Pilate considered this, recalling the Mithraic rituals of the military. ‘Are you one of his disciples then? For you seem to be following his doctrines very well. I see with what eagerness you seek his flesh and his blood!’
‘We have not told you all,’ Ananias added, ‘he incites rebellion by telling the people to deny Caesar his tribute!’
‘If he had done so I would have heard of it…I have good spies. I have heard only that when you tried to ensnare him with that question he answered that you must give to Caesar what is his!’
Ananias was not to be put off, ‘And yet he calls himself a king and says that his followers wish to take from Caesar the kingdom of Israel! Two of his disciples are members of the Sicarri!’
He turned an eye to Jesus of Nazareth before ordering Cassius to bring him to an adjoining apartment.
Here, away from the priests, the man stood before him in his much abused state, with spit and blood mingled in his hair.
Pilate took a moment to formulate his thoughts. ‘Well then…’ he said to him in Latin, ‘they say you call yourself the King of the Jews. Is that true?’
Jesus lifted his good eye to look at Pilate. The other was bruised and closed shut. In that open eye’s many coloured profundity Pilate saw something.
‘Do you say this of me because you believe it? Or do you say it because others have said it to you?’ Jesus asked.
Pilate was taken back for the man spoke in perfect, learned Latin. His voice was full of certainty and calm and it seemed to be challenging him to see for himself who Jesus truly was.
‘Why should I believe you to be the King of Israel?’ he told him, disconcerted, put off balance. ‘I am not a Jew! Your own priests have delivered you to me and they seek from me a sentence of death. I only mean to ascertain for myself what it is that you have done. Are you a pretender to the Kingdom of David?’
‘My kingdom is not of this world, for if it were, my servants would have fought for me and prevented me from being delivered to you.’
Pilate felt something in his heart and he was amazed to feel it! A feeling for the truth of his words!
He did not think before he said, ‘You are a king!’
‘You recognise what I am,’ Jesus said to him a little breathless, ‘And I tell you, for this reason was I born, for this reason did I come into the world, that men might see what lives in me. That I should come and be among them, that with their own eyes they might see the truth as it stands before them.’
Words were caught in Pilate’s throat now and he held them, scarcely knowing how to formulate them, for here was that very question on the tip of his tongue!
‘What is truth?’ he blurted out.
Jesus swayed and steadied himself, and it was a moment before he could speak, ‘It lives beyond this world, beyond your reason,’ he said. ‘With reason you know only what you see of this world, and with faith you believe what you cannot see…which is higher than this world. But reason and blind faith will last only until you can make eyes that can see the truth of the spirit in all its glory – then you shall know it because you can see it that I am the truth embodied in a human being. Every man that sees what lives in me, sees the truth, and will also hear its voice when I speak.’
Pilate was astounded at the sense this made to his mind! The quandary between his wife’s feeling and his reason now seemed perfectly resolved. This man must truly be a prophet, a holy man! His wife was right. How could he sentence a holy man to death? He paced up and down, trying to think on what to do. He took himself out of the arch to the portico then, and told Caiaphas, ‘I find no cause in him!’
Caiaphas was sent into turmoil and in his poor version of Latin said, ‘If you do not…revile him…his followers will rise up!’
Pilate called for Cassius to bring Jesus of Nazareth out, ‘Do you say nothing to this? Look how they accuse you!’
Jesus of Nazareth remained obdurate.
Pilate steeled himself. ‘I’m not a fool Caiaphas, it is plain that what you allege is false!’
Ananias stepped in. ‘If you let him go, he will continue to incite the people to revolt, not only here, but also in his home of Galilee…do not think he will stop at Jerusalem! The entire province will fall under his power! It shall be said of Pontius Pilatus that you are no friend of Tiberias!’’
Pilate curbed his anger and took a moment to think. ‘Of course, this man is a Galilean! I had forgotten it. I say to you, he is not my concern…he belongs to Herod!’
He said this and without waiting for an answer walked off through the marble columns into the praetorium, leaving the priests behind him.