Summary
Pontius Pilate (Pilatos) was our guest speaker on Easter.
Pilatos means “Armed With a Spear.” He shared that the name was fitting since he had been such a fan of the gladiator games. “In the games, the truth is the last man standing,” said Pilatos. “And that’s what I admire in a man—a man who will not abandon his post.”
Out of all the characters in the Bible, he claimed that he should be most familiar to us Americans. We are an empire, as they were an empire. Our motto is Latin: “E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One).”
In 29 AD, Pilatos was appointed to his post as governor (president) of the province of Judea, for Judea was of strategic interest to the Empire and it had been determined that the Jews were housing a WMD in a massive stone bunker that they referred to as “the Temple.” The WMD itself was referred to as the “Ark of the Covenant” and “Judgment Seat of God.”
He shared his perspective on John 18 and 19, the Friday on which he sat on the judgment seat and tried Jesus.
And then he told us: “My judgment was to take life, and his judgment was to give his life. My judgment was to take blood, and his judgment was to give blood. My judgment was to demand sacrifice, and his judgment was to be sacrifice. My judgment was disobedience, and his judgment was Mercy. My judgment was fear, and his judgment was relentless Faith, Hope, and Love. I judged everyone, and he judged no one, for he is the Judgment of God.”
“That day I stood before Absolute Truth, Relentless Love, and Eternal Judgment. I tried to change them all; I tried to change him; but he is the one that changes me. He is Truth in Love—the Judgment of God: Grace. The Judgment of God is stronger than the Judgment of Pontius Pilatos . . . Hallelujah.”
“The Resurrection is the revelation of the last man standing,” said Pilatos. “After millions of men expired, God inspired one man, Jesus, effectively saying, ‘Behold the man, who it is that humanity is, the image and likeness of me.’ The last man standing is also the first man standing: the Eschatos Adam.”
Pilatos then told us how he saw Jesus standing in the eyes of his centurion, who presided over the crucifixion, for the centurion was no longer terrified of Pilatos; he was in awe of Jesus, for Jesus would not “abandon his post.” When reviled he would not revile. When struck on one cheek, he would turn the other. When hated, he would do nothing but love—it was relentless. He was undivided; His will was entirely free.
Jesus lifted his head and cried “Father, forgive… It is finished” and he “delivered up his Spirit” and the curtain in the temple separating the Judgment of God from the Judgments of men ripped from top to bottom, such that what was in got out, and what was out got in.
1 Corinthians 15:45, “The first man Adam became a living soul; the last (eschatos) Adam, became a life-giving spirit.”
1 Corinthians 15:22, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be made alive.”
“You see,” he said, “The Judgment of God is the WMD—the Weapon of Mass Destruction—for it’s always the WMC—the Weapon of Mass Construction and Creation. The judgment of God destroys your old man in order to liberate The New Man—your New Man—from deep inside of you. You are the Body of Christ, who is the last man standing.”
He then shared about the last known gladiator fight in the Roman Coliseum. In the fifth century, when the empire was nominally “Christian” like us, a poor monk named Telemachus ran onto the arena floor yelling “In the name of Christ, stop.” When the crowd chanted “run him through,” a gladiator “armed with a spear” (pilatos, that is) ran him through. The coliseum grew silent as the blood of the little monk poured out onto the dust like wine from a broken vessel—it was God’s vessel, his blood vessel. As the crowd sat in silence staring at body broken and blood shed, one man got up, then another and another, and even the emperor. And as one man, with one will—one free will—they all left the Coliseum.
Telemachus was the last gladiator.
And all those people were the last man standing.
“In the end,” said Pilatos, “there is only one man standing, and that man is the last man, and the first man, the Eschatos Adam. And we are his body—the Body of Christ. E Pluribus Unum.” That would be “many” with one new “judgment” sitting on the throne in the temple of each and of all.
“I hope you know that this is how the Body of Christ changes the world; It’s not by electing more men like me,” said Pilate. “With your constant anxiety over men like me, you testify that you do not trust the Last Man Standing—’The Resurrection and the Life.’”
“Truth, Love, and Mercy stand before you every day, like He (they) stood before me that day long ago. And when you surrender to him, you become Truth, Love, and Mercy in flesh, and then, you stand before men like me as the Judgment of God. And you wield weapons far more powerful than any nuclear warhead.”
“You are the temple of the living God and in the depths of your temple is the Ark of the Covenant; the Judgment Seat of God; Truth in Love, Mercy; the Grace of God who is God. You are the WMD, WMC, and WMR—Weapon of Mass Resurrection.”
“The Devil isn’t worried about your elections,” said Pilatos, “but he is absolutely terrified of you . . . when you’re honest (Truth full) although everyone else lies; when you Love although you feel unloved; when you forgive whether or not the ones you forgive know or ‘know not what they do;’ when you are faithful although the world is unfaithful; when you pray, ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit.’ For then, you are The Last Man Standing, ‘The Resurrection and the Life,’ The Judgment of God, The Image and Likeness of God in Flesh, The Body of Christ walking out of a tomb.”