[column width=”1/1″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]
Continuing our analysis of the penultimate chapter of Luke’s Gospel, this week, please read verses 3-12. If possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
[/column]
[column parallax_bg=”disabled” parallax_bg_inertia=”-0.2″ extended=”” extended_padding=”1″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”” background_position=”” background_size=”auto” background_attachment=”” hide_bg_lowres=”” background_video=”” vertical_padding_top=”0″ vertical_padding_bottom=”0″ more_link=”” more_text=”” left_border=”transparent” class=”” id=”” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” width=”1/1″ last=”true”]
[/column]
[divider type=”1″]
[/divider]
[column width=”1/1″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]
Luke 23:22-23 (Williams New Testament)
‘Then a third time he spoke to them, “Why, what wrong has He done? I have found nothing in Him deserving the death penalty. So I will flog Him and let Him go.” But they continued to press him with loud voices in their ceaseless demands that He be crucified, and their shouts began to prevail.’
I was in a business meeting some time ago at work with about 10 in attendance. This meeting was called because there had been some debate about a particular decision we had to make. From private discussions I had with several people, I knew that the management’s position wasn’t entirely agreed with by the technicians involved. One of the managers was quite outspoken and generally could railroad almost anything he wanted to achieve.
This one particular meeting started going down a similar road to previous meetings I’d attended with this manager. I knew that so many people in the room disagreed with him but were seemingly too timid to say anything. I raised my objection to the idea only to be shouted down quite quickly. Having seen the way I’d been treated, one by one, each person gave their agreement to the decision even though I knew that they had a different opinion in private. This is typical of a ‘crowd mentality’. If a few people believe something, if they shout loud enough, sooner or later, more people will give their consent also.
Pontius Pilate is shown here to have spoken to the crowd on 3 occasions. In fact, there are 4 in total, but Luke tells us that this was the third time in succession. These verses are very, very similar to previous ones but the phrase that stands out is “What wrong has He done?”
He goes on to say that he can find no reason to agree to the demands of ‘Crucify Him’. Nothing that Jesus had said or done was in any way worthy of the death penalty. Pilate was very troubled and in John’s Gospel we read that he was afraid when the Jewish leaders told him that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Matthew also records something quite remarkable that isn’t found in Luke. He says that Pilate’s wife passed a message to him saying “Don’t have anything to do with this innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him.” When you put all that together, you see that Pilate was doing all he could to get this matter sorted without his involvement and didn’t want responsibility for anything that could happen.
I don’t know why this happened, because surely the death of Jesus was all in God’s plan and Pilate’s refusal to agree to the death would be counterproductive to this. It could be that Pilate’s stance was actually being like an incendiary to the Jews and was provoking them further to cry for Jesus’ death. Whatever the reason, we know that Pilate literally washed his hands of all involvement and continued to voice his own objection to the death of Jesus.
The more Pilate objected, the louder the crowd became and eventually we read a very, very sad phrase: ‘And their shouts began to prevail’. Mob rule seemed to seal Jesus’ fate but we know that this was no defeat for the King. This was just the beginning of the greatest victory the world has ever seen.
[/column]