Jesus Before Pilate
28 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected. 32 This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 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’?”
40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.
It's hard to read this passage, or any passages about the Easter story because they are so gut wrenching horrible. (Not to mention, also our fault because of our sin...this makes us feel even more horrible). There are so many places in the story that seem to scream out "If only [this] then the story would have been different". Of course the entire story was part of God's plan but as mere humans, we wish for it to be different. It's almost a little bit like watching the Titanic movie and knowing what will happen but hoping for a different end. If only they would have put more life boats on the boat, if only they would have seen the ice berg sooner or if only they had hit the ice berg head on and only damaged a few compartments, if only they would have filled the lifeboats to capacity....and so on. We want a different ending to a sad story.
In this portion of Scripture, Jesus is brought before Pilate because the Jews could not sentence Jesus to death and Pilate, in his position, could. When this scripture was read at Easter this year, I really thought about Pilate for the first time and what his decision really meant. Even this brief account, we can see that Pilate didn't want to kill Jesus. (Was it because he actually believed him? Was it because he thought Jesus was crazy? Was it because he was scared of him?) In fact, even with Jesus proclaims that he is a king, Pilate is not angry with this claim he chooses to say that Jesus has no basis for a charge against him. So, why didn't he just let Jesus go free? If you are the Roman governor with full power and you believe a man is innocent (maybe a little crazy) why would you give in to the mob? and a crazy mob at that asking for Barabbas to be released instead?
However, Pilate played the part of the sentencer. A role assigned to him by God. The story would have came to the same end because that is what we needed to happen. We, as sinners, needed Jesus to die for us as a way to pay for our sins. We needed the sacrifice of an innocent lamb so that we would not be separated from God and Jesus paid that price. Even though our human minds wish for a different response from Pilate, or a different request from the crowd, or even that Jesus would just use his power to abandon the situation, the sad story continues seemingly without a hope.
Thankfully the sad story of Jesus and Pilate doesn't end without hope. Even Pilate's inability to declare Jesus' innocence, even with the misguided shouts of the crowd, even with the misguided deliverance of a horrible criminal, the story doesn't end there and for that I am extremely thankful that God used Pilate in a way to make His plan a reality. It was because of this sad story that we received the same gift of freedom as Barabbas. As horrible sinners, deserving of death, we were set free by someone stepping into our place to face the judge and be willing to die. Our story did have a good ending, even if the parts leading up to it are unbearably sad.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 19:1-16
1 comment:
Knowing that an innocent man is going to be executed is terribly sad - knowing that we, personally, are the reason it is happening, is heartbreaking. And yet, even as we watch it unfold from this side of history, we know it has to play out this way in order for us to be redeemed. There is no other way, there is no other ending. But thankfully, this ending is truly a beginning!
So true Pam, thank you.
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