Thoughts From Luke - Day 98

                                         Luke 23:12-25

That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.
¹³ Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, ¹⁴ and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. ¹⁵ Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. ¹⁶ Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”
¹⁸ But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!” ¹⁹ (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)
²⁰ Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. ²¹ But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
²² For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”
²³ But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. ²⁴ So Pilate decided to grant their demand. ²⁵ He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.


        It's amazing what peer pressure can make you do. From lynch mobs to riots, we can be influenced to do things we would never even consider doing on our own but somehow because other people are doing it, we participate without a second thought either to fit in or because if everyone else is doing it, it can't be wrong. Think of all the crimes done by the Nazis carried out by normal people who somehow turned a blind eye, and after the war were so horrified at what they had done that many committed suicide. It's easy to accuse them but I bet you have done some things, in groups, that you are ashamed of now, particularly when you were a teen. So before you judge people, like Pilate in this passage, for the things that they have done, remember that by the standard you judge people, you will be judged. I have heard it said, at judgement day, God wouldn't even need the Bible to judge us, He would just remove that invisible tape recorder that He has hanging around your neck, and judge you by the standards that you have judged other people. For me, as a teen, I became friends with a kid who liked to vandalize and steal. I joined in with him because he was my only friend, as my family had just moved to a new city. I did stand up against drinking, sex, smoking, and bad parties though, so I felt that I was a good Christian. It's funny how we see some sins as lesser so we can still consider ourselves good.

       What did Pilate do here? It appears that Pilate wanted to impress Herod and become his friend so he participated in some behavior that maybe normally he wouldn't do. He sentenced an innocent man to death and put a murderer back on the streets because of peer pressure. Legend has it that Pilate could no longer live with himself after what he had done so he killed himself. It appears from this passage and other gospel accounts that such a ruckus and uprising was occuring out in the streets that Pilate, wanting to appear to Herod like he had control of the people to impress him, ended the riot by doing the wrong thing. Herod, wanting to impress Pilate that he could treat people however he wanted, had Jesus beaten and dressed Jesus in mocking clothes. We are not talking about an average joe here, which would have been reprehensible in and of itself, but we are talking the Creator of the Universe, the one to whom Pilate and Herod owed their very existence, unjustly treated and executed due to peer pressure. On a side note, it's fascinating to see that God knows our weaknesses so well that He used them to accomplish His divine purposes. God knew that orchestrating the arrival of Herod, whom Pilate wanted to impress, at just the right time, would send Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Pilate wasn't a puppet used by God but a man, just like us, who desired to be accepted by his peers.

       How far will you go to fit in? How far will you go to be accepted? Just remember, later, when it's all on you and you take the fall for those behaviors, those people who you wanted to impress will be long gone. Do what's right. Impress God.