John 19:10
So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?”
The strident and atheist author, Richard Dawkins, wrote a book titled The God Delusion a few years back and the title is a succinct encapsulation of exactly what non-believers think of Christians. They think, in short, that we’re deluded. They think that this whole faith business is the stuff of fantasy and that they are the ones rooted in reality and logic. This is precisely Pilate’s thought here.
Surprised that Jesus isn’t bending his ear with protestations of innocence as is the skill of all condemned men, one gathers from Pilate a rising unease as well as a concern that perhaps Jesus doesn’t know what’s happening. This is how the world sees true Christians. There is a sense of unease and condescension in Pilate’s and in the world’s approach to Christ. They’re convinced that they are the one’s that have it all together because they have the keys to the world – to the media, and academia, and government. They look upon us and grow uncomfortable with our quiet professions of another world and a kingdom they can’t see.
So, Pilate asks this question of our Lord and its very premise is the foundational delusion that leads all into sin. The premise of all sinful men is this: I am in charge; I am the judge and there is no one higher. What’s more, they insist that if there is a higher source than their own heart, then that source must make allowances for them because they are basically good. This is the bottom line of existence here before us in this simple verse. Pilate is stating the world’s case – I am the ultimate judge of life, not you. This is the fundamental delusion that leads to sin as sin is the presumption that one has a right to do whatever one pleases despite what God thinks. Sin is misunderstood in our world today. People think sin is something sexual or speaking profanely (though it can be and is often such things as these) but that isn’t the heart of the matter. The central issue is one of authority. Pilate asserts that he has authority over Jesus just as well as the average sinner believes he has the authority to ignore God.
Imagine the brouhaha that would ensue should you walk across the forbidden lines at the White House, or jump the gate, or charge the door. Agents and men with guns would assuredly rush to take you down for trespassing. How is it that sinful men can see something like this but not see that they are living in a world they didn’t create – and one they will assuredly die in – and not wonder whether they’re trespassing in it as well? Why this assumption that it is all their own and they can do whatever they please? This is the root of Pilate’s question and the root of his unease with the presence of Christ. Indeed, the very presence of a Christian, and the church of Christ, reminds a rebellious world that there is a true authority, a creator God that will bring them into judgment.
In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher tells us that because the judgment against an evil deed isn’t executed immediately (at least before our eyes) that the heart of men is set to do evil. We don’t see judgement as soon as we rebel, or as soon as we usurp authority, so we tell ourselves that there will never be such a consequence. We live uneasily, stuffing down and repressing the rumblings of conscience and the warnings of guilt, and pretend that we are the only authority. But it’s all make-believe. We know it’s all a ruse. We know God is behind it all and that He’s a righteous God who will judge good and evil or else we’d never bother justifying ourselves in every thing we do. What else can account for a people who say there’s no such thing as absolute truth or ethics but are incessantly busy with self-justification?
Well, on this day, Pilate is the authority as God has granted that to him just as today you may sin and deny Christ in the most virulent manner. Today you may mock him and even crucify him. The delusion is clear as we all know that there is a tomorrow and yet another and one day there is a death that we have no way of avoiding.
In truth, the real God Delusion is that man thinks he’s god. Man pretends that he can go on in life making it up, making decisions about right and wrong on his own premises. His conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse him (Romans 2) and he never rests because it’s a terrible task to undertake to “follow one’s heart” because the heart is so deceptive. The real God Delusion is that there’s no judgment but we know there is or else we’d never bother arguing for truth at all. If there’s no judgment, there’s no truth and if there’s no truth, there’s no reason to bother objecting to Christ in the first place. But we know it. God has written it on our hearts.
Sin will tell you to hold on to the delusion and, thus, you’ll march to the cross someday – to suffer for your own sins and to face God’s justice. Faith says yes to Christ and He has gone there for us already. Pilate’s authority was there for a moment and it was a gift from God, which God used to achieve His purposes. Whatever authority and gifts you have now are like that. Yes, they’re real because God granted them to you. But they’re temporary.
Don’t be deluded. Be saved through faith and repent of being your own god.
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