be made to
feel his littleness. We can imagine how our Lord would fix on him a
penetrating gaze before which the shallow nature of the man would
become apparent, as He asked whether this cross-examination was
genuine, or whether Pilate was prompted to it; whether, as we should
say, it was "a put-up affair"--"_Sayest thou this of thyself, or did
others say it concerning Me_?" Picture the situation--the great marble
palace, the representative of Imperial Rome clad in the purple robe of
office, and seated in his chair on the dais, the surrounding officials
and bodyguard; and then the peasant from Galilee, alone, unattended,
undefended, come straight from insult and mockery in another court, and
that after a night of mental agony. Observe how completely the
relative position of judge and Prisoner are reversed, at least, to the
eyes of the onlooker. Jesus calmly questions Pilate, calmly tells him
of the limit of his power, and calmly claims the kinship for
himself--there of all places--in the Roman governor's residence,
speaking to this governor himself, knowing that it must seal His own
fate. The two powers are now face to face--the world-power of Rome,
outwardly so imposing, but at this moment shrinking to insignificance,
looking so vulgar, so mean, so sordid, so unreal, so essentially weak,
in the person of the paltry governor; and the heavenly power, the power
of truth and goodness, the Kingdom of God represented by the provincial
Prisoner whose inherent dignity of Presence is seen to be all the more
sublime for the contrast. And Pilate? How does he view this? He is
manifestly disconcerted, but he tries to hide his awkwardness under a
mask of Roman scorn. "_Am I a Jew_?" he exclaims, in a tone of
measureless contempt. It is like the contempt of Agrippa when, in
response to St Paul's enthusiastic appeal and close home-thrust, he
cried, "_With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a
Christian_!" Pilate reminds Jesus that He has been given up by His own
people. Jews might be expected to stand by a fellow-Jew under the
Roman tyranny. How comes it to pass that the Jewish people have
brought a man of their own race to the foreign tribunal, prosecuting
Him before this alien power, seeking His death from the hated Imperial
government? What can He have done to bring about so unusual a
situation? Pilate is perplexed; and the answer of Jesus does not
clarify the magistrate's ideas. It seems only more mysti