April 1: Words of grace and mercy
John 19:1-16 TNIV from Biblegateway.com
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
Devotional Comments:
Have you ever had someone in your life that has so injured you that the very sight of them causes you to become angry? I wonder if that is what happened to the religious leaders when they saw Jesus?
Were they remembering the times when Jesus had embarrassed and humiliated them in public? Were they remembering the times Jesus was questioning their knowledge and understanding of the law of God? Because of the darkness of their heart they had no grace to see all that Jesus offered to God’s people.
In contrast I wonder if the words of Jesus spoken to Pilot were not so much a reprimand but an act of grace and mercy. Pilot’s wife has just sent a message to him “Leave this innocent man alone because I have had terrible nightmares about him”.
Now Pilot hears the Jewish leaders say that Jesus should die because he called himself the Son of God. Does the man who is about to be sentenced to death speak a word of release to the tormented soul of Pilot? Jesus explains the responsibility of this act of sentencing does not fall on Pilate’s shoulders alone. That is the roll Pilot must play was a sovereign act of God. Oh that in our darkest moments, we might have such grace and understanding.
Rod Peterson
Pray that you may be a person of grace, even in times of persecution.