The Character of Pilate.
I. There is nothing in the Gospel account of Pilate which is repugnant to the representation of Philo and Josephus. A man of the world without principle is described in both. Nowhere can we fasten on Pilate one single conviction, whether moral or religious. When he came in contact with firm belief in others he was utterly perplexed. When the Jews had remonstrated against bringing the effigies of Cæsar into the city he threatened them with instant death; but the Jewish historian tells us that they bared their throats to the sword, saying, "Death is better than that our laws should be broken," and the weak spirit was overcome by a courage so unintelligible how could men be willing to die upon a question of images? and he laid his cruel threats aside, not without admiration, and carried back the obnoxious ensigns to Cæsarea. For ten years he managed to govern the most stubborn people of all the tributaries of the Empire, for a master hard to please. Perhaps from the Roman point of view he had merits as a governor. Where he saw his way clearly he was firm. His cruelty and harshness appeared, perhaps, the best means of restraining a most turbulent race, and so were adopted deliberately. Pilate was a man, then, devoted to his own profession, doing his best to satisfy the master whom he served, and hoping to be rewarded in time with a higher command. But the Jews knew well the weak point in his position, and the power which it gave them over him: "If thou let this man go thou art not Cæsar's friend."
II. Instead of thinking the Roman governor a monster without parallel, I am persuaded that characters of that type are the commonest that can be found. The man who, much occupied in his own worldly engagements, becomes convinced, by some means of God's sending, that Christ is truly the Son of God and our Redeemer, yet has not the moral courage to take that truth home to his heart, and let it fashion all his life without regard to what others may say of him, is that a character hard to discover? To say "I find no fault in him," to wash the hands from participation in His blood, to set up over Him "The King of the Jews," and refuse to take it down such was the Christianity of Pilate; and I fear that many men go no farther. If, from the fear of being singular, we dare not follow Him whom we know to have the right to lead us, then Pilate's sin is repeating itself in us.
Archbishop Thomson, Lincoln's Inn Sermons,p. 47.
References: Matthew 27:24; Matthew 27:25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1648; H. W. Beecher, Sermons,1st series, p. 92.