Judas & Pilate Defend Themselves (Additions to "The Apology Box")

            Acrostic of Judas

Justice never punishes a deed

Unless it's evil, willed, and freely done.

Did I betray?  I did.  But fate forced me, 

And thus I did unfreely what the Lord

Set up instead as I shall briefly show.

Impelled by love, God had to make a world

Since isolation is love’s opposite.

Creation needed freedom all around--

An object of one’s love is not enslaved

Raising a contradiction:  what is free

Is free to sin and has a license that

Offends morality.  God's fix required

The incarnation penalty--not me.

        

            Pontius Pilate’s Defense

I was a “Roman prefect.”  Did I do

As Roman prefects should?  That is the gauge

Of any proper judgment.  (Reason looks

At purpose--we'd not judge a horse by ways

It climbs a tree, sings songs, or turns a phrase
Nor should we judge a prefect other ways.)

What was my prefecture?  It was a trust.

What was my trust?  It was my region and

My saddest case attests how well I served:

A Hebrew man was obviously insane

But hardly criminal.  I would not do

Him any harm in my capacity

As man--and yet I held a prefect’s trust
Requiring me to act as prefects must.

Though bound by law, still I was dexterous.
I tried to prod some answers from him I

Could interpose in his defense.  Yet he

Refused all my attempts.  Undaunted, I

Gave other lawful avenues a try.

I sent him to another court to plead.

When he refused, on Herod’s remand I

Then tried another option:  equity.

The conscience of the law could still release

The man--yet conscience also had its rules.

The crowd had to concur.  When it would not,

I had him whipped severely hoping that

That awful sight might satisfy their want.
Although that failed, I'm proud I exercised
All rights I had.  A lesser prefect might
Have done much less but I would sleep at night.

© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.