Monday Rewrite Pontius Pilate rolls his eyes and flaps a hand at the assembled priests. He turns and goes back inside, ordering a drink and Jesus to be brought to him.
‘You don’t look dangerous,’ Pilate remarks, as Jesus stands before him, congealed blood on his face, swaying from the blows he has received.
‘Is it true?’ he asks. ‘This King of the Jews business? Have you been claiming that?’
‘Do you really want to know? Or are you just a mouthpiece for Caiaphas?’
‘Don’t be stupid. A mouthpiece for that fool? Of course not. I need the truth here. That bunch out there are accusing you. I just have to decide what we do about that.’
‘I’m not a king as you imagine,’ Jesus tells him through bruised and swollen lips. ‘If I were, my followers would have prevented my arrest. I’m unlike any king you have encountered before. My kingdom is bigger than this world. Larger than you can ever imagine.’
‘So you are a king then?’
‘You’re right. I was sent here to reign, yes. But with truth and love. Another kind of power altogether.’
‘Truth. Ha! What is truth? Trust me, in the corridors of power truth is a very flexible commodity.’
‘Not in the corridors of heaven,’ Jesus told him. ‘Trust me, if you love truth then you’ll follow the trail of clues I have placed on the earth.’
(Drawing on John chapter 18 v 33-38)
Taken from the book John: A Gospel Reimagined
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