The 12 Leadership Mistakes of Pilate in the Easter Story (Part 2)

Last week, we began a series on The 12 Leadership Mistakes of Pilate in the Easter Story.

If you missed it, you can go here. As leaders, we can learn not only from the successes of leaders in the past, but also, and some times more so, from the mistakes of leaders in the past. Pilate is one of those leaders.

This week we look at 4 more “Mistakes” Pilate made in his dealings with Jesus. These mistakes made Pilate world famous forever and not for the right reason. I believe his mistakes can be powerful teachers for us, especially when our world is turning their attention to this story during Easter week.

John 18:38-39 “With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, ‘No, not him! Give us Barabbas!’”

Leadership Mistake #5: Pilate tried to appease the noisy masses with a Loophole, rather than stand strong in his integrity.

Instead of having the courage to own the fact that he found no fault in Jesus, he tried to appease the masses by giving them an out. When he gave them an out, they did the opposite of what he thought they would do. They chose Barabbas instead of Jesus, thus making his leadership decision more difficult. He tried to take the easy way out rather than stand strong in his convictions.

As a leader, there have been many times when I have known the right answer was the unpopular answer. However, rather than owning the decision, I tried to take a loophole through consensus and ended up making more work for myself as a leader. Owning the decision as my own would have resulted in short term pain, but long term gain. Instead, I ended up causing more heartache, not just for myself, but for my team and other innocent bystanders as well. Pilate tried to appease the crowd and paid the price, both in the short term and the long run.

John 19:1 “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.”

Leadership Mistake #6: Pilate chose the Pressure of the Crowd over what was right and factual.

Because he didn’t want to look bad in front of the crowd, Pilate gave into the pressure and gave them Jesus instead of Barabbas which turned out to be a huge mistake. James 4:17 says, “To him who knows to do right and does not do it, to him, it is sin.” In other words, James makes sin personal. When you and I know the right thing to do and fail to do it, in that moment, we sin against God and against the people we are called to serve with our leadership.

I was recently being interviewed on the subject of leadership and the line of questioning turned to “the cause of my greatest failures” in my leadership journey. The way the question was phrased actually took me by surprise and I hesitated for a long time before I answered the interviewer for one reason. I had to decipher between “regret” and “failure.” Failure in my mind is a momentary occurrence and can be overcome more readily then regret. Regret, on the other hand, is something that stays with someone long term. So in the interview, I tweaked his question, aimed it at regret and then proceeded to give my answer immediately.

Without a doubt the greatest cause of regret in my leadership journey has been “sin,” as I just defined it in the paragraph above. Those moments in my leadership journey where I have known the right thing to do, but didn’t do it, have been the moments that have led to my greatest leadership regrets. I’m sure if Pilate were alive today, he would testify to the regret that came with knowing what was right to do in terms of Jesus’ fate and not doing it.

John 19:4 “Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” ⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

Leadership Mistake #7: Pilate abused his power for show.

After they had put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head in an effort to mock and further abuse him, Pilate then had the audacity to parade him out in front of the crowd. What a cowardly and pompous decision. Pilate abused Jesus because he could. And he did it for show. What a mistake.

And yet, before we all launch into a judgmental tirade in our minds against Pilate, we must be careful to first look at ourselves. How easy it is to do something for the crowd simply because we can. As leaders, we have the ability on a daily basis in both big and small, subtle ways to abuse our power. This is an easy trap to fall into and I have found that abuse of power lives just on the other side of entitlement. Whenever we begin to feel entitled to something, abuse of power is not far away. Its not inevitable, but it certainly is dangerously possible. We as leaders must guard our hearts and invite those close to us to help us stay far away from entitlement so we can ultimately stay far away from abuse of power; something Pilate didn’t do.

John 19:6 “⁶ As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

Leadership Mistake #8: Pilate tried to absolve himself of responsibility.

When the crowd suddenly turned their requests from “Beat him up,” to “Kill him,” Pilate instantly tried to distance himself from the situation entirely. He immediately gave Jesus up to the crowd and declared that he wasn’t the one who wanted to do this. What a cowardly thing to do. He had no problem flogging Jesus brutally, but now, all of a sudden, he wanted to back out of the arrangement.

During my leadership journey, I have been in many leadership meetings where people will voice their opinion loudly and boldly but then when the times comes for someone to actually step up and own the decision, they are no where to be found. Or, I have watched tragically, as a leader will sit quietly by while a decision is being discussed and say nothing. Only to voice their lack of support of the idea entirely on the back end. In other words, they will say after the fact, “Yeah, I never thought that was a good idea in the first place.”

Around our organization, that is never allowed. If someone doesn’t believe we are heading down the right path, then it is their responsibility to voice that before the decision is made. Saying something after the damage is done doesn’t help anyone! As leaders, we have to be confident enough in ourselves to own the decisions that are made. The buck stops with us, plain and simple. Pilate made a grave mistake by not doing that.

Conversation Questions:

1. Describe a time when you were tempted to give in to the “noisy masses” in your leadership journey?

2. Have you ever made a decision because of the pressure of the crowd instead of out of your conscience and what you know to be right?

3. In what area recently have you been tempted to take an entitlement mentality?

4. When was the last time you made a decision to impress the crowd rather than because it was what you knew you were supposed to do?

5. Describe a time when you saw a leader absolve themselves of responsibility for a decision because they didn’t want to take the blame?

 

Next week, we will explore the final four Leadership Mistakes Pilate made in his dealing with Jesus.