In the Church's past history, the leaders always seemed to blame the Jews for the death of Christ, but here's Pilate who turned Jesus over to the Roman soldiers for crucifixion, even though he knew that Jesus was brought to him NOT out of any wrong-doing on Jesus' part, but because of the 'envy of the leading priests) vs. 10. The fact is, is that Pilate had the chance to release an innocent man, and instead condemned Jesus, while releasing a known criminal ... under the persuasion of the religious leaders.
Christ died, out of not only the selfishness and short-sightedness of the Jews, but of the Gentiles as well. Public pressure at its worst.
I hate confrontation, I dislike arguments, and I'm worried way to many times about how my actions reflect on others perception of me. It's one of those things that I struggle with, and I think we all like to be 'liked', and well thought of by others. Intellectually I know that what matters is my relationship with my heavenly Father foremost. There are times that no matter what, we need to stand up for what is right. Actually it's most times. And this is the time that Pilate failed big time ... but we can take his character flaw, and strengthen ourselves, can't we?
We need to be strong enough in the word, in our faith and allow God's word to saturates us. When the world starts pull us away from the 'light' that we need to take a stand against the darkness. It's not just the darkness either, but standing up for our faith when the opportunity rises.
I was at a company retreat, and the big question is "What do you believe in?" It was on how our beliefs dictate why we work with intellectually challenged individuals. I gave my testimony to 20 co-workers that day. Was I scared, heck ya ... I'm definitely not a door-to-door evangelist, but after that people knew where I stood, and respected my position.. It was also a blatant opportunity that God had opened for me.
May you be strong, and courageous, not bending to the world, but being strong in the word.
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