October 30, 2019 – 1 Corinthians 2:8
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
—1 Corinthians 2:8
Pilate [was] as pathetic a figure as [exists] in human history.28 A Roman, with a Roman’s sense of justice, he knew at once that these charges against Christ were faked. With a question or two, he had the poor, bribed, muddled witnesses tripping over their own stories or contradicting one another at all points, quite evidently twisting innocent words into sinister meanings that they did not carry in the accused’s mouth. Tools, thought the man on the judgment seat, and looked contemptuously at the hot faces showing through the doors, shouting and bawling, half beside themselves with rage, though they would come no further into a Gentile court, these holy men on this holy day, lest they might be polluted! How he despised and hated them! Being quite clear that there was nothing against the strange, silent prisoner, he tried hard to get him off. And yet he signed the order for the crucifixion and goes down in history hooted and pelted with the infamy of every race. Why didn’t he leap to his feet and cry, “This is mere malice and not a substantial charge. The prisoner is acquitted! And as for you, be off with you, for fear that you stand in his place!” Why, like a noble creature caught in a trap, does he only snarl and show his teeth and struggle and long to hurl himself at his taunting enemies, yet cannot break free?
They say old sins troubled him, past failures that made things difficult for him now. He had been too hectoring and domineering—at least these impossible people said so—though he himself denied it. At all events, protesting to Rome, they had won the emperor’s ear and humbled their governor. And that must not happen again. Ah, me! is not life a fearsome thing? Take care! take care! For if you sin a sin, be sure that somehow you will pay for it. And it may be a hideous price! So Pilate found in his day; so you, too, will find in ours.
Our acts follow us from afar,
And what we have been makes us what we are.
Pilate was curt and domineering to the Jews one day. And because of that, months later, his unwilling hands set up the cross of Christ; unwilling—but they did it. Take care! For sin is merciless. If you have had the sweet, sin will see to it that you drink the bitter—to the very dregs. Think, think, and take care!
—Arthur John Gossip
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