“And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go,” (Luke 23:22).
How often are we backed into a position of choice between taking our stand alone with Christ or succumbing to the jeering crowd making a mockery of our God? At this mock trial of Christ before the people, with Pilate occupying the judge’s seat, he finds himself in a similar predicament. He must either condemn this Jew whom he believes to be innocent or identify himself as an enemy of Caesar. That is precisely the choice put to him by the religious leaders who initially brought Jesus to Pilate, “He that makes himself a king as this man does is an enemy to Caesar, and if you let him go, you are not Caesar’s friend,” (John 19:12).
Pilate is afraid of either choice and would happily spare both Jesus and Barabbas, but that choice is not an option. And so, he chooses to spare himself rather than Jesus. The religious leaders brought Christ to trial out of envy (Matt. 27:18), and Pilate delivers him over to the executioners out of fear. Pronouncing Christ’s innocence and publicly washing his hands of his blood guiltiness only serves to secure his own eternal condemnation, for innocence either absolves the prisoner or condemns the judge. To say, “Take him and crucify him,” and yet, “I find no fault in the man,” (John 19:6; Luke 23:14) turns the point of Pilate’s sword into his own heart and makes the bench the bar.
With his wife’s dream and our Savior’s confession on the one side (Matt. 27:19), and the people’s willful violence and the threat of being identified as Caesar’s enemy on the other, Pilate’s soul is bound for destruction. How soon does he discover that his own conscience is a worse enemy than Caesar? Guilt at once kindles in the heart both shame and horror (Matt. 27:24), and it is so fierce a fire that the basin of water before him cannot put it out. For what can a little water in a bowl or even Jordan’s floods do toward washing those stained hands that had the power to release innocence and yet chose not to (John 19:10)?
Pilate tries to shut his eyes so he cannot see his own heart, to make himself believe that he can wash away all the guilt of such an unjust sentence. The hypocrite in the end deceives not so much the world as himself, and at last God leaves him to think that he can deceive him too. But neither water on the hands of Pilate nor the feet of Judas, though administered by the hands of our Savior himself, can wash the guilt from a heart that is foul. The hand without the heart is nothing more than an altar without a sacrifice, or a sacrifice without fire (1 Kings 18).
For nothing can wash away the guilt of this blood but the merit of the same (Heb. 9:22) without which all Pilate’s washing was in vain, regardless of how boldly he declares, “I am free from the blood of this just man, see you to it,” (Matt. 27:24). Solomon rightly says that God made man upright, but he has sought out many inventions (Eccl. 7:29), not the least of which is how to hide the stains and shift the guilt of our sins. Even Adam, when called to account for his actions by God, shuffles the responsibility from himself to Eve, and then ultimately to God, “the woman that you gave me, gave me of the tree and I did eat,” (Gen. 3:12).
Pilate would gladly be free from the blood of the innocent Christ, so not only does he wash his hands, but he says of himself, “I am free.” But a basin of water from the local spring can do nothing to free us from the stain of sin. The only effectual cleansing for a heart racked by sin is the washing of water by the word (Eph. 5:26). We must personally partake of the Water of Life if we desire to be thoroughly clean and truly free.
Contemplations:
- O my blessed Lord and Savior, was it not enough for you to come down from your throne of majesty in heaven to your footstool of misery on earth (Isa. 66:1)? But will you come down from your seat of judgment to the bar of condemnation also? You yourself said that you did not come into the world the first time to judge the world, but to save it (John 12:47). Pilate’s authority and the people’s fury was all part of God’s design to effect salvation, but it was my sin that brought you to condemnation. As God decreed, one man must die for the people, or all must perish. You, Lord, must either be condemned by man, or all mankind by you. Pilate had no power that was not given him from above (John 19:11), and it was your power alone that gave you up to the power of Pilate and your will that delivered you up to the will of the people. You gave yourself up; all Pilate could do was give the sentence.
- When I was first in Adam, left to my own power and will, how soon did that will betray me, that power deliver me up into the power and will of my enemies? But now that I am in you, and you in me, my desire is for your power to be shown and your will to be done in my redemption and sanctification.
- Lord, keep my heart pure. Let me not attempt to “absolve” my sins nor participate in any outward formalities of hand-washing devotion to say, “I am free.” Pilate confessed your innocence but remained in the gall of bitterness covered with the blood of iniquity (Matt. 27:24). The stony ground may hear the word with joy (Luke 8:13); there may be enlightening, a kind of partaking of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 6:4-6), a tasting of the heavenly gift, of the good word of God, and of the powers of the world to come that may yet fall short of true repentance. Let me never with Pilate think that I am free from sin unless my heart has been truly cleansed by the only water that can wash me clean, that of the Spirit and the Word.
Further References fore Luke 23:22:
Luke 23:14, 16; Mark 15:15; John 19:12
