succinct statements of the sacred writers.
St. Mark tells us a little later in the story, that Pilate knew that the motive of the Chief Priests in handing our Lord to the Governor was their envy and jealousy of Him. Pilate had seen too much of them to be unable to read their characters. It is probable that he had taken information or was kept well informed about our Lord and their hatred of Him, perhaps since the startling fact of the raising of Lazarus, or at least since the Procession of Palms a few days from this time. He must have been equally well informed as to the national expectations of the advent of the promised Messias, and other such matters which no careful Roman official , responsible for the peace of the province, would care to be ignorant of.
We may conclude, therefore, that he was on the watch against anything that might suddenly imperil the public peace at this time, especially during the period of the great feasts.
St. John tells us distinctly that after putting his last mentioned question to our Lord, ‘What is truth?’ he went forth again to the Jews, and saith to them, ‘I find no cause in Him. But you have a custom that I should release one unto you at the Pasch; will you therefore that I should release unto you the King of the Jews?’ Then they all cried again saying, ‘Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.’
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Pilate
Why did the priests tell Pilate that Jesus claimed to be King?
Why did Pilate keep asking Christ whether he was really a King?
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"What is truth?"......What a sad commentary for a political and military leader.