What Have You Done?

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?””
John 18:33-35 NLT

In many ways, Pontius Pilate was in an unenviable position. Appointed to govern the Roman province of Judaea, the Jews who lived there never made his life very easy and he and his officials and soldiers were always suppressing trouble somewhere under their Roman jurisdiction. The difficulty that the governing authorities had to face into was based on the Jewish religion and its support by the population, support that was often fanatical in its application. So there always seemed to be an uprising going on somewhere, or a religious feast or some other custom that the Romans had to be sensitive of. Jesus even had a potential revolutionary in His own band of Twelve – Simon the Zealot. The Jews were desperate to be a self-governing nation and the political situation was fragile, so fragile that both the Romans and the Jewish leaders took extreme care most of the time to avoid provoking each other. 

So here was Pilate, summoned from his headquarters in the early hours of the morning to meet with a crowd of vociferous and aggressive Jewish leaders. They refused to enter his headquarters because of their customs, so he had to go out to meet with them. Pilate was walking a tight rope. The emperor in Rome, who was Tiberius at that time, would not have been pleased to hear about another problem in this province so Pilate was being careful to not provoke an issue. On the other hand who was the boss here? Anyway, he had Jesus brought in to him, and he started by asking the question “Are you the king of the Jews?” In Matthew’s Gospel he recorded that Jesus’ answer was “You have said it”. John recorded something else that Jesus said, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” But in it all, Pilate was probably shaking his head in disbelief, because a Man, albeit the One we know as Jesus, God’s Son, was before him on trial for saying something innocuous and hardly worth being on trial for, let alone deserving on being put to death. Pilate was no fool, and he was accustomed to all sorts of people being brought before him for sentencing, but he had never met anyone like Jesus. Hence his question, “What have You done?”, his attempt at trying to elicit information from Jesus, information that would help him understand what had so upset the Jewish leaders. He had heard the accusers, and now was trying to hear and understand the accused.

In many ways the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus are sparse with the details. But enough information is there to enable us to build a picture of the events of that momentous evening and night. And through them we can see clearly the clash of two kingdoms and feel the comfort to know that we are on the winning side. The devil and his kingdom were represented by the Jewish leaders, something we know because Jesus had pointed it out to them in an earlier conversation, which we can read in John 8. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “ … “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me. Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It’s because you can’t even hear me! For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:42-44). Jesus came to reveal to His people, the Jews, the Kingdom of God. He said to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In the Beatitudes there are many allusions made by Jesus to the Kingdom of God or Heaven. God’s Kingdom is founded on principles that are, for the most case, the opposite of the kingdom of the world. 

We pilgrims are in a suspended state, living in and between two kingdoms. On the one hand we are children of God, living as citizens in His Kingdom, but on the other hand we are part of the earthly kingdom, subject to all of its laws and challenges. The two kingdoms are incompatible and we seek God daily to help us live as His children amongst a people who are children of the devil and citizens of his kingdom. But we cannot be a citizen of both kingdoms, because the two are irreconcilable. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” That night before Pilate Jesus proclaimed that He was the King of God’s Kingdom and He has been ever since. And we know that the King gave His life for the sake of His Kingdom – there is no greater sacrifice than that.

Dear Lord Jesus. How can we ever thank You enough, You the King of all kings and the Lord over all lords. We praise You today. Amen.

Processions

Posted on by korgrocker

Your procession, God, has come into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
with them are the young women playing the tambourines.
Praise God in the great congregation;
praise the Lord in the assembly of Israel.
Psalm 68:24-26

Processions. The British people love their processions. At royal weddings. On days of great occasions. Cavalry, beautifully dressed on especially chosen horses. Lines of soldiers marching in perfect unison. A band playing rousing music. The cheering crowds waving flags. A great time of national fervour. In Scotland, we have the occasional town gala, with floats depicting local and other themed displays, accompanied by pipe and accordion bands, threading their way through a town centre and ending in a park for a picnic or some other event. But there are, of course, sad processions as well. The funeral cavalcade. People dressed in black, walking slowly and sadly behind a black hearse and a limousine or two.

But when did we last observe a procession in honour of God? A procession made up of God’s people, playing instruments, musical and percussion, and choirs singing His praises? It must have been a wonderful sight in David, the Psalmist’s, day. A wonderful time to join in the experience and get lost in an abandonment of praise to our wonderful and amazing God. Occasionally we have a procession of religious or academic dignitaries pompously walking through a university city. Or sometimes a church will have an Easter parade for a short distance, ending in the local church. But what about the praising excitement of a procession in honour of our God? The King above all kings. Our wonderful Saviour. Not an embarrassed walk of a few people in a line, largely ignored by the community through which they pass. A procession worthy of God’s honour, noisy with shouts of praise, attended by many people, with cheering and a wonderful sense of God at the head of the procession. In several places in Scripture there are references to wonderful processions – we have a Biblical model to follow.

O Lord. Please forgive us for not giving You the honour and the public praise that is Yours by right.

Praise Him

Posted on by korgrocker

“How the king rejoices in Your strength, O Lord! 
He shouts with joy because You give him victory. 
For You have given him his heart’s desire; 
You have withheld nothing he requested. 

For the king trusts in the Lord. 
The unfailing love of the Most High will keep him from stumbling.”
Psalms‬ ‭21:1-2, 7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

David the King is full of the joys of life. He has obviously successfully completed a battle or some other significant exploit, and he is giving God all the praise and thanks he can muster. The last verse in this Psalm points out the reason for his exuberant praise – it is because he trusts in God and His unfailing love, for his success. A short Psalm but what does it teach us for life today?

There is nothing more exciting than when God answers our prayers and helps us overcome a problem or succeed in a difficult task. When we can attribute a healing to God’s divine intervention. Or when we see God bring about a successful conclusion to an injustice or social need. And at such times we praise and thank Him for His wonderful works. We thank Him for all He has done. We may even stand up in a church service and give a testimony about what the Lord has done for us. But what about those times when we pray and pray about something, perhaps because of a sickness being experienced by a loved one, or over an unexpected bill, and there is no response from the Heavenly Throne? I think we all agree that it is much more difficult to praise and thank God then. 

As we read David’s Psalms, we often find him ranting about his problems, only to find that soon afterwards he is once again in that place of worship before His God. That’s the key we need in this life. Sometimes God will answer prayers of healing and other worthy petitions, but often He doesn’t. Now I’m a firm believer in the thought that God answers all prayers  with a “Yes”, “No” or a “Not Yet”. Unlike Him, we don’t see the end from the beginning. But that isn’t to say we shouldn’t pray anyway. And pray fervently, as it says in James 5:16b, “…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And pray with the faith that God is listening to our prayers and will answer them in the way that is best for us.

So we praise and thank God all the time. In the good times. In the not so good times as well. There is always something that we must thank Him for.