It Was My Sin
“‘What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’
’Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’”
Today’s Text: Matthew 27:1-26 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
Pilate had absolutely no concern for whether Jesus was innocent or not. And he certainly was not innocent of Jesus’s blood. He knew that Jesus was going to die no matter what he did. But he wanted to prevent the “uproar” from getting out of hand.
Pilate was playing a game with the Jewish leaders. He hated them. He knew that jealousy and pride were driving them to condemn Jesus. So he was just poking at their hypocrisy as far as he could before having to resort to violence.
Pilate was a violent governor. He had no qualms about using violence to subdue a riot. He had done it before. However, we know that his political backer in Rome had been assassinated, and so he himself was walking on thin ice. He couldn’t afford to give the powers in Rome any reason to fire him as governor or worse. And so Pilate was perfectly fine with releasing a known insurrectionist. Perhaps Jesus Barabbas would rebel again and give Pilate a justifiable reason for using violence once again.
The crowd, for their part, obviously had no concern for whether Jesus was innocent or not. In their hearts, he was guilty of shaming them, and that was enough to warrant His crucifixion.
And by demanding that Pilate release Jesus Barabbas, their message to him was, “Give us the insurrectionist, because we hate you, and we will always rise up against you and be a pain in your side.”
They were both playing this game of “I hate you-no, I hate you more” with the life of an innocent man—actually, the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Why did Jesus have to go to the cross? Sin, yes. But when we consider why God hates sin so much, we realize it’s because, when push comes to shove, our hearts betray that we have little concern for the life of an innocent victim.
Oh, we do have concern for the life of an innocent victim if that story is entertaining enough, and the victim is skillfully portrayed as “me-myself-and-I.” Do we have more compassion for fictional characters than we do for actual human beings? Do we really have concern for the lives of the thousands of innocent victims that die every year?
If we can be perfectly honest, we don’t. And we don’t, because we don’t know them. But God knows every single one.
Again, every sin we hold in our heart is like a snowflake that adds to a snowball rolling down a mountain getting larger and larger until it becomes an avalanche of destruction and death. We must never maintain ourselves as innocent of Jesus’s death because our sins are “small.” Every sin we hold in our heart leads to the blood of Abel crying out from the ground (Genesis 4:10).
Behold the Man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
And it is finished. For Pilate and the Jewish leaders, Jesus’s life was inconsequential. And yet, His death brings the forgiveness of sins and life to many.
Father, You know every single one of us. You know me inside and out, beginning and end. And You are mindful of every human ever born. We cannot comprehend it. And so we cannot comprehend Your compassion and love. We cannot comprehend how much Your heart breaks because of the sin in our lives. Forgive us. Forgive me. But thank You for being mindful of me, and the humble state of Your servant. Help me to understand Your love more. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
