Pilate did not kill Jesus for the reason that the Jews wanted him dead. He dismissed all of the charges against him as rubbish. According to them, “We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to die, bc he has claimed to be Son of God”. (Jn 19:7). For the Jews, Jesus was guilty of “treasonable blasphemy”. For Pilate? No, he couldn’t make sense of their pettiness and bitterness: “From that moment Pilate was anxious to set him free” (John 19:12).
In a country where justice is not founded on the whims and caprices of certain drunk religious people, the term “treasonable blasphemy” is meaningless; no one is executed for that flippancy. People are hanged for ‘treasonable blasphemy’ only in countries with spineless politicians who are fueled by religious intolerance and sentiments. This is why Deborah’s killers and those like her continue to roam free in Nigeria, a country that claims to be governed by secular law. It’s a shame.
A country that executes people for “treasonable blasphemy” is a farce. Treasonable blasphemy is an oxymoron; only idiots believe it, and all religious fanatics and hypocrites are idiots. An anti-reality like “treasonable blasphemy” only exists in the imaginations of psychopaths. Because Pilate did not believe the treasonable blasphemy gibberish, the Jews deftly shifted the charge against Jesus: “If you set him free, you are no friend of Caesar’s; anyone who declares himself king is opposing Caesar’s. Hearing these statements, Pilate had Jesus taken forth (John 19:12-13).
They have offered Pilate a different cause for executing Jesus. Now, Pilate and the Jews have different reasons for killing Jesus. The Jews were convicted of “reasonable blasphemy,” whereas Pilate was convicted of a “reasonable felony.” Be cautious when people with opposing ideas and a history of feuding suddenly band together for a shared cause.
Pilate’s case is understandable; he is a politician who needs to act to keep his position. The joke is on the Jews, who fought for their God. It’s amusing that their God couldn’t kill the individual they claim committed “treasonable blasphemy” against him or her. Now they require the authority and strength of someone who does not believe in God to deal with their perpetrator.
You have a group of religious men and women who loudly and unabashedly proclaim themselves to be specially anointed, endowed with the ability to amaze people with signs and wonders and to do supernatural feats beyond the capabilities of ordinary people like you and me. They promise their followers protection with stickers, oils, and the like, but they travel in convoys of bulletproof vehicles and armed security personnel. They promise financial riches to their army of followers through miracles, yet rely on the contributions of those same people to fund their opulent and exotic lifestyles.
They rely on ‘Pilates’ to arrest people who have “blasphemed” against their reputation, and they abruptly forget to employ their ‘divine power’ to deal with these minor irritants. When several disrespectful urchins attacked Elijah, he summoned fire from heaven to destroy them. He did not ask the king to dispatch his guards to apprehend the men. Why do today’s “Elijahs,” who claim to solve people’s issues with supernatural powers, turn to state authorities to solve their own? The supernatural being in question should deal with every treasonable blasphemy rather than Pilate.
Like Elijah, all of God’s “powerful” men and women should employ spiritual powers to deal with anyone who questions their authority, insults them, or falsely accuses them. When fire descends from above and consumes such scallywags, it demonstrates that they are as powerful as they claim while also discouraging other urchins from messing with our God and His prophets. But when they travel to Pilate to execute a blasphemer, they caricature everything they claim to be. How can someone who can open another’s locked ‘destiny’, see people’s past and future, resurrect the dead, confront demons and fight spiritual forces of darkness rely on Pilate to execute a simple blasphemer?
There are just two options: Elijah or Jesus. None involve Pilate. Either you summon fire to consume the person, like Elijah, or you ignore and forgive them, like Jesus. Good Friday is the story of “treasonable blasphemy and reasonable felony.” A peculiar combination of religious and political opportunism. A combination of idiotic pettiness and political expediency. It’s a tragedy, but the scriptwriter for the entire creation is still writing; Easter Sunday is on his agenda.
