Pilate's Dilemma

The title of the main message is Pilate's Dilemma. Pilate's Dilemma. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them again to Luke chapter 23. We're going to read verses 13 through 25. Luke 23 verses 13 through 25 as we come once again to another pre-crucifixion moment, an event, and a portion of Scripture here just before Christ's crucifixion. Now, before reading, let me just set the stage here for a moment because we now have before us, Pilate. He is the Roman governor of that time, and I believe he has now come upon a crossroad of his life. And perhaps it's the crossroad of his life as he's now confronted with the Son of God himself, Jesus Christ, and he finds himself having to make a decision. And we're going to see today he's in a dilemma. This one is before him who he's heard about, whom he's acknowledged is innocent.

He's heard his claims as Messiah, the Son of God. But at the same time, there's now this evil opposing force and fury and a crowd, and their cry is, crucify him. So again, before him now, as he's having to make a decision, will Pilate be courageous enough and brave enough to stand up for what is right, to acknowledge Jesus Christ's true identity as the Son of God, brave enough, courageous enough to execute justice, true justice, believing who Jesus is and release him as innocent? Or will he succumb to the evil cries of the crowd? And this is going to shine a bright light onto Pilate and his moral and personal compromises. And just let me state right up here at front, in case I failed to state it later, what we have before us here, even though it's miles and miles away from us today, where it occurred, even though it's years and years and years from where we are today, I propose that we are at the same crossroad today, you and I, where we must now be confronted with a reckoning of who Jesus is, a consideration of his claims, a belief, a belief in what he taught and what the scriptures teach about who he is. In this moment with Pilate, we find that there is an honest examination that's called for from you and I today, the examination of whether we will have the resolve to stand up for Jesus Christ, as we heard in the special music, our hero, the Savior of the world. Will we answer the call to bow to his authority, no matter the pressure? This was Pilate's dilemma It's our dilemma today. Luke 23. Look at, let's begin in verse 13. Luke is going to record how this whole dilemma unfolds and it's a, it is a study in human nature. Let me tell you here. Luke 23 verse 13, then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, Pilate said to them, you have brought this man, Jesus, to me as one who misleads the people. And indeed, Pilate says, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault with this man concerning those things with which you accuse him. No, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him and release him, for it was necessary for him to release one of them at the feast. And they all cried out at once, saying, away with this man, Jesus, and release, or free, to us, Brabbas, who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.

Verse 20, Pilate therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them, but they shouted, saying, Crucify him, Crucify him, Jesus. Then he, Pilate, said to them a third time, Why? What evil has he done? I have found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go. But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices, that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested, and he, Pilate, released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison. And he delivered, but he delivered Jesus to their will. Let's stop there. This is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Pilate said there in verse 14, very clearly, I examined him, and I have found no fault in him, he says. Isn't that interesting? I found no fault in him. And just so you know, this is very clear at this moment. It really wasn't Pilate examining Jesus, but in fact, this is Jesus examining Pilate here. And it's the same with us. You know, week in, week out, we do come to Sabbath services, and we put forth an honest examination of Jesus Christ, an examination of the Word of God and what it says about Jesus. Absolutely, and as it should be. But we also acknowledge that, in fact, it is Jesus Christ examining us. We are the ones being examined.

And one of the things that we see here is that Pilate is in this battle. And I'll tell you, it's not necessarily a battle in its essence between Pilate and the crowd. What we find here, essentially, is it's a battle with Pilate with himself, isn't it? A battle within himself. And we see frustration. We see anger. We see fear welling up in him in this moment. And with that, I hope, my hope is that you connect with Pilate today after this study, more so than you ever connected with Pilate. It's kind of an unusual statement to say, we want to connect with Pilate today. But we do, because we should be asking, where am I in this exchange?

Where am I in this experience of what Pilate's going through? Now, initially, here's the examination of human nature. Pilate tried to push off this decision away from himself and to Herod. If you allow your eyes to go up to verse 6 and 7 here, we see this attempt of Pilate just to get rid of the responsibility here of making a decision. Chapter 23 here, verse 6 and 7, it's recorded, when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if this man were Galilean, and as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

So, I'm good, you know, I'm going to wash my hands of this. Unfortunately, Herod sends him right back. Look at verses 9 through 12. Then he, verse 9, that's Herod, questioned Jesus with many words, but he answered him nothing. Jesus didn't answer any of the questions, and the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then Herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt. They treated Jesus with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate.

And we know more details of this. It was just an absolute mockery, the crown of thorns and such. Verse 12, that very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. So, let's stop there. So, Herod here sends Jesus back to Pilate, and they become alliances.

This is an unholy union here, united in their hatred of Jesus. So, he sends him back to Pilate, and I'll tell you the clock is ticking louder and louder and louder at this point. Pilate's going to have to make a decision. The cries are getting louder and more insistent here. Inevitably, Pilate's wondering, what am I going to do? What am I going to do with this man, Jesus of Nazareth? And just so you know, as a Roman, Pilate would have actually been partial or in favor for true justice, true law and justice. And Pilate would have had a Roman dislike of anything injustice or gross injustice. And since he didn't like injustice, we see the fact that he was moved to free Jesus of this charge.

And so interesting, along with that inner urge, we actually find that Pilate's wife was also urging Pilate to not have anything to do with this mockery of a trial here. Let me show you this. It's just so interesting. All the human nature parts of this. Turn back to Matthew 27 verse 19, and I'll show you this. Matthew 27 verse 19, we see Matthew adds a fascinating detail about Pilate's wife in this.

Matthew 27 verse 19, when he, Matthew records, when he Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, have nothing to do with that just man. Speaking of Jesus. For I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. Let's stop there. So interesting. Pilate's wife was having these unsettling dreams. And so she sends word to her husband and says, don't have anything to do with that sham of a trial. Advises her husband to have nothing to do with it. There in verse 19 again, have nothing to do with that just man. So no doubt those dreams were a gracious act sent by God to Pilate's wife to help Pilate be urged to the right decision.

You will find when you're in these dilemma moments and you're having an inner struggle to between doing what's right and in which you know is right, but you're being pulled to the other way, you will find that there's people in your life that God will send you people, he'll send you circumstances to urge you in the right direction. Look for that. God's very gracious. And I think this is what's happening here.

But this is a dilemma because you notice the very next verse, the opposition is there. Verse 20 here, but the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for, Barabbas and destroy Jesus. So this is great pressure. And this is very difficult. You know, you can be a little sympathetic to Pilate. He's the Roman governor. He's presiding over the territory. He's responsible for this whole jurisdiction, responsible for maintaining order, responsible for quelling any civil disruption while maintaining justice. And so Herod, he knew, he found no guilt in Jesus. What a dilemma. And going back to Luke 23, verse 14 and 15 here, back to Luke 23, verse 14 and 15 again, there at the end of verse 14, Pilate says, chapter 13, middle of verse 14, you have brought me this man as one who misleads the people.

And indeed, I've examined him in your presence. Again, he directly says, I found no fault with this man concerning the things which you accuse him. No, neither did Herod. Herod found no fault with him either. So for I sent you back to him and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. Let's stop there, okay. But despite this, you know, verse 21, the cries are there. Verse 21, crucify him. Crucify him. Such a moment here, a difficult moment. And, you know, again, we want to bring this to our experience today. This is not, if you're honest with yourself, if I'm honest with myself, an unfamiliar dilemma.

What decision or decisions are before you today? What dilemma are you being faced with? Where you can relate to this. You know what to do is right, but what emotion is also entering into your experience? Fear, uncertainty, the desire to take it into your own hands rather than faith in God.

Deep down, you know what to do is right, but the difficulty is there.

So what is Pilate going to do? What is he going to do? What would you do? You know, Pilate had been, he had faced these kind of crowds before, but the dilemma comes in the fact that this is an innocent man. This is an innocent man. That's what makes this unique here. Pilate sees no crime in what Jesus has committed here, and he's about to lose the battle here, and he's going to allow the opportunity to stand up for Jesus to pass by him. And we see that he loses the battle here. Verse 23, it's very stark. Verse 23, we're at the end of verse 23, we read, the voices of these men and the chief priests prevailed, prevailed.

And it would be logical to think that this is the moment that he lost the battle, but I propose that the battle was lost long before this moment, long before this moment. And I propose that if you look at the narrative, you can actually see that Pilate lost the battle much earlier in this exchange, because I want you to notice something. Initially, when he gathered everyone together, as Pilate is going to make this declaration that Jesus is innocent, that he is innocent. Look at verse 13 and 14 again.

Very clear. Verse 13, Pilate, he had called everyone together, chief priests, rulers, people. Here he's feeling strong and doing what is right. Verse 14, he said to them, You have brought me this man as one who misleads the people, and indeed I've examined him in your presence. I have found no fault in this man concerning the things which you accuse him of. And then he builds on this statement. Verse 15, Neither did Herod, for I sent him back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. So far, so good. And this crowd at this moment must have been anticipating Pilate to say, therefore, because there is no basis to this charge, and Herod didn't find any basis of this charge, I therefore release him and set him free. He is innocent. That's what he should have said. But they could not have believed their ears when in verse 16 he says, I will therefore chastise him and release him. What? What is this? Chastise him? He's innocent. He should have said, this trial is dismissed. Clear my courtroom. Clear out of my courtroom. I'm setting Jesus free. But no, rather, instead of following through his convictions, doing what is right, he allows himself to be caught up in the discussion. He allows himself to get into this discourse of this bloodthirsty crowd, this immoral crowd, and he capitulates to them. He bends to them. He compromises with them. He caters to them. I will therefore chastise him and release him.

What this tells us is we can never compromise, not even slightly, to evil. When evil presents itself to us, we can never compromise. And I believe this is the moment he lost the battle. He cracked open the door to sin and evil. And often, this is where the battle is lost. The small compromises before the grand act of sin. You know this in your particular experiences. I don't have to tell you this. Every act, definitive act of sin, always has a buildup. It always has a buildup. And those small compromises, allowing you to be in the... you allowed yourself to be in that situation. You allowed yourself to get close to the line. It's a small, dabbling, capitulating that will lead to the action and activity of full sin. And it's in those moments, those small moments, no doubt, Satan is taking note. And he's thinking, ah, I got him. I got her.

And so, predictably, verse 18, now they all cried out at once. Verse 18, away with this man and released to his parabbas. You know, set him free, who had been there for murder. It's unbelievable. And you know, you see the human nature of Pilate even more. This is another compromise that we can make. You know, there in verse 17, we see that Pilate was going to use what was customary of the time during the feast, the Passover and the feast of Lev and Bread. It was accustomed to tradition to let one of the criminals free. So he thought to himself, I can now rest upon tradition, and that will remove me from the responsibility of making, of standing up for justice. Right?

I can just now ease into doing what is right.

You know, God's going to ask us to do what's right every time. Don't rest upon other circumstances at all. Make it easier for it. Stand up to it. You know who Jesus is. Stand up for him. No compromises at all. So release Brabbas. Set him free.

So again, this is the moment. We see these moments in which Pilate is losing the battle, not standing firm, committing to do what is right here. So again, chapter 23, verses 20 through 22, we see a second and third attempt by Pilate. I mean, he is really struggling here. Verse 20, Pilate therefore wishing to release Jesus. That was in his heart. His consciousness is pricking him. He called out to them, but they shouted saying, Crucify him, Crucify him. Then a third time, he said to them a third time, Why? Why? What evil has he done? I have found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go here. I have found no reason. Why? I found no reason for death in him. Verse 22. But even this is another compromise. You'll notice this is a full review of human nature. So we need to learn from this. It's a move from verse 14. You notice in verse 14, in the early discourse, he says, I have found no fault in this man. But here in verse 22, I have found no reason for death in him. In other words, well, I don't think he should die, you know. So the weakening here, wearing down, is happening.

Let's just chastise him. We don't have to kill him. We don't have to put him to death. Will that satisfy you, the crowd? Negotiating with evil. Can you imagine? And, you know, probably thinking this chastisement may induce some sympathy on the part of the evil crowd that they might compromise with him and at least spare him from death. I think probably that's what he's seeking to do here. But, you know, we need to realize what Pilate is actually proposing here. I'll just scourge him, chastise him, and then let him go. This is no small proposal. If you look at the historical records of scourging or chastisement, they often called it a pre-death death. That's how horrible it was. I won't get into the details, but they would have this individual in the scourging or chastisement. They're in the praetorium. They would tie his hands behind his back on a pole, administer all kinds of punishments through different implements. The chastisement was sometimes so brutal that the individual died before even the crucifixion could take place. I find no basis of charge. He's innocent. Why don't we go ahead and chastise him and then let him go? For what? Why chastise him in that way? For healing the death? For restoring the eyes of the blind? For strengthening the legs of the crippled? For bringing the deceased son back to his widow mother? On what basis do you abuse him in this way? And again, you know, Herod, in sending him back to Pilate, was absolutely evil. They put a crown of thorns on his head, arrayed him in a robe, bowed down to him, held king of the Jews as a mockery there. It makes you just want to turn your eyes away from the text. This is the loving Creator who spoke his creation into existence. It's in our hymn. It's in our hymn.

When I look up into heavens, in which thine own fingers framed, unto the moon and unto the stars, which were by thee ordained, then I say, what is man that thou should be mindful of him? Or what is the son of man that thou so kind to him should be?

Well, this was the proposal of Pilate. We need to win these victories early in the process. And again, the saddest phrase of this whole exchange is there in verse 23. Again, where it says, the voices of these men, verse 23, and of the chief priests, prevailed. Verse 24, so Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. Verse 25, and Pilate released to them the one they requested, that's Barabbas, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison, and but he delivered Jesus to their will.

So Jesus would now take the place and punishment for the guilty Barabbas.

I'll repeat that. Jesus would now take the place and punishment for the guilty Barabbas. He would take the place of the sinner and take on the punishment that he deserved, which, of course, is the refrain of the gospel, the whole of the gospel. Jesus Christ stepped into the place of us, sinners, took on the punishment for us, death, so that we could be opened up to life, life eternal for us and all of humanity.

So we see the very gospel in this beautiful act of Jesus Christ. And he did this for Barabbas. He did it for Pilate. And he did it for you and I today. So again, this is not so much the trial of Jesus. This is the trial of Pilate. And it's our trial today. And as we put ourselves in Pilate's experience, we ask not only what would we do, but what will we do from this point forward.

I can testify to you today that if you will stand up for Jesus Christ through all the dilemmas that we face in this life, he will stand up for you. And he will be with you through it all.

And he will even come closer to us in these moments.

And he'll be there with us. He'll come even closer and help us through to help us do what's right.

He'll send us circumstances. He'll send us loving individuals to help us in these decisions. If you're in a dilemma such as this, invite him in.

Perhaps it's a dilemma with a brother or sister or a family member that needs healing. Invite him in. Perhaps it's a sin that you've had difficulty overcoming. Invite him in.

And he will be there for you. Well, as we conclude, let me just say, Jesus stands in the court of Pilate here, waiting for Pilate to make a decision. But one day, Pilate will stand at the court of Jesus Christ. And one day, we will stand at the court of Jesus Christ. Jesus will not be a mere governor. Oh no. Jesus will stand before us as King of Kings. So may that day come where we, having shown standing strong for him through all the dilemmas, where in the end, may we be found to stand strong for Jesus Christ always.