John 18:38
After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”
How many times at the end of a long day do we find ourselves in a foul temper? How often do life’s turbulent rhythms unsettle us, disquiet us, and cause us to lash out at those around us? How many times have our family or coworkers or friends seen us in bad moments? We think of this now because Jesus has been having a most horrific night – one we can thankfully not imagine. He’s been arrested, verbally abused, falsely accused, abandoned by His closest friends, mocked and struck.
And, yet, Pilate finds him guiltless.
Jesus hasn’t engaged in political maneuvering and convoluted arguments so that He might avoid death. Because He knows God’s will He has been supernaturally calm throughout the ordeal. He hasn’t lashed out at the hypocrisy. He hasn’t tried to cut deals or negotiate. This calmness has no doubt impressed Pilate for he knows the stakes in this drama. He most certainly sees the peaceful manner of our Lord as something remarkable or else he wouldn’t bother with the crowd again. The religious leaders have turned over the Son of God to a pagan ruler and yet it’s the world’s servant that sees the Messiah as faultless. All Pilate must do is compare the two: Jesus is meek and truthful, not trying to plead His case on every technicality or even by lambasting His accusers; His accusers, however, are full of venom, they are bloodthirsty and inventors of evil.
We should pray that we have such a demeanor when trials come. Interestingly, so much Christian witness fails when Christians fall apart under pressure. When we’re reviled, if we return insult for insult, the world is watching. When calamity strikes, or controversy, or despair, or great stress, does the world see Jesus’ humility and grace in us?
It’s a strange thing about Christian life. We want peace, peace, peace…and comfort and leisure. These are the goals of the world and, of course, these aren’t bad things in their own right. But when we want these things without righteousness – and we want righteousness without Christ – we’ve lost the essence and truth of Christian life. How do we know when this has happened to us? Easy: how do we respond in trial? Worse still – if mere inconvenience sends us into fits, we need to press on and lay hold of what we have in Christ. We’re living in a state of spiritual poverty when, in fact, we have uncountable treasures in that bank of grace.
So, what to do? Should we go off after this self-help program or that one? Certainly there’s no need for such things because we already know the source of Jesus’ tranquility in the face of calamity. He knew his Father’s will. Ah, but you might say, “That’s not fair! I don’t know what God’s will is for my life as Jesus did. He knew of the cross. I don’t know such things.”
Oh, but, yes we do! It’s just the simplicity of it all that confuses us. God wouldn’t demand what he hasn’t communicated. We are to have faith and glorify Him. And in that simplicity we rest. In that love and union, because he first loved us – while we were yet sinners, lost and rebellious – we have peace with God. And because of that we can say that these present troubles aren’t worth comparing to that joy we already have in knowing and loving the God who has loved us so much as to die for us. We conform to the law of God in love, therefore, and it is this love, running through our hearts like gushing streams of pure, clean water, that transforms our conduct and temper. The Christian life isn’t a journey of self-help, but of true love grounded in the truth of Jesus Christ and what he’s done for us (erasing the penalty of sin), is doing for us (obliterating the pressure of sin), and will do for us (separate us from the very possibility of sin).
So much temper and fear and anxiety in the Christian life because we forget what is ours in Christ and that we walk not according to the old written code but in the newness of life. We walk and live from the heart – the heart that’s transformed by the love of God. This is how we face life’s challenges – with love and faith, not stoicism or self-reliance. And when we fail, when our fears overtake us in moments of weakness, or our temper flares, we must remember that we’re His and He died for all of our sins. Remember that there’s no condemnation now for us in Christ and let that grace change you once again, let it pour over your wounds, let it quiet your fears. You aren’t loved because you obey, dear friend. You obey God’s will because you’re loved! That’s the heart of the gospel.
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