Bringing History to Life
Speech No. 5 in the Toastmasters "Storytelling"
Manual
Date presented: March 2005
The objectives of this speech were:
- To understand the purpose of stories about historical events
or persons
- To use the storytelling skills developed in the preceeding
projects to tell a story about a historical event or person
Time 7 to 9 minutes.
The Man Who Washed His Hands
“What will you do with this man?”
He was innocent, of course. Pilate was quite sure of that. But the angry mob pressed forward, so closely that he could feel the spittle on his face as they shouted “Crucify him!”
Calling for water, Pilate washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he declared. “It is your responsibility!”
Mr Toastmaster, Toastmasters, I'd like to take you back 2000 years to see if we can find out what persuaded Pontius Pilate to allow an innocent man to suffer a cruel death. A death that was usually reserved for the most hardened criminals.
It was the year A.D. 26 when Pilate was appointed as Governor of Judea.
He had full control of the province. He was in charge of the Roman army that was occupying Judea at the time. He appointed the high priests and controlled the temple and its funds. He had full powers of life and death. Any capital sentences had to be submitted to him for ratification. So when this prisoner was brought before him, everything hung on the attitude of Pilate. What kind of man was this Roman Governor?
The ancient historians portray him as a proud, devious and heavy-handed man.
He was contemptuous of the Jews. What they called principles, he would have called their fanatical prejudices. Previous Governors had dealt with the Jews with kid gloves. Pilate arrogantly proposed to use the mailed fist.
The historian, Josephus tells us of a couple of incidents that enraged the Jews.
Roman troops carried standards which were poles topped with an image of the reigning emperor. Now, the Jewish law forbade any graven image. In deference to this, previous Roman Governors had always removed the images before marching into Jerusalem.
Pilate decided on a different policy. He marched his soldiers in by night with the imperial image on their standards and, under the cover of darkness, he had them fixed to the walls of the Antonia fortress. When they found out, the Jews were outraged. Crowds of them walked the sixty miles to Ceasarea to request Pilate to remove the images. Pilate refused.
“It would be an insult to the emperor,” he insisted.
The Jews persisted. They camped outside Pilate's palace for five days. On the sixth day, Pilate agreed to meet them. His troops surrounded the area while Pilate informed them that unless they stopped disturbing him, the penalty would be immediate death.
The Jews threw themselves on the ground, and laid their necks bare. “We will die,” they told him, “ rather than have our laws transgressed.”
Pilate was forced to yield. He could hardly arrest or slaughter a whole nation. He ordered the images to be taken out of Jerusalem.
After a while, Pilate had another idea. Water was scarce. He would build an aqueduct. It was impressive. It ran for twenty to forty miles and brought sparkling clear water into the city. The Jews were not pleased.
To finance the project, Pilate had spent the sacred money that was stored in the Temple. The next time Pilate visited Jerusalem, a great crowd of them assembled. Thousands of Jews surrounded Pilate's tribunal and screamed abuse at him. This time, Pilate had no intention of backing down Amongst the crowd, he had planted his soldiers disguised as Jews. Under their robes, they had concealed daggers.
Pilate told the Jews to go away, but they surged forward, shouting. He had touched the holy money! He had defiled the temple! When Pilate had had enough, he gave the signal. At once, his soldiers fell on the crowd with cudgels and daggers. The crystal clear water from the new aqueduct was used to wash away the blood that stained the flagstones and spattered the walls.
Pilate's position as Governor hung in the balance. The Jews had threatened to report him to the Emperor. He couldn't afford to make any more mistakes. So when the Jewish religious leaders came to him to demand the death of a popular preacher, Pilate found himself in a political quagmire.
He knew that this man was innocent, but his past misdeeds gave the Jews a lever for blackmail.
“If you release this man,” they threatened, “You are not Ceasar's friend.”
“What then,” he asked the crowd, “am I to do with this man? What evil has he done?”
“Crucify him!” they shouted.
There was danger of a riot. It must be avoided. It would cost him his job.
And so Pilate passed the buck. He made the futile gesture of washing his hands.
Legend has it that to this day there are times when the ghost of Pilate emerges from its tomb and goes through the action of hand washing once again.
Well, I don't know about the ghost of Pilate, but his action is perpetrated whenever we neglect to stand up for what we believe is right. And I believe that, as we reflect on the events of that fateful day, we are all haunted by the question Pilate posed:
“What will you do with this man?”
COMMENTS
This speech was very successful, especially as our meeting had an Easter theme. I had written the first draft a year ago - and didn't realise until after I had presented the speech, I had taken some of it from William Barclay's commentary on Matthew's Gospel. Oops, plagiarism!
MAMALADE
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