Pilate’s Compromise
Perhaps worse than stubbornly refusing to look at the evidence about Jesus is to see the truth in Jesus and reject Him still. This is exactly what we see in Pilate.
"Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, 'I find no basis for a charge against this man.'" (Luke 23:4)
"Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' For the third time he spoke to them: 'Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.' But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand." (Luke 23:20-24)
Pilate recognised what the crowds were saying about Jesus was not true. He examined Jesus closely, but when he realised that Jesus was innocent and pure, he made a bad decision. He decided that he'd rather please the crowd than do the right thing. He compromised what he knew to be true, to stay comfortable.
Seeing the Truth but Walking Away
I think many people do this in their journey towards God. We start to see Jesus for who He claims to be. We start to understand that this man was not just a religious leader, but the God of the world in the flesh.
We start to realise that in order to follow Him… we would have to make a few sacrifices…
Because He was the one who said:
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me! (Matthew 16)
Go and sin no more! (John 8)
Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you… (John 5)
As you've seen me do, do to others… (John 13)
Forgive that you may be forgiven… (Matthew 5)
The Cost of Following Jesus
So many of us end up making a judgement and saying: let me keep searching. Maybe there is another version of Christianity or religion where I don't really have to change!
So even though Jesus is the way, we wash our hands of Him. We find a false picture of Him that is less demanding.
Or we just keep going and compromise on these things Jesus commands us to do! We pretend these words of Jesus aren't so serious!
Friends, don’t make the mistake Pilate did. Jesus is worth the difficult decision! Compromising on this is not worth it at all!
Peace and joy only come, when we do what Pilate never could: stand up for Jesus, rather than condemning Him.
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