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It was early in the morning.
The representatives of the Jewish people
held an important meeting.
They met to compose a charge on which
they could have Jesus brought before the military governor.
The military governor was a senior civil servant from Rome.
He was called a procurator.
In this case he was a hard man.
He ruled by decree, a cruel decree if necessary,
without consideration for the feelings of the local people.
One Jewish historian has written that this man
had been guilty of rape, insult, murder and inhumanity.
Later on, when he had carried cruelty too far,
he was recalled from Judea and replaced by another man.
When Jesus was brought before him,
Pilate was at the peak of his power and influence.
It is unlikely he had ever seen Jesus before.
He may not even have heard of him
until a few hours before their first and last meeting.

In the gospel story we have only a digest
of what took place at the meeting of Pilate with Jesus.
On that point everyone agrees.
The gospel itself suggests it.
The main charge against Jesus
was that he had claimed to be "The King of the Jews."
This is the first time any mention is made of Jesus as a King.
And there is a good reason for that.
As a Roman Governor, Pilate would have had no interest at all
in a religious charge of blasphemy.
What possible difference could it have made to him
whether Jesus claimed to be the Messiah or the Son of God?
He would have turned on his heel in contempt
of any such religious quarrel as beneath his concern.
And so the authorities laid a charge
in terms Pilate had not been able to ignore.
Anyone claiming to be a King, the King of the Jews,
represented a threat to the Roman Governor
and the whole military establishment in Judea.
A pretender to the throne in Judea was guilty of treason.
And those who followed such a person
would be guilty of rebellion against Roman authority.
The punishment for both charges was death.
And so it was that Pilate,
who seemed totally indifferent to Jesus as a person,
dealt first with the major charge of treason.
"Do you claim to be the King of the Jews?" he asked.
And the answer from Jesus was a vague one.
It was not an admission. It was not a denial either.
"You have said so," he replied.

There is here the possibility that Jesus was/is a King,
-- although not in the sense that concerned Pilate.
And not in the sense his accusers hoped to suggest.
After the main charge had been laid,
there were many other accusations laid against Jesus
by the religious authorities.
In this gospel we are not told what they were.
Whether true or false, they must have represented
some sort of challenge to the political set-up of the day.
Otherwise Pilate would not have listened to them.
Sometimes, in its eagerness to secure a verdict,
the prosecution will overstate its case against the accused.
Sometimes an attempt is made, if only by suggestion,
to construct a stronger case than the evidence will bear.
Whether this was true when Jesus appeared before Pilate
we will never know.
We do know that Pilate began to wonder
whether all he was hearing was correct.
Especially in view of the silence of the accused.
The silence of Jesus is the most dignified response he could
make,
in the face of the persistent interrogation by his enemies,
and in view of the sly attempt to destroy him by innuendo.
And all of it against the background of a mob
so stirred up that it clamored for his death.
The rejection of Jesus,
begun in the first scene of the passion story,
reached another level in this passage.
He who had been rejected by his friends,
his disciples and his religious leaders,
is here rejected by the people of Jerusalem.

The figure of the Man from Nazareth,
alone now in spirit as well as in body,
rejected by everyone with whom he had come in contact
during the last week of his life,
is a picture we shall not soon forget.
Sometimes the truth is told when people least intend it to be so.
It had happened with Peter
when he denied any knowledge of Jesus
as he shifted uneasily in the courtyard of the High Priest.
It happened again in the charge against Jesus before Pilate.
He stood charged with being "The King of the Jews."
Or of claiming to be "The King of the Jews."
And anyone claiming to be a King,
who was not in political obedience to Rome,
was a threat to be dealt with quickly and finally.
____________

Jesus was not that kind of King.
And yet the gospel understands him to be no less a King
for all that.
The Man who stood, hands bound behind his back,
was and is indeed "The King of the Jews."
His authority was and is one of love,
and it is exercised as an act of love.
His power lies in his defenselessness.
His glory was demonstrated in his suffering and death
on behalf of Jews and non-Jews alike worldwide.
He is the Lord of all,
but it is a lordship he has never imposed on anyone.
Except for the company of two thieves,
he died alone, rejected and misunderstood
by those on whose behalf he was put to death.

This gospel passage reminds us
that right from the beginning there were disciples
who abandoned Jesus under pressures of all sorts.
Leaving him alone.
There were leaders in the church, as in the synagogue,
who from the outset denied a commitment to Jesus.
Leaving him alone.
These verses remind us
that those who welcomed him to their city
soon rejected him and "the ways of God."
They chose in his place
someone who symbolized violence and terrorism.
Leaving him alone.
And just as it happened "once upon a time,"
so it has happened throughout Christian history
wherever Christian communities were established.
And it happens now wherever he is "King" in name only.
Leaving him alone.
-- Amen.

Prayer

Mark 15:1-5

Mighty God,
help us to know the good meaning of silence.
And how it may refresh our lives.
Help us to experience the healing of silence.
And how it may mend our minds and bodies.
Help us to appreciate the power of silence.
And how it may bring love into our lives.
Help us to know the strength of silence.
And how it may speak against evil in the world.
Defend us from the cowardice of silence,
when we ought to speak out and don't.
Protect us from the hurt and harm of silence,
whenever it is used against us.
In this silence ... hear us.
-- Amen.