September 5

Pilate... released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus... to be crucified. — Mark 15:15

Pilate’s was a most unenviable distinction. No doubt he felt honoured when he was made governor of Judea But the honor brought him a responsibility, which proved his undoing.

Pilate did not know, when he was called up so early that April morning, that that day was doomsday for him. He did not realize that he was about to make such a record of infamy for himself. He would better a thousand times have missed the honor of being governor and thus have escaped the making of the terrible mistake he made that day.

The way Pilate put the question was, not “What is right?” the only question a judge should ever ask, but “What will advance my interest?” It was here that he wrecked all.

Today he is gibbeted before the world as a judge who consciously sent an innocent man to the cross. A writer represents Pilate as washing his hands forever, and looking at them to find them forever stained. The spot will never wash off.