(English)
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
🌞💙💛
Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said
unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
(John
XVIII, 33-34)
Pontius Pilate judges Christ as ruler, and he is the first to have a question
of authority. Christ's dialogue with Pilate
is actually a conversation about the essence of power. The first sign of power is the ability to
determine and establish factuality, the ability to recognize something as valid, existing, present.
It can be a crime, or lack thereof, certain actions that have important consequences, etc.
Therefore, the question of Pontius is natural — he immediately goes to the heart of the matter — the
question of power is key in the condemnation of Christ. Is Jesus really the King of the Jews? Is it
a fact that He calls Himself that? Who (What) is He really?
Jesus' answer points to the origin of Pontius Pilate's power. He received it from people, and he
also received information about the case from people. He was told by the Jews. Christ wants Pilate
to clearly realize that his power is received by him from other people, for a specific purpose (the
establishment of a possibly just social order). Also, Christ wisely speaks to the contradictions of
such power received from people — Pontius did not receive information for the court himself, as a
representative of the authorities, he did not have conflicts regarding power with Christ, he may not
have known who it was (although he probably heard). And he has to make an imperious decision. That
is, the contradiction of such power lies in what is necessary for its exercise it receives from the
powerless, from the one who does not have this power, and must create
power out of anarchy
,
bring peace and justice to where conflict and uncertainty reign. And only the Creator, who created
everything from nothing, can do this. Therefore, naturally, Pontius feels that Christ knows his
weakness. Pontius does not consider himself God.
Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have
delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my
servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
(John XVIII, 35-36)
Pontius relies on two theories of power: democratic and elitist (aristocratic).
According to the first, power arises in people when they are a people, a nation, have a social
organization, cohesion, in particular in this case they form a Jewish people. According to the
second, power arises as a way to isolate the special people who will have it, so that they create it
because of their inclinations and skills to lead (therefore, it mentions high priests). Pilate
himself had already realized that his power had been obtained by him according to the first two
theories, but was occupational in relation to the Jews themselves, so he did not really represent
their full interests.
Jesus' answer indicates that His authority has a different origin, so it exists according to other
rules. It is not received by Him from anyone (except the Father). As evidence, He cites the fact
that the Jews recognize the power of Christ as a figure, miracle worker, etc. His use of the
conventional way (if) is an example of people's misunderstood of power. Christ claims that He has
power, all power, at the same time, none of the people—neither the people nor the leaders—protect
Him, let alone lobby His interests. There is no one who simply protects Him from judgment to death.
It shows the situationality of human power, its variability. The word Now
means that later Christ
will have a Church whose ministers will fight for its interests before the authorities, but now — at
an essential moment — they are not. Christ's apparent powerlessness before human authority and His
belief in His true power raises questions in Pontius Pilate.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou
sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I
should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews,
and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
(John XVIII, 37-38)
Pontius thinks he's dealing with a teacher and philosopher. And their
conversation is a philosophical dialogue. But it is impossible to judge a person only by his views
from the point of view of Roman power in this case. Pilate appreciated the mind of Christ, so he
believes that He has a sufficient level to be the teacher of the enslaved people of the Jews. At the
same time, he does not want to recognize the authority of a teacher for a Roman citizen and
representative of the Roman government, which is based on strength in the first place and
rationality. Christ's apparent powerlessness causes him to be rejected about himself and Rome.
Christ, on the other hand, gives Pontius the example of power, which is recognized by Pontius, while
at the same time has no purely human origin. The Romans believed that true philosophy has not only a
human origin, but also a divine principle. What not anyone can discover and proclaim the truth, but
a philosopher, in modern language, would say — they believed that science has power, although it is
not delegated from somewhere to anyone. Christ gives an example of the power
of conscience when a
person acts morally according to his / her beliefs. This power is also recognized by the Romans, but being
damaged by sin, they do not put it as a basis.
Therefore, Pilate's question shows both his education and functional dependence — being a
representative of power, not a philosopher, Pontius primarily cares not about conscience and truth,
but about order and control. By playing a role and having the appropriate functions, he is guided by
the principle of the first extreme
— must first of all take care of order and control, not truth
and conscience. Therefore, the dialogue, in the end, comes to a standstill.
Next, it acts as a
component of the power machine
, which has a sense and conscience.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him
no answer.
(John XIX, 8-9)
Again, we see the contradiction of human power — Pontius receives information
about Christ from others who do not have the power and authority to establish facts, at the same
time, they demand one from him who does not have such information. The exchange of information for
power and vice versa — a kind of trade in information — is a characteristic feature of power in
general. It would seem a common thing, but an intelligent person should have a question: why should
I obey the Jews?
Jesus' silence means that He has quickly accomplished the goal — more effectively — He does not need
to repeat Himself. But this is not obvious to Pontius, he has not yet realized it as a person, so
the next question is an attempt to navigate the new situation. In fact, the Jews changed their
accusations — instead of accusing Christ of usurping power, they now accuse Christ of impersonating
Himself
as the Son of God. For modern people, given the historical context of Christianity, this is
almost the same accusation, but for a Roman in the first century, these are two different
accusations. If there is no evidence of the former among the Jews, then with respect to the second,
their accusations are unique, because for a Roman with his polytheism, with a host of
demigods-half-heroes, to be the son of a god — there is nothing like that here. And the Jews are
furious.
Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were
given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
(John XIX, 11)
Jesus points to the reason for Pilate's stumbling block— his misunderstanding
of the nature of power, and in particular the one of which he is a representative. Pontius is highly
dependent on the opinions of the subservient. It's simple. Christ makes no more arguments, since the
previous ones have not been refuted in any way, but the enemies of Christ are inventing a new one —
speaking further about the second Caesar, they mock the confusion of Pontius, secretly saying: you
still have not understood why Jesus is to blame? We'll explain to you now… In fact, instead of a
real threat to the power of Caesar and Pontius himself, they substitute their assumptions (doing
very cunningly) and come up with an argument about friendship with Caesar.
Christ's enemies make a false and manipulative prediction of the development of the situation
(prophesy
), hinting at the weakness of the vertical of power. Pontius gets confused altogether,
because his personal interests come into play. A wise man would judge that the argument is not
strong, for it is not necessary for Pontius to always act for the sake of caesar personally, to
honestly fulfill his duties and arrange peace and order along with control. Moreover, one could
simply imagine a situation where Pontius punished Jesus, showed His weakness, and let go — this
would obviously reduce tensions among Jesus' supporters and the situation would have prevailed,
which is what Pontius wanted. But then human weakness prevailed and he… agreed with the enemies of
Christ.
So, here we see about the Pontius' judgement of Christ. And besides about the essense of power.
Glory be to You, our God, glory be to You!
Citations of the Bible are made by: English KJV Bible Ukrainian source: Олександр Сергійович Жабенко. Про владу.