Bible Text
Key Characters: Pilate, Jesus.
Beaten and mocked at, is that how one shows a man’s innocence? If I am vindicated from a case, is it by being punished that my innocence will be declared? If anything, this will project me as guilty as can be. Why should He be flogged and crowned with thorns if He was innocent? Pilate would not let anyone who falls into his net go scot-free even if such were innocent. Such must have a touch for being accused and brought to him in the first place. You had better keep yourself out of accusation not to get a beating from Pilate. To be declared innocent by Pilate, one will be given strokes of the cane, mocked by his blood-thirsty, mindless soldiers. What will the guilty suffer? No wonder he killed people whilst offering sacrifices right in the temple (see Luke 13:1).
I see a man who was stricken in conscience, but his wicked nature overrode his tenderness on this day of his salvation. His inherently wicked so, heart tremor caused by Jesus' few hours' displays of calmness and innocence will not quake away such mischievousness. His flesh wrestled against his spirit, and because he had always assisted the flesh to victory by yielding to wickedness in his decision, even the presence of Jesus at which his servants fell, would not help him. It will not fall the giant of wickedness in him. One who was not yielded to God in little things will have no business yielding for his own good on a tumultuous day. His heart had no iota of grace that could be helped; on which the Holy Spirit could build. His wife warned Him to no avail, and you claim this man is innocent? Oh, for all whom Christ sends to hell, He will be found justified! Even if Pilate had his hands washed into the Mediterranean Sea, his guilt is but a bread cast upon many waters after many days he will find it and receive the reward due. And if he escapes a recompense on earth, it will wait for him at the stormy banks of River Jordan, stripped of all pageantry and splendour, made normal again as any other man on a voyage to give an account of all he had done in and out of his political appointment(s).
Happier is that man who does the will of God rising and falling, with little grace on a day like this, he will be able to take a stand. The brethren of Jesus could not stand by Him on this day; is it this callous heart called Pilate that will stand? Oh, my enemy, do not laugh at me when I rise and fall. On tumultuous days of the decision in taking a stand with God, I will find greater help than Pilate. The presence of Jesus is so revealing of whom we are! We must repent of whom we are to get the strength to match up to whom He is, which is our calling.
Oh, the blazing light of Christ’s holiness brought to glare Pilate’s wickedness. Little did Pilate know that it was a plea to the culprit, that will give Him the strength to set the accused free. But alas, he was too tormented by Christ’s composure and visage to contemplate Christ’s release lest to talk of attempting the same. To attempt anything for God, He must be the source of such strength, and we must fall humbly at His feet to pick up such grace and mercy for help in this time of need. Pilate was too exalted to lie before God and seek strength. Do you think God will have Pilate stand before Him and say, “Save me now from hell, I saved you by my strength on the day Your son’s brethren rebelled against Him”? No one will stand before God’s throne, and lay claims to his show of mercy to God, thereby making God a debtor. Instead, God’s mercy is vaster than the ocean. We must necessarily be the debtors of mercy to qualify to pass into His kingdom. The kingdom of God is for beggars - spiritually needy men.
Pilate’s vindication from this is as impossible as his bowing down before Jesus when He said, “Behold the man!” How differently would the turns of events have been if Pilate owned up to his helplessness! The presence of God will always reveal, instead of struggling, dear Lord, always help me fall prostrate at your feet. Pilate forfeited the grace that should have been his, setting his heart on the worthless idol of reputation and position. There was a reputation to protect and a position to retain, on one hand, there was heart throbbing disaster on the conscience of Pilate to settle on the other. Alas, he chose to gain the whole world’s reputation and lost his soul. This man will be a monument in hell. He belongs to the class of Judas, though with Judas higher in rank.
It is a privilege to have Jesus revealed to us with this write-up. What will you make of my Jesus? Will you dispel Him, pretentiously ignorant? Will you hail Him as king mockingly without accepting His lordship over you? To have made things right, Pilate should have vacated his judgment seat and had Jesus sit on it, and he in the judgment pew. Will you let God be true and you be a liar? Will you be humble enough to receive His verdict on your life? Will you descend your throne of self-justification and let Jesus mount it? And as he mounts it, while you have assumed that place of humility, will you accept his verdict? If he called out your wickedness as He called out Pilate’s
Pilate’s wickedness got Him panicking, but his harboured pride would not let him prosper. Does anything get you jittery in the presence of God? Why not let it bow before God by you laying it down in confession? The stuff is only panicky because it knows it must bow but stands on the strength of your will. If you will let it bow, it will bow out by your confession. What comes to light when you go to church? Which sin is revealed in you when you appear before God in devotion - slander, malice, bitterness, theft, impersonated properties, stolen goods, lies, hatred for your brethren, disobedience, covetousness? Oh, come down your throne where you defend yourself with the splendour of your majesty of achievements and reach! The reach may have been gotten from your attainments for God or may be utterly gotten from the world. There is more hope with God for the poor humble than the rich proud, as it is in the case of the rich young ruler compared to Mathew. That great Mathew guy came down his high horse, humbling himself to leave his flourishing tax-collection business to follow a financially poor Jesus. The rich young ruler was not desperate enough to forgo his throne for the salvation of his soul.
