Seeds for 03/04/2024 - Matthew 27:19-24
Scripture: While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.”
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.
“Barabbas,” they answered.
“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
“Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
Observation: The tell in this passage is Pilate’s question towards the end: “Why? What crime has He committed?” This when we are crystal clear about the nature of Pilate’s culpability. He knows that he is considering the sacrifice of an innocent man in order to gain peace. Pilate’s wife warns him that she has been troubled by this in a dream. Pilate knows that he has not been convinced by the accusations and their validity.
Yet all of this matters little in the face of the mob. The crowd’s answer to Pilate’s request for a rationale is met not with substantiation of their claims, but continued insistence that Jesus’ fate be crucifixion. And Pilate caves. Rather than insist on truth, he abdicates responsibility and blames it on the crowd, washing his hands as a demonstration of his innocence. Except he isn’t innocent. He’s adding his name to the list of the blameworthy.
What hits home here is the complete disregard for truth. Justice requires a rigorous concern for getting down to the truth of the matter. But here we have disingenuous leaders stirring up crowds, mob pressure, abdication of responsibility, excuse-making, blood thirst, and sacrifice of an innocent man in order to preserve an unstable peace among the Jewish leadership and with Roman overlords.
Jesus brought peace, but as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” That peace would be built of the truth of God’s love in the face of human sin, not the false peace of Pilate based on scapegoating and surrender to the mob.
The term I’ve heard for this—keeping the peace at the expense of seeking and telling the truth. The term is “peace-mongering.” Christians are not peace-mongers but peacemakers. At least one difference between the two is a genuine, persistent interest in the truth.
Application:
When is it hard to seek the truth when pressured to go along with the mob in order to “keep the peace”?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, give me a heart and mind committed to peacemaking and truth-seeking. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™