Pilate’s position must be familiar to anyone who works in or around politics. He was a mostly apolitical administrator, a man who believed in good government, which meant keeping the peace in Jerusalem during Passover. But there was trouble, a street preacher who must surely have seemed like a crackpot to Pilate: Jesus was not the first resurrection deity worshiped in the spring by the ceremonial eating of bread (think of the pagan goddess Ceres the next time you are offered a slice of wedding cake), nor were his followers the first Dionysian mystery cult organized around the ceremonial drinking of wine. Pilate was used to this sort of thing, which he must have seen a thousand times before...
When this guy writes on religious topics, he is particularly insightful.
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