John 19:1-11
Pilate gave orders for Jesus to be beaten with a whip. The soldiers made a crown out of thorn branches and put it on Jesus. Then they put a purple robe on him. They came up to him and said, "Hey, you king of the Jews!" They also hit him with their fists.
Once again Pilate went out. This time he said, "I will have Jesus brought out to you again. Then you can see for yourselves that I have not found him guilty." Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, "Here is the man!" When the chief priests and the temple police saw him, they yelled, "Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!”
Pilate told them, "You take him and nail him to a cross! I don't find him guilty of anything." The crowd replied, "He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Jewish Law says that he must be put to death." When Pilate heard this, he was terrified. He went back inside and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus did not answer. "Why won't you answer my question?"
Pilate asked. "Don't you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?" Jesus replied, "If God had not given you the power, you couldn't do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse."
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
A little boy of about kindergarten age was visiting his aunt’s home and wandered into the bathroom. He emerged a while later and told all of the adults, “I hear sumpin’ – do you hear sumpin’?” When the aunt went to investigate, the bathroom was filled with steam, and the bathtub was full of hot water. The little boy shrugged and said, “I don’t know how that happened. I didn’t touch the hot water!” Even at five years of age, he knew not to confess to the actual “crime,” but he was not savvy enough to know that his comment about the water temperature did in fact place him in hot water!
We have a bad habit of taking credit for things we shouldn’t – and denying those for which we are truly responsible. So it was that Pilate told Jesus that he alone could save Him from the cross, giving himself credit where none was due. At the same time, Judas’ betrayal of Jesus had set everything in motion. And while Judas may have recognized his part in this eventually, all he saw initially was thirty pieces of silver being tossed his way.
What does this all mean for us? I believe we fail to see the big picture, because we are looking only at the events right in front of us – or how we appear to be directly affected. So we take credit for things we shouldn’t. We puff ourselves up for acts of “service” and generosity – giving to charity, serving on committees at church, or being kind to our friends and neighbors. We say things like, “I decided to give to such-and-such,” or “I thought I’d better help Joe with that project,” or “I let it slide that Carol owed me $100… it’s the holidays, after all.” Where is God in these decisions? Where is the prayerful consideration that “God led me to teach a Sunday school class” or “I felt the LORD telling me to help Jim out with his bills”?
We take pride in knowing that we had options, and we exercised them in a “noble” way that is sure to please God and everyone else! In taking credit for more than we should, we often betray the God who numbers the very hairs on our head. We fail to recognize His power and authority in our life… and in essence, we deny His presence – if not His very existence. At the same time, we are quick to wash our hands of things when they don't go as we hoped. "That's not my problem," we will say. Just like Pilate, we say, "If others want to pursue this, they can... but I'm outta here!"
At this time of year when we are all excited about the Good News of the birth of Jesus, I think we would do well to consider for a moment how we treat Him. Do we acknowledge the power and presence of God in our lives with our words and actions… or do we sell him out for a bag of silver? Do we “take credit for hearing the bath water running, but deny touching the faucet handle that started the whole thing”? Do we honor Jesus for His sacrifices on our behalf and His continual grace and mercy?
We can’t have it both ways. Either we serve God faithfully and trust His decisions on our behalf, or we sell Him out and give ourselves more credit than we deserve for how things go in our lives – and blame Him when so often they don’t turn out as we hoped.
This is the perfect season in which to get our priorities straight – and fully acknowledge God’s presence. It’s time to recognize our weakness apart from Him – and His incredible power over the events of our lives. Where do you fit into this picture? Are you at times like Pilate, Judas... or both? Are you honoring Jesus in your daily living? Isn't it time you did?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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