Scripture

‘When Pilate realized that a riot was about to break out and that it was useless to try to reason with the crowd, he sent for a basin of water. After washing his hands in front of the people, he said, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man. The responsibility for his death is now yours!” 

~Matthew 27:24, TPT

Quote

When it comes to the death of Christ, only the truly innocent are innocent; the rest of us are guilty.

~Ya’akov

I believe there are some that are innocent such as a baby or a person with some form of mental retardation but the rest of our guilty. Pilate was under the illusion that he could wash his hands and be free of guilty but it does not work that way. Although Pilate had nothing personal against Jesus, his weakness and fear caused him to cave to the pressure and he choose to do the politically correct thing instead of the right thing. Even more amazing is the religious leaders involved in the conspiracy to crucify Jesus. Their immediate retort to Pilate was, “Let His blood be on us and our children.” This may be the greatest debacle in the history of human speech. These fools spoke a curse on themselves and their children. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the Jews have suffered since.

There is a very interesting passage in Acts 5…“Didn’t we [Sanhedrin] strictly warn you that you were to never again teach in this name? But instead you have now filled all of Jerusalem with this doctrine and are committed to holding us responsible for this man’s death!” Wow, what an about face, had they not said just weeks earlier, “Let His blood be on us and our children.” Why have they changed their position on the death of Christ? J. I. Packer believes that even vile depraved men like the Jewish religious leaders have a conscious and deep down all men fear accountability to God. I don’t know if he is right or not, I do know they changed their tune and began denying any responsibility in Christ’s death. Sorry guys, it does not work that way. We are guilty; confess your guilt and repent. As Peter told them, “You killed the Prince of Life! But God raised Him from the dead. I realize that neither you nor your leaders knew what you were doing. In spite of all you have done, there is forgiveness but you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins can be forgiven.” {Acts 3:15-19, paraphrase} Doing the wrong thing in ignorance is no excuse: we are still guilty.

I think about Jesus prayer on the cross a lot…“Father forgive them…they do not know what they are doing.“ No truer words have ever been spoken.

Extra

It looks like another beautiful day. Maybe I’ll be able to stick a few tomatoes before the day is done. I think Spring is over and the heat is coming. Thank You Jesus for A.C. I think Thursday is the travel day for the Guatemala team. As far as I know, everything has gone well. Josh communicates with me some but everyone has gone silent. No news is good news sometimes.

I hope you have a good day and a great week. Holidays go by in a hurry, don’t they.

I did attend the Memorial Day service at Roselawn. About 100 people there and this year we had only two mothers. Jon Eriks mom was one of them. I spoke to her briefly.