Sinclair B. Ferguson

Here it is.

Next to the Lord Jesus and the Virgin Mary, whose name is most frequently on the lips of Christians?

It's not Augustine or Thomas Aquinas.

Or even Martin Luther, is it?

No.

Every day in some churches, and every Sunday in millions of churches, billions of Christians say the words, I believe in Jesus Christ, his Son, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.

Sometimes they try to trap them by the questions they ask.

Sometimes they run stories about an entrapped politician until something or someone else is worth headline attention.

The world seems to love trapped politicians, but loves to despise them too.

Pontius Pilate was the most famous trapped politician in human history.

was governor of the Roman province of Judea for about ten years.

That was by no means an easy posting.

Jewish monotheism, like modern-day genuine Christianity, can be a thorn in the flesh to a pluralistic society.

people who believe that God has revealed himself in space and time in very definite and particular ways and sovereignly instructs us in how to live for his glory and for our blessing, well, those people can be a real irritant.

Indeed, as in many parts of the world today and increasingly in the Western world, they're actually regarded as being enemies of the state.

They don't fit in.

But somehow Pontius Pilate was governing a territory occupied by Rome, inhabited by Abraham's descendants in the very days of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he had to find some modus operandi that would keep the peace.

Might was right.

Sometimes he tried to use it sparingly.