Power to Do The Right Thing

Matt 19:1 starts off with Pilate taking Jesus and having him scourged. In the Webster Dictionary “scourged” means to whip or to cause great suffering. This happen before Jesus was tried and convicted. In John 18:29 Pilate asked the Jews what charges do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you”. Pilate said you take him and judge him but the Jews would not.  This shows that Pilate didn’t want to crucify Jesus.  

Pilate went out a second time and said that he finds no fault in Him as stated in John 19:4. As the crowd was crying out with loud voices “Crucify him, crucify him”, Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in him”. 

How many times have we questioned ourselves about what to do? I can remember a few times early on in my Christian walk knowing the right thing to do yet I did the opposite because of the pressure that was put on my shoulders. I sometimes can chose the wrong course of action which has a big effect on the people around me. Pilate chose the wrong course of action because of the pressure he was receiving from the Jews. Pilate asked Jesus a question in John 19:9 about where he was from, but Jesus did not give him an answer and stayed silent.  

Pilate asked “Are you not speaking to me? Do you not know I have the power to crucify You, and the power to release You?” 

I love Jesus’ response in John 19:11 “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin”. From then on Pilate tried to get Jesus released because he was afraid but yet he didn’t do anything about it.  

Have you ever did the wrong thing and tried to figure out how to get out of it. This was the dilemma that Pilate found himself in. If he would have stood up to the Jew’s what would have been the outcome? We don’t know but one thing we do know is that Jesus had to go to the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. 

 As this chapter continues we see that Jesus is on the cross and prior to him giving up His spirit he said all things were now accomplished in Verse 28 and He gave up His Spirit in John 19:30.  Jesus giving up his Spirit was for each of us and we have to look at the cross with a humbling feeling because without it we would not be here today.