I want to begin the podcast today with a little quiz.

I think you'll get the answer easily enough.

Here it is.

Next to the Lord Jesus and the Virgin Mary,

whose name is most frequently on the lips of Christians.

It's not Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or even Martin Luther, is it?

No, every day in some churches and every Sunday in millions of churches,

billions of Christians say the words, I believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born

of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate.

The words of the Apostles' Creed, every Sunday Pontius Pilate is remembered.

Media reporters love few things better than a trapped politician.

Sometimes they try to trap them by the questions they ask.

Sometimes they run stories about an entrapped politician until something or someone else is

worth headline attention.

The world seems to love trapped politicians, but loves to despise them too.

Ponchos Pilate was the most famous trapped politician in human history, who was governor of the Roman

province of Judea for about 10 years. That was by no means an easy posting. Jewish monotheism

like modern day genuine Christianity can be a thorn in the flesh to a pluralistic society.

People who believe that God has revealed himself

in space and time in very definite and particular ways and sovereignly instructs us in how to live

for his glory and for our blessing, well, those people can be a real irritant. Indeed, as in many parts of the world today and increasingly

in the Western world, they're actually regarded as being enemies of the state. They don't fit in.

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