Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “True Greatness”
Our Bible verse for today: “So Pilate decided to grant their demand and released the one they were asking for, who had been thrown into prison for rebellion and murder. But he handed Jesus over to their will.” Luke 23:25 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Don’t be like Pilate.”
You’ve probably heard it said that we can learn from bad examples as well as from good examples. It’s true. Sometimes lessons are learned best by means of negative examples rather than positive ones. Pontius Pilate is a case in point.
Pilate was the governor in Jerusalem to whom the Jewish leaders brought Jesus after they arrested Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. After questioning Jesus to try to determine what the ruckus was all about, Pilate quickly realized that Jesus was innocent and should be released. He even said as much – more than once.
But the people and the leaders had already decided that they wanted Jesus to be crucified by the Romans and the more Pilate resisted them, the angrier the crowd became. Soon Pilate realized he had a potential riot on his hands and his thoughts turned from “What’s the right thing to do?” to “How can I get out of this?”
You know the story. Pilate gave into their demands. Even though he knew what was true and right, he didn’t have the strength of character or the integrity or the courage, to stand his ground and do the right thing. So he turned Jesus, whom he knew to be innocent, over to the Jews to be executed in a horrible fashion.
So, is Pilate remembered in history as a great man? No he isn’t. Even though he was a powerful Roman official in his day, and even though he did have the power of life and death over those under his authority, his legacy is that of having been a weakling.
Rejecting the moral high ground never produces good results over the long term. It may provide temporary relief from a difficult situation, but in the long run it will always do more harm than good. In Pilate’s case he lost what little respect the Jews and the other Roman authorities had for him, and within just a couple of years he ended up being removed from office and sent into exile anyway.
Truly great men and women of God consistently do what they know to be right, even if doing so isn’t easy and even if it isn’t popular. I want to encourage you today to make it a point to not to be like Pilate. Don’t give-in and take the path of least resistance just because it’s the easy thing to do. Have the strength of character, the integrity, the confidence, and the courage to do what you know to be right. Because that’s what great men and women of God do.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 