Category: John 18-1

Categories
John John 18-1 John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

When we have nothing to stand on

The gospels

I will start by saying that it’s a bit hard to harmonize these passages. Here’s how I see it, but I encourage you to look at it yourself, and come to your own conclusions.

  • The priests and council members bring Jesus in front of Pilate with their initial accusations. (Luke 23:1-2, John 18:29-31)
  • Pilate then talks to Jesus the first time. (John 18:33-38 gives us the most details of this conversation while the other gospels give the briefest of summaries).
  • Pilate proclaims Jesus innocent but after further accusations, decides to send him to Herod. (Mark 15:3-5; Luke 23:4-12)
  • Herod returns Jesus, and Pilate proclaims him innocent again. (Luke 23:13-17)
  • Pilate proposes releasing Jesus or Barabbas, and the crowd demands Barabbas. (All the gospels.)
  • Pilate releases Barabbas, but then proposes punishing Jesus instead of crucifying him. Ultimately, he has Jesus flogged. (Mark 15:16-20; Luke 23:21; John 19:1-7)
  • Pilate makes one last appeal, but ends up giving Jesus over to be crucified. (John 19:7-14)

With that background, over the next few days, I think I’ll go over the main characters in these events.

Today, I want to look at Pilate. You can read about Pilate in history, but I want to stay with what we see here. And what I see is someone who had nothing to stand on when it came to how he made decisions and how he lived his life.

When Pilate first called Jesus in for a private interrogation, his main concern was whether Jesus was truly an insurrectionist or not. So he asked point blank whether Jesus was a king or not.

When he found out that Jesus did claim to be a king, but that this kingdom was “not of this world,” and was certainly no threat to the Roman empire, that was all that mattered to Pilate. (John 18:36-37).

But Jesus would not let things rest there. Instead he challenged Pilate, by saying,

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. (John 18:37b)

Basically, Jesus was asking Pilate, “What about you? Are you on the side of truth? Are you a lover of truth? Are you willing to stand on truth? If you are, then you must listen to me and believe it.”

It’s the challenge that faces all of us. What do we base our lives on? Do we base it on truth? Do we believe that Jesus himself is truth?

Pilate faced that question in that moment. His response?

What is truth? (John 18:38)

I really wish that we could know the tone behind his words. Did he say this with the implication of, “Who do you think you are? You think you know better than everyone else?”

Or did he say it with a voice dripping with irony? “Truth? There is no truth. Truth is what people in power say it is.”

Or did he say it with despair. “Is there really any truth out there? Is it really possible to find?”

Whatever his feeling, his ultimate response was to reject the idea of absolute truth. Specifically he rejected Jesus as the source of truth. The result?

He had no foundation by which to make his decisions. Instead, he was tossed and blown by the winds of the words of others and the pressures they put upon him.

The pressure of facing a riot. (Matthew 27:24)

The pressure of being reported to Caesar. (John 19:12)

The pressure, ultimately, of his own fears. And because of this, he made a decision he knew was wrong.

The same will happen to us. If we refuse to make truth the foundation of our lives, if we refuse to make Jesus himself the foundation of our lives, then we will be blown and tossed by the opinions of others and by our own fears. And we’ll end up making decisions we know are wrong.

How about you? What do you rest your decisions on? What do you rest your life on?

Do you seek God’s counsel? And do you have the faith to believe that what he has said is true?

James tells us,

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-8)

Categories
John 18-1 Luke 22-2 Mark 14-1 Matthew 26-1

Taking a hard look at ourselves

The gospels

We’ll get to the trial of Jesus in the next few blogs, but first, I’d like to deal with Peter.

It’s a bit tricky trying to harmonize the gospels on this point because there are variations in the testimony. If I’ve pieced it together properly, there were actually four denials with three coming before witnesses.

The first came as Peter entered the courtyard of the high priest.

Another of the disciples (perhaps John, or perhaps a disciple who was not one of the twelve) was well known to the high priest, so he was able to enter the courtyard, and on his word, Peter was able to enter too. (John 18:15-16)

Enter a very persistent servant girl. She was the one watching the gate, and as Peter entered, she asked, “You’re not one of his disciples, are you?” (John 18:17)

At a guess, she recognized him as one that had been with Jesus. This was probably confirmed in her mind by the fact that his friend who had vouched for him was a disciple too.

Peter denied it, saying, “I am not.”

The first denial before witnesses came shortly thereafter. As Peter was warming himself by the fire, the same girl came up to him, peered closely, and convinced that she was right, said, “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus.” (Mark 14:67)

She then announced to everyone in the courtyard in a loud voice, “This man was with him.” (Luke 22:56)

At that point, one of the people at the fire questioned Peter, “You’re not one of his disciples are you?” (John 18:25)

Peter answered. “I am not. I don’t even know the man. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” (Mark 14:68; John 18:25b)

He then moved off to the entryway. A short while later, the same servant girl came with her friend, another servant girl who had perhaps seen Peter with Jesus before, and pointed him out to her, saying, “This fellow is one of them.” (Mark 14:69)

Her friend then said for all to hear, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” (Matthew 26:71)

One of the men in the area looked over, recognized Peter and he too exclaimed, “You also are one of them.” (Luke 22:58)

Peter then swore that he didn’t saying, “Man, I am not. I don’t know the man.” (Matthew 26:72; Luke 22:58b)

Perhaps that satisfied everyone for a while, but after about an hour, one of the priest’s servants walked by and saw Peter.

Worse, he was a relative of the man Peter had attacked in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he said, “Didn’t I see you with him at the olive grove?” (John 18:26).

When Peter denied it, another piped up, “Surely you are one of them for you are a Galilean. Your accent gives you away. (Matthew 26:73; Mark 14:70)

At that point, Peter lost it and started to call curses on himself swearing, “I don’t know the man.”

And then, he heard a rooster crow. He then heard a commotion in the courtyard as Jesus was being led out to be taken to Pilate, and as he turned, he saw Jesus looking right at him.

Realizing what he had done, he ran out, weeping bitterly.

So much for that. What can we get from this?

It would be so easy to criticize Peter. To criticize him for his cowardice and hypocrisy. But I think we would be better served to take a close look at ourselves.

Personally, I don’t know if I would have done any better than Peter.

I remember as a teenager, basically doing the same thing. When asked if I was a Christian, I didn’t deny it, but I avoided the question entirely, either by silence or by trying to deflect the question.

It’s something I’m ashamed of to this day.

But going beyond that, I have seen people fall into other kinds of sin. Particularly sexual ones. And knowing the temptations that I face daily, I know that I could be like them if I’m not careful. Because I am weak. And only by the grace of God, can I stand.

And that’s what we need to remember when we see others fall. That we are all weak. We are all sinful. And we can all fall. So let us not stand in judgment so much as to have compassion for them and seek their restoration.

Let us remember the words of Paul who wrote,

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)