Christians Sunday by Sunday announce our collective memory of Pontius Pilate: “Suffered under Pontius Pilate.” By repeating this creed regularly, we agree with church tradition and we don’t wonder further about Pilate. We certainly have no sympathy for him.

Pilate’s Jewish contemporaries had nothing good to say about him. Christians, especially on Good Friday, don’t let anyone forget our opinion of him. However, some early church traditions decided that Pilate was a believer and two churches still, Ethiopic and Coptic, consider him a saint.

On Good Friday we always concentrate upon Jesus. For once, let’s also spend a little time looking at Pilate. Officially in first-century Judea Pilate represents the Roman Empire, which means he stands for the power of the military overlord; because, R…