Small update

I probably don't have time for this, but I feel like I need to do some spiritual writing, even if it's not that good.

In the film The Passion of the Christ there is one character that always strikes me for the amount of screentime he gets compared to his role in the Gospels. Pontius Pilate appears only a handful of times in Gospels, barely speaking except to question Christ and to wash his hands of the execution, but in the film we see a different side of Pilate.

In the Gospels we see him as having tried everything he could to avoid killing Christ. He washed his hands of the matter and had him ordered to be crucified. Pilate seemed to be disturbed at this, but the Christ said to him not to worry, for the one who had handed him over had committed the greater sin. Perhaps Pilate himself recognized truth when he saw it, even if he was unwilling to admit it aloud. For the sign he had made was "The King of the Jews", while the religious authorities argued with him that it should say, "I am the King of the Jews". Pilate stood firm, even in the midst of a possible uprising over the issue, refusing to change the title of the man he sent to die.

In the film though, we see a Pilate who is truly reluctant to hand over the Christ. He is filled with doubt about what the man brought before him could have done to warrant such hatred by those who brought him. His wife urges him to release this carpenter, and he lives in constant fear of an uprising that will spell his own doom if Caesar finds out about it.

Pilate, be it in the film or in the Gospels is a reflection of the common man, even if he is the most powerful individual in Judea. He is beset by difficult choices, and knows that to do what is required of him will take sacrifices. He weighs his choices and he struggles with his sins, ones he recognizes as he desperately tries to convince Jesus to speak up against the accusations.