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a cultured man. He tried to persuade the high priest of the Jews that, "I don't see what crime this man has committed. Even if he says that he is the son of God, let him say it. Nobody is harmed by his statement. At the most he is a little crazy -- but just to be a little crazy is not enough for crucifixion. If he says he is the messiah for whom you all have been waiting for centuries.... If you think he is not the messiah, don't accept him as the messiah; but he has every right to say what he thinks about himself. He cannot force himself upon you so that you have to accept him as the messiah. He is not killing people or saying of those who will not accept him, 'I will kill them.'" And to me Pontius Pilate was perfectly right.
So he and a rich follower of Jesus conspired the whole plot. He wanted this young man to be freed. In fact, he had fallen in a certain kind of love for the young man, because he had gone in disguise to many of his meetings, listened, and loved what he was saying. And more than that, he loved the way he was saying it, the authority with which he was saying it. He had heard many orators; he himself was a great orator. Jesus was not an orator. He was saying simple things, but they touched something in the heart. Pontius Pilate was influenced and impressed.
His wife also had gone to listen to Jesus -- of course in disguise, because viceroys and their wives cannot go to listen to a poor carpenter's son and sit with the ignorant, ordinary people. His wife was also very much impressed, impressed just by this man's very style. He had something charismatic, something magnetic, so that one even wanted to believe in his illogical statements. He had a certain kind of hypnotic influence. Don't be afraid of the word hypnotic. The word hypnos simply means sleep. And when I say that he had a hypnotic influence, that simply means that while people were listening to him their reason went to sleep. They could listen to him without their head coming in.
Pontius Pilate even called him to the viceroy's palace before the crucifixion, to persuade him that "there is no need to use these words, kingdom of God, because they create confusion. You
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