Pilate

Posted on April 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

Pilate.

What did Pilate do that was so wrong?

I’ve been wrestling with this question a lot this Lenten/Easter season. I am spending this year reading through the gospels. I use YouVersion and often listen to the passages aloud. In January I read through all four gospels. I spent February focusing on Matthew, reading it over and over. March was similarly spent reading Mark. Now April will be spent reading Luke. And May will be spent with John.

At the beginning of Lent I also started reading YouVersion’s “40 Days of Lent” reading plan. It’s been interesting. As I’ve read through the plans side by side I sometimes end up reading the same chapter a second time in a day. Other times I may read the same passage in parallel gospels in the same day or days apart.

Beginning today I’m also going through “The Story of Easter” reading plan. So now during Holy Week I’m reading three different reading plans all involving the life of Jesus. Two of them focus on Easter and the events leading up to it. And this week I’ll be reading the full gospel of Luke. It’s overlapping reading plans. You get the idea.

You may think (Or I would’ve thought) that the repetition or overlapping nature gets boring. But it has been quite the opposite. Reading like this has been like hearing the same story over and over again from different perspectives and in different orders. I feel like I’m getting a bigger and deeper picture of the characters in the story. Not really repetition at all.

However, I have digressed. Back to my question: What did Pilate do that was so wrong?

Having grown up in the church, I remember hearing the Easter story as a kid. I remember thinking the Jews, Pilate and everyone there was so evil except for Jesus and maybe that guy that carried his cross for him because he was forced to do it.

Over time I’ve learned to place myself amidst the crowd. I’ve pictured myself or understood myself as one of the many voices in the jeering crowd. I’ve spent hours meditating on the thought that it was my sin that nailed him to that cross. And after nailing him there with my sin, it was His love that held him there.

But what about Pilate?

Pilate was still my scapegoat. I was ok with placing myself in the massive crowd; even if it was out of sin. At least I wasn’t the only one chanting for Jesus’s execution, right? As long as it’s not only my voice shouting for his death, that seemed bad, but tolerable. I can handle that.

Pilate’s the one that could’ve really done something though. Pilate didn’t have to listen to us in the crowd. Pilate had the power to set Jesus free and silence the crowd. Pilate could’ve done something, but didn’t. And for that… I’ve always thought of Pilate as the worst one there. It’s one thing to be an ignorant peasant and demand an innocent man’s execution. It’s another thing to be an educated citizen of the most powerful empire in the world and condone the death of the innocent by a lack of action. “Yes,” I thought, “Pilate is the worst one there.”

So what did Pilate do?

Pilate questioned Jesus. (Matthew 27:11, Mark 15:2-4, Luke 23:3, John 18:33-38)
Pilate was amazed at Jesus. (Matthew 27:14, Mark 15:5)
Pilate found Jesus innocent. (Luke 23:4, 23:13-15, John 18:38)
Pilate questioned the Jews and gave them a chance to request Jesus be released. (Matthew 27:17-24, Mark 15:9-14, Luke 23:22, John 18:39)
Pilate had Jesus flogged in an apparent attempt to pacify the Jews. (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, Luke 23:16, 23:22, John 19:1)
Pilate declared Jesus innocent again. (Luke 23:22, John 19:4, 19:6)
Pilate was afraid and questioned Jesus again. (John 19:8-10)
Pilate declares that he has the power to crucify Jesus or to free him. (John 19:10)
Pilate tried to set Jesus free. (Luke 23:20, John 19:12)
Pilate gave in to the crowd and handed him over to be crucified. (Matthew 27:24-26, Mark 15:15, Luke 23:24-25, John 19:16)
Pilate had a sign made declaring Jesus was “The King of the Jews” and had it posted in all three common languages of the time. (John 19:19-20)
Pilate stands firm to his declaration of who Jesus is. (John 19:22)

Here’s what Pilate did: Pilate took the time to learn who Jesus was. Pilate believed and declared Jesus to be innocent and the King of the Jews. In other words, Pilate believed Jesus. Yes. I think we’ll see Pilate in Heaven. But Pilate gave in to the pressuring demands of a sinful society. Pilate did not stand up for the innocent like he could have. But instead, Pilate stood by and allowed the innocent to die.

Now… Who is the worst in this story? Pilate? Or the Jews in the crowd? I still think Pilate.

But I can no longer place myself in the crowd. I am not an ignorant uneducated peasant. I am an educated citizen of the most powerful empire in the world. I am no longer a Jew in this story… I am Pilate. I am Pilate because every day I sit and do nothing. And through my passivity, the innocent are allowed to die. I am Pilate every time I do not do all that I can.

Let’s, as the body of Jesus, stop being Pilate. Let’s stop letting our passivity, apathy and complacency condemn the lives of the innocent. Let us stop killing God’s children with inaction! Do something. Bring your friends along. Do something together. And keep doing it.

http://one.org
http://invisiblechildren.com
http://ijm.org
http://bloodwatermission.com
http://20liters.org
http://thepeaceplan.com
http://70x7outreach.org
http://elevateDetroit.com

This list could go on and on and on. Don’t start tomorrow. Do something today.

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Ohio

Posted on April 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

I’m driving home from Charleston, South Carolina. It’s been a great week of vacation and I’ve driven a lot of miles. In fact, by the time I get home tonight I will have logged over 3200 miles this week.

I stopped at a Rest Area in central Ohio. Ironically, Bath, Ohio to be exact. I wanted to make a sandwich and use the restroom.

As I opened the car door I was immediately and violently assaulted… by a smell. This smell was overwhelming. This smell could not have been worse if I were standing on a pile of manure while it rained raw sewage on me. It was bad.

When I looked up there was an employee standing at the building entrance. He had his shirt pulled up over his nose in what was surely a failing attempt to shield himself from this apparent airborne invasion of excrement.

“Thanks! What is that smell?” I asked him as he opened the door for me.

“I don’t know!” He exclaimed muffled through his t-shirt gas mask.

“I believe it’s called ‘Ohio.’” I told him with a smile and taking a whiff.

*Disclaimer: I actually only thought that last line, but didn’t say it. I’m not THAT mean.

The End

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Palm Trees

Posted on March 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

image

My dear friends… how I miss them when we’re apart!!

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Before the Sunrise

Posted on March 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

If you pay attention, you can feel the life of a new day growing & bursting forth with the new light that comes before the sunrise.

It’s beautiful.

God is Light.

God is Life.

God is Love.

He is the Sun of Righteousness. He will rise with healing in His rays.

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Change a mind

Posted on March 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

We can’t change another’s mind or heart. What they will think, they will think. What we CAN do is show them our changed mind and heart.

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Zombiepocalypse

Posted on February 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

Matthew 27:51-54 NIV

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’”

We are missing a great opportunity…
Want to do a good seeker AND in depth Good Friday service at your church??

Zombiepocalypse Friday (think of the real meaning of that word and be impressed that I’m using it correctly :) )! Scrap the common and normal and go full tilt with this verse. Every single person there would remember that service all their life.

Make the whole point about how we often skip the familiar in the Bible thinking we know it and skip the unfamiliar thinking it’s boring and irrelevant. Because if we really knew it… we would live differently. If you’re like me, very differently.

Seriously, when is the last time you learned something at a holiday church service? Me? I don’t remember. All I remember is a good skit or cool effects. Each year it is the same thing with different wrapping paper. I feel like the common service is less teaching something new and more showing off the new lights or visual effects.

Churches are like young male peacocks strutting their new feathers. They look different to other peacocks, but to the rest of the world it is a familiar show with little to no meaning.

Almost everyone at a holiday service is in the same boat… “Been here, heard this” (ourselves included). So why do the same thing we always do and prove them right? Forget thinking outside the box. Leave the box alone and think/read fresh.

Zombiepocalypse 2012. Let’s do this!

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Giving it up

Posted on January 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Friends. We all have them. Some of us may have many. Some only a few. Some of us probably have better friends than some others. Whatever the case may be about our friends, we probably all think of ourselves the same… We probably all think of ourselves as being a “good” friend.

Often when we think of doing something for a friend, we think of doing or giving something. We help someone move. We help fix a car. We give a ride. We loan a car. We loan money, a shoulder or an ear.

All of those things are giving. Giving or loaning. But truthfully… giving is easy. Or easi-er anyway. What’s more difficult than giving is giving up.

Giving up involves letting go. Giving up involves letting go of your freedom, your right or your desire. It’s giving something up so that someone else can be better off. It’s not deciding to give someone something. It’s letting someone have or take something. The decision’s no longer ours, it’s theirs

Maybe you have a friend that struggles with alcohol. It’s giving up your right to enjoy a drink when they’re around so that your friend doesn’t stumble. It’s giving up your right so your friend can have freedom from temptation.

Maybe you have a friend that struggles with some emotional issue. You may need to give up your plans so that your friend can be free of their struggle.

The possibilities are limitless. But the point is the same. Sometimes we need to give something to our friends. Time, help, whatever. But sometimes we need to give something up. To give up the chance to do what you want or be where you want or maybe even with who you want so that the other person can have that instead.

I have often heard it said that I don’t need to lose in order for someone else to win. Or it could be said someone else doesn’t need to lose in order for me to win.

Much of the time I believe that is true. But sometimes I do need to lose so someone else may gain. Sometimes the only way for someone else to gain is for me to give it up. And sometimes the only way for us to grow, is for a friend to give it up, to give us the space, to give us the opportunity, to give us the freedom.

We ought to look for ways to give to each other. Open a door, give a ride, lift a spirit. But perhaps even more we ought to look for ways to give something up for each other. It is a very rare friend that will give up for another.

We are each called to reflect Christ. And in the end, Christ didn’t give us his life… He gave it up for us.

1 Corinthians 8:9, 12 NIV
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. … When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”

Romans 14:21 NIV
“It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.”

Ephesians 5:21 NIV
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5:25 NIV
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Matthew 27:50 NIV
“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”

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Posted in Personal, Spiritual