Children's questions can be big and deep

By Colleen Roy

My 7-year-old daughter asked me about the sceptic: "Did Pilate want Jesus to be crucified?" she said.

It's a good question. She asked it as I was tucking her into bed. Our night prayers had included some Scripture passages about Pilate.

"No, he didn't," I felt confident in replying.

"Then why did he allow them to kill Jesus?" my 7-year-old persisted.

Why did Pilate hand Jesus over to be crucified? It is another good question.

I have a tendency to think of Pilate as not a bad man. After all, he didn't initiate the plan to kill Jesus. When he finally makes his decision with regard to Jesus, Pilate washes his hands in front of the crowd. "All this has nothing to do with me," is the message he would send, "I'm just doing my job."

Despite wanting to distance himself from Christ's fate, Pilate has nevertheless gone down in history as the one man finally responsible for it. The most heinous crime that ever has been or ever will be committed happened because of Pilate's decision. He alone stood between Christ and crucifixion, and he stepped aside. My young daughter wants to know why.

Jesus knew the kind of man with whom He would be dealing when He was brought before Pilate. He knew Pilate as He knows all of us. The answers that Jesus gave to Pilate reflected what Pilate needed to hear. Christ spoke to the heart of Pilate's hang-up. When Pilate asked Him if He was a king, Jesus responded: "Thou sayest it; I am a king. This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."

"Truth," Pilate replied, "What is that?" The comment is a sarcastic one. Pilate is not asking a question. He is not waiting for an answer because he doesn't think that there is one. Pilate thinks nothing is objectively true.

Herein lies the answer to my daughter's question. Pilate is a "man without conviction," as the song goes. While being convinced of nothing, he is unfortunately in the position of overseeing life-and-death decisions. On what basis, we must ask, can he then make these decisions? On what basis do our politicians make their decisions today? Many of these modern day Pilates stand between the unborn and the abortuary.

Pilate has no principle or starting point outside himself by which he can determine a right or wrong action. This leaves him with no alternative but to make himself the measure of what is right and wrong. "Dost Thou not speak to me?" Pilate rebukes Jesus, "Dost Thou not know that I have power to crucify Thee, and that I have power to release Thee?"

"Thou wouldst have no power at all over Me," responds Jesus, "were it not given thee from above." Jesus reminds Pilate that he is not autonomous. He only thinks he is.

Pilate is a bitter, hardened sceptic. Christ words, though composed especially for Pilate's ears, have no impact on him. One wonders how he arrived at this state. He must have been a child once, and children are the opposite of this.

Children are not sceptics, but natural philosophers and theologians. They ask big and deep questions, (and not only because they are trying to postpone bedtime.) They ask confidently because they readily believe that their questions can be answered. Unlike Pilate, children haven't given up on the truth.

It is our job as the parents and primary educators of our children to guide them so that they never do. We don't want them to end up like Pilate. When confronted with the big decisions of their lives, we want them to be guided by the light of truth.