Wait! Pilate’s in the Creed? How?! Why?!

How do we end up with a pagan Roman governor responsible for the death of Jesus in the basic creedal statement of faith? A different question you might ask yourself is “Who is Pontius Pilate?” Whether we are answering the “how” or the “who”, or even the “why,” we are uncomfortably confronted with this man’s name every time we recite the ancient Creed. I say uncomfortable with the idea that if you spend any time pondering the Creed, this name seems out of place. However, admittedly, for many, we’ve long since rationalized it and it no longer seems strange. I’m guessing that for most of us familiarity as blunted the disconcerting idea that a pagan Roman leader is in the ancient Creed.

Let’s start by briefly answering the “who” question. Pilate is a complicated figure. I’ll spare you a lot of detail as you can read about him in other sources. I will say that he was governor over Jerusalem and a smaller area surrounding it between 26-36 A.D. He was responsible for more than one Jewish massacre. He was the governor who the Jewish religious leaders had to appeal to in order to carry out their plot to kill Jesus. He famously declares Jesus innocent, but also shamefully allows the Jewish people to choose his fate. Despite “washing his hands” of the affair, and despite some 1st and 2nd-century church efforts to redeem him, some going so far as to suggest he and his wife converted, the predominant belief is that he is and forever will be linked to the final decision that allowed for Jesus to be crucified.

Now let’s get back to the “how/why” questions. In fairness, maybe you’ve rationalized his presence in the Creed this way: Jesus’ death is so central to Christian faith that telling the story of that death must include Pilate. You’d be mostly right, but missing one rather simple yet fundamental idea. The Creed includes his name in order to ground the events of Jesus’s life in factual history. As uncomfortable as it is to repeatedly say the name of Pilate, his presence gives the whole narrative a more historical context. Karl Barth is famous for saying that Pilate enters the Creed “like a dog in a nice room” (Myers, The Apostles Creed, 62). I can see why he would say that. But, the early church felt it was essential to their faith and the faith of those that followed to constantly be reminded that Christ was a real person, grounded in a certain place and time. His life was not fictitious. His miracles were not figments of people’s imagination. His death was indeed brutal, even humiliating and resulted in him being truly “dead and buried.” For the early church, and the foundation upon which all of our faith stands, it was essential that we embrace the historicity and reality of Jesus. As Benjamin Myers notes, “It reminds us that the gospel is not an idea but a fact. (Myers, The Apostles’ Creed, 62).

One of our challenges in Christianity is not relegating our belief to a systematized theory that makes sense only in theory. If we turn the Creed or any other doctrinal statement into methods that allow us to defend ourselves against the world’s claims and criticisms, we run the risk of turning our faith and salvation into an intellectual pursuit that stands up against the best the world has to offer. And that would be a tragic displacement of the reality and person of Christ, his life and ultimately his death and resurrection. Jesus is not rooted in good theory but in reality. His life was real. He was authentically human in every way!

As we declare in the Creed, the heart of our belief and faith is centered on the person Jesus who suffered under Pontius Pilate. This real person Jesus suffered unimaginable horror so that we might once and for all find freedom from the slavery and bondage we all have to sin. Through Christ’s death, an atonement for sin was offered that fulfilled all the law and requirements to cleanse us from our sinfulness once and for all. This is not a fictitious story that props us up when we’re feeling down. It’s not even just a story. It’s history. It’s when God came to earth in human form and changed the world forever. As Christians, we can point to a specific place in history when God intervened and opened the door to us for forgiveness and salvation.

So, the next time you recite the Creed, remember you are quoting history, not just theory. You are reciting doctrine rooted in a historical context that helped to radically alter the world as we know it. I’ll close this post with words from Benjamin Myers: “All the mysteries of faith are rooted in the events of history. That is why one of history’s villains, Pontius Pilate, lives in the memory of the church and will be confessed until the end of the world whenever a person is baptized into the way of Jesus” (Myers, The Apostles’ Creed, 64.).

May God bless and keep you and your family safe and healthy this week and in the weeks to come.

Blessings,
Pastor Scott