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"I Find No Fault In This Man."
LUKE 23:13-26.--MARCH
17.
HAVING gone through the form of a trial, a
mockery of justice--the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees, with a
multitude of their retainers and servants, a clamoring mob, led Jesus to
Pilate, while it was still early in the morning. (John
18:28.) But they remained in the court-yard while Jesus was led alone
to the judgment hall, probably by a court attendant or a sentry, the Jews
declining to enter because so doing would make them ceremonially unclean, and
hinder their observance of the Passover feast which would begin that same
night. What a curious blending this shows us of cleanness and uncleanness! How
exact they were to a jot and tittle about matters of minor importance, and how utterly
lost to all sense of heart-purity and love, the real essence of the divine law!
We who are of spiritual Israel need to be on guard against such a development
of outward religious ceremony and formalism, carefulness and purity, which
might be accompanied by a blackness of heart and utter absence of holiness and
love for righteousness. As a matter of fact, these chief religionists among the
Jews were murderers at heart, from the divine standpoint, while careful of the
outward ceremonies of their religion. Let us not be like unto them.
It was an unusual thing to accuse one of their
countrymen before a Roman governor. It was customary, on the contrary, from
them to seek to hide their faults and to secure acquittal, or at least as much
leniency as possible. Therefore, these prominent men of the nation had no
question but what Pilate would immediately assent to their demand, and crucify
Jesus. They seem to have been surprised that he should inquire respecting the
facts of the case, or show an interest in giving justice--especially in
protecting a Jew from the wrath of his countrymen, particularly the leaders of
his nation. When, therefore, Pilate inquired, "What accusation bring ye
against this man?" they answered him, "If he were not a malefactor we
would not have delivered him up unto thee." Pilate then dismissed the
matter as one of Jew against Jew, and not of Jew against Caesar, saying,
"Take ye him, and judge him according to your law." (John
18:29,31.) But the Jews replied, "It is not lawful for us to put
any man to death." The Roman government had taken away from the Jewish
Sanhedrin the power of capital punishment, and nothing short of Jesus' death
was in their minds.
They had failed to have Pilate's speedy
endorsement of their condemnation, regardless of justice, and now they must put
their plea upon another ground-- they must formulate a charge, and it must be
such a charge as would appeal to the Roman governor. They well knew that their
condemnation of Jesus for having said that he was a Son of God would be nothing
in the estimation of Pilate; hence, after condemning Jesus unjustly for
blasphemy, they made before Pilate a new charge, of three counts: (1)
Sedition--disturbing the peace; (2) that he interfered with the collection of
the Roman taxes; (3) that he himself claimed to be a king, and was thus an
antagonist of Caesar.
Pilate quickly saw the true state of the case; viz., that "through envy the chief priests had delivered Jesus" and
condemned him, and not through any new-found love for Caesar and his
government; and leaving the multitude of accusers in the court Pilate went into
the judgment hall, where Jesus stood, and questioned him, "Art thou the
King of the Jews?" (John 18:33.) The
whole matter must have seemed very ridiculous to Pilate, who, we must remember,
was neither Christian nor Jew, but a heathen man, in whose judgment all the
hopes of Israel respecting Messiah would be absurdities on a plane with the
chimerical hopes of the various nations the world over. He perceived that the
person before him was a remarkable one, and the answer of Jesus led only to
greater perplexity, for he told him that his Kingdom was not of the present
time and order, but a future one, and that he had come to bear witness to this
truth. Pilate found himself getting only deeper into problems which he could
not comprehend, and suddenly broke off the conversation with the question:
"What is truth?"--without waiting for or expecting an answer, as tho
he would say, Yes, yes; we hear of truth, justice and equity, but what is it,
and where is it to be found? Who shall determine what is the right? Are you
right, or am I, here the representative of Rome, in the right, and authority,
or are those Jews who are clamoring for your death in the right? What is truth?
It is too perplexing a question for us to discuss further.
Pilate, however, had made up his mind definitely
that there was no danger whatever to the Roman Empire from the meek and lowly
person whom he had interviewed --he was surely not an anarchist, not an
insurrectionist of any kind. He could do no harm in the world, and even if his
teachings respecting his own heavenly origin and kingship were baseless and the
product of an unbalanced mind, nevertheless the individual himself was no
menace to Rome. And thus he expressed himself in the words of our Golden Text:
"I find no fault in this man." (Luke 23:4.)
And Pilate's decision has been the decision of all honorable, fair-minded
people throughout the world from his day [R2785
: page 103] to the present, irrespective of religious prejudices. Whatever
fault has been found has been against those professed followers who have taken
his name--in vain: those who have claimed to be his followers, but who have not
followed him, but have rather gone contrary to his teachings in many ways.
These have brought dishonor often upon the sacred name, but as for Jesus, the
world today declares with Pilate, "We find no fault in this man."
Yea, the world loves to quote many of his blessed sayings, and many wish for a
government built upon the principles of righteousness which he enunciated, even
tho many who thus proclaim are unwilling to be guided by his precepts.
The Jewish leaders were chagrined with Pilate's
decision, and began to argue the points and to attempt to prove that the
teachings of Jesus were calculated to arouse a revolution amongst the people;
that already in Galilee it had great influence, and now he was coming to Jerusalem,
etc. True, the Lord's teachings were revolutionary as respected religious
matters; but the charge was not true in the sense they wished Pilate to understand,
that he was a breeder of a political revolution. And this is a good point for
all of the Lord's followers to note: we, like our Lord, stand committed to a
revolution amongst God's people on the lines of true religious worship,
heart-obedience to the Lord, etc., but we, like our Lord, have nothing whatever
to do with political revolutions. We know that such are coming in the Lord's
own time and way, but we battle not with carnal weapons, as he did not; but as
he did, so do we, wait for the Kingdom which God will establish in his own time
and way--we wait for the expiration of "the times of the Gentiles,"
when, as God has foreordained and forearranged, the Kingdoms of this [R2786 : page 103] world will give place to,
and be superseded by the Kingdom of God, in which, by the Lord's grace, we
trust to have a part.
The mention of Galilee suggested to Pilate's
mind a way of escape from his dilemma, without either doing an injustice toward
Jesus or unduly arousing the enmity of the Jewish leaders; he would solve the
difficulty by referring the case to Herod, who was then in Jerusalem. This was
the same Herod who beheaded John the Baptist (the son of Herod the great who
slew the infants at the time of our Lord's birth), the same one who, hearing of
Jesus, speculated that possibly he was John the Baptist risen from the dead. We
read that "When Herod saw Jesus he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous
to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he
hoped to have seen some miracle done by him." (Luke
23:8.) Herod questioned Jesus with many words, but got no reply. Our
Lord was not there in self-defence, nor to plead his cause, nor to seek to
escape the penalty for our sins, but the reverse. His silence under all the
circumstances was the wisest and most dignified course. Herod sought for
amusement as from a sleight-of-hand performer, and was undoubtedly surprised
and disappointed that his kingly curiosity and questions were ignored. However,
he and his court would have some amusement, so the soldiers were given the
opportunity to mock the kingly aspirations of Jesus, doing mock homage, and
then insulting him. Herod returned Jesus to Pilate for judgment.
The Jewish notables and the rabble, clamoring
for justice and the vindication of Roman law in the death of Jesus, again
filled the court of Pilate's palace, and Pilate came forth and addressed them
in the words of our lesson, declaring Jesus innocent of any criminal conduct,
but announcing that in view of the commotion and clamor raised against him he
would cause him to be scourged and that this should be considered a settlement
of his case. Evidently the scourging of Jesus was an act of mercy on Pilate's
part, by which he hoped to satisfy the bloodthirsty clamor of the accusers, yet
it was unavailing, and merely caused our Lord additional suffering. The
multitude cried out the more, "Crucify him!" Pilate's next subterfuge
was to propose that since it was his custom to release one prisoner at this season
of the year he would release Jesus at this time, and thus satisfy them in a
double sense of the word; first, by considering him guilty, and secondly, by
his release. But murder was in the hearts of those professedly religious
people. They were blinded to justice as well as to mercy by the selfishness of
their own hearts, for their enmity to Jesus was based simply and purely upon
the fact that he and his teachings were discounting them and their teachings
before the people.
It is well that we should note that selfishness
lies at the foundation of almost every sin and every crime, that is and ever
has been committed. Let us, as the Lord's people, be specially on guard against
this insidious evil, which is ours by heredity, and which needs to be destroyed,
eradicated, and to be supplanted with love, as the governing impulse of our
hearts and lives--love, which thinketh no evil, which is not puffed up, which
seeketh not her own advantage at the expense of justice to the interest of
others. We are not, however, to think of these Pharisees, scribes and priests
as wilfully, knowingly, intentionally, crucifying the Son of God. They would
not have been so bold! On the contrary, the Apostle assures us that it was in
ignorance that they did it. (Acts 3:17; 1 Cor. 2:8.) an inexcusable ignorance, we may
say, or at least, an only partly excusable ignorance, because it was the result
of prejudice, which in turn was the fruit of selfishness. [R2786 : page 104]
The priests, etc., felt that matters were
getting desperate, and they must bring to bear upon Pilate every influence they
could; hence their intimation that if he would not crucify Jesus they would
report him to Caesar at Rome as being a friend of traitors against Roman
authority--an enemy of the Emperor. This was a forceful argument, and Pilate
realized it. Were such a report to be sent to Rome, signed by the leading
officials of the Jewish nation, it would not be without weight, and the
authorities there would wonder, at least, why the life of any poor, obscure
individual would be spared to the alienation of the leading men of the nation
and at the risk of an insurrection. Pilate decided that the only reasonable and
proper course for him to pursue would be to let the Jews have their way; and
taking a pitcher of water he washed his hands in their sight, as a symbol of
his own disagreement with the death-decree which they were compelling him to
render. His words were, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see
ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be upon us and upon
our children."--Matt. 27:24.
Remembering that Pilate was neither a Jew nor a
Christian, but a heathen man, we cannot condemn him as others have done.
Rather, indeed, we must commend him as being a man who loved justice and sought
to mete it out, and who yielded to injustice only after he had made every
effort to stem the tide of contrary influences when it would have been easy for
him to have curried favor with the officials by quickly assenting to the death
of a person of no political influence. It is to be noticed, too, that the
apostles do not implicate either Pilate or the civil authorities, but held
responsible the Jews and their leaders (Acts 2:23),
and that God has held that people responsible is evident from the history of
the past eighteen centuries, in which their prayer has been answered: his blood
has been upon them and their children. Thank God, his Word does not imply that
divine wrath, even against these guilty persons, will be manifested and
exercised through an eternity of torture by devils, but rather, as the Apostle
intimates, God's wrath came upon them to the uttermost in the troubles which
befell them as a nation and people. (1 Thess. 2:16.)
Soon the wrath is to be turned away and the commission of the Prophet already
is due to begin, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people: speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her appointed time is accomplished, for she
hath received at the Lord's hands double for all her sins."--Isa. 40:1,2, margin.
Jesus was now delivered over to Pilate's
soldiers, to be made ready for crucifixion, and they, heartless and brutal, as
we might expect, made sport of the Master's adversities. Putting upon him a
cast-off royal robe and a crown of thorns, they jeered him upon his claim to
kingship, without a surmise, of course, of who he really was, and how he is yet
to be a King upon the holy hill Zion, to whose sceptre every knee shall bow and
to whom every tongue must confess. It will be a surprised awakening to them
some day, when they amongst others shall come forth from the dead to find
Messiah's Kingdom established, and to realize that he exercised mercy toward his
enemies, and that his death prepared the way for the blessing of themselves and
all the families of the earth with an opportunity to come to a knowledge of God
and of his righteous requirements, and thus, if obedient, unto life
everlasting.
It was probably about this time that Pilate's
wife sent word to him respecting the dream she had, about Jesus, and
admonishing him to have nothing to do with his condemnation. And so Pilate, as
a last resort, brought Jesus forth, clothed in the purple robe of mock royalty,
and with the crown of thorns, and presented him to the people with the words,
"Behold the Man!" As tho he would say: Is it possible that you Jews
are seeking the death of this innocent man, the noblest and best specimen of
your race, indeed of the entire human race? Would not a final look at him
appeal to your hearts and melt them? If I, a Roman, ignorant of your religion
and regardless in general of all religion, have a pity and a sympathy and a
sense of justice, is it possible that you are so unmerciful, while claiming to
be the most religious people on earth? Behold the Man! Do you still insist that
he be crucified? Then the priests cried out, not only that he ought to die
because of being an enemy to the Roman Empire, but because he had taught that he
was the Son of God,-- thus appealing to the Jews that he was a blasphemer, one
whom God commanded them in the Law to destroy.
Pilate was the more afraid when he heard that
Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and again sought an interview with him; but
Jesus' answer was, "Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it
were given thee from above"--permitted of the Father. Pilate could do no
more; even Jesus himself assented, and claimed that it was in the divine order
that he should die. Pilate signed the death sentence.-- John
19:4-11.
There is a lesson for us in these words of our
Lord, respecting the Father's permission of all that happened to him. We
who are members of his body are counted in with him as under divine
supervision, so that in all of our affairs all things are guaranteed to work
together for our good while walking in his footsteps. This is the ground of our
confidence in all the various trying circumstances of life. This it is that
gives the peace of God which passeth all understanding, ruling in our [R2786 : page 105] hearts, not only subduing
self and enabling us to submit ourselves to the will of God, but permitting us
even to rejoice in tribulation, knowing that under divine providence,
and that rightly received, it will work out for us a far more exceeding and an
eternal weight of glory.--2 Cor. 4:17 .
W.T. R-2785a : page 102 - 1901r