There are a few people whose shoes I would never want to be in.  I could give you a list since I like to study the people of the past.  There are great lessons for life from many of those characters—both on what to do and what not to do.  We don’t have to learn everything the hard way!  One of the people that I have some sympathy for is Pontius Pilate.  He was the appointed governor of the region we call Israel today.  His home was at Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea.  Caesarea was a center for Roman trade and culture and the breezes from the Mediterranean Sea are a salty form of air conditioning good for body and soul.  But, Pilate made a trip to Jerusalem at least once a year to give oversight to a strong military presence during the Jewish Passover.  Jerusalem, for a Roman, was no resort.  Pilate was in “middle management.”  He was appointed by a paranoid Emperor whose policy about the Jewish people often changed.  Pilate was hated by the Jews and obviously, he didn’t like them very much either.  Early one Friday morning during Passover Week, Pilate was summoned to the Judgment Hall.  The Jews had brought a man they had accused of blasphemy and wanted to kill but couldn’t due to Roman law.  Pilate exercised all the diplomacy he could muster to get out of the situation but the mob’s craving for blood was starting to get out of hand.  Pilate’s sense of justice was clear in that he knew the man was innocent of the charges.  Sadly, Pilate’s political sense trumped his sense of justice and since reason “had left the building” the day before, Pilate was in an awful spot.  I’m sure Pilate had the position he had because he sacrificed principles for expediency in the past.  This was certainly “like” that but the situation he was in seemed more complicated than any he had faced before.  Even his wife had a dream and sent him a message in the middle of the court session.  I really would not want to be in his shoes.  Of course the reader will recognize that the “man” in question is our Lord Jesus Christ.  Heaven was standing before Pilate and Hell was shouting for an execution.  On Sunday we’ll talk about the outcome of this trial and learn a bit more about Pilate’s awful predicament.  We don’t know what happened to Pilate.  Some scholars say he eventually repented and converted…some say he went insane and committed suicide.  We don’t know.  What we do know is this, Jesus loved him and would have forgiven him if he had only believed.  God has no delight in the death of the wicked…even Roman governors that put political position over principled justice.