The Will

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

THE WILL

Luke 23:13-25

13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him." 18 With one voice they cried out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!" 19(Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) 20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" 22 For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him." 23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

NIV

This is the whole of the scene between Pilate and those who wanted Jesus dead. What evil lies within those who claim to have faith in God is clearly seen here. Pilate, a man without any cause in this case, a man without any bias regarding Jesus, a man who was neutral could not find any reason to condemn Jesus to death. But those religious leaders of the people demanded Pilate put Jesus to death. We have already examined the evil hearts of those who claim to be religious but here we have a look into the heart of Pilate, a Roman non-believer in anything associated with the God of the Jews. It appears he is a just man, a man with a sense of right and wrong, wanting to do the right thing here, finding no fault with Jesus, he desires to release him. Now he also has a job to do, he is charged by Caesar, his supreme leader, considered a god in some sense, to govern over this region of the Roman Empire. He needs to keep the peace, at whatever the cost, either by force or diplomacy. Local Jewish leaders are permitted, such as Herod in the political and these chief priests in the religious sense, in order for him to keep peace in his region, as long as he collects the due taxes, Rome is content to allow this condition. But now all that is jeopardy, the Jews are almost threatening to upset the balance of things over this Jesus. Pilate wants to do the right thing, but at the same time, he needs to keep the peace, his job is at stake. So even though he knew Jesus was innocent of the charges, he surrender Jesus to their will. He yielded under the pressure the Jews were imposing on him to crucify Jesus. Here is a lesson for us. First we could see that we could be the ones who could be imposing our will upon those who govern us. We can see that in the politicians who want our votes making reference to their faith. But the real lesson here is in the fact we should not allow the will of others to be imposed on our sense of what is right and wrong based on our belief in Jesus. Just because the crowd wants to do this or that, does not mean we should surrender to their will. This applies to the ways of the world, as well as the denominational biased opinions of scripture. We have been taught by the very word of God that it is the Spirit who leads us into all truth. If we allow the world to impose its will on us, we have forsaken that which we hold as truth for the sake of keeping the peace with the world. We might do this in order to keep our position within the world. As long as we surrender to their will, we will escape any sort of persecution. Sure it is alright with them, for now, that we keep our church buildings and assemble together within its walls, but they have already begun to insist we remove any reference of God from places outside our buildings. If we continue to surrender to the will of those who would put God to death, we will have lost sight of the truth we hold so dear. We also have the pressure of denominationalism which demands we believe in a certain way, a certain interpretation of the scriptures in order to belong to their ranks. They also desire to impose their will upon us, molding us into their brand of Christianity. The only will we need to ever yield to is the will of God. The scripture clearly teaches us we are to call no man father, a word that denotes authority over us, a person who stands between us and God. This can apply to all those who claim leadership of a church, especially those who claim they were called by God to lead us.  Although it is true, God has called certain individuals to shepherd his people, we need to discern who those people are before we give any attention to their leading. The fact is there is but one mediator between God and men, and his name is Jesus. It is the will of God that we need to be concerned with and his will only. What we know is right is in his word. We cannot allow our will be to influenced by any man, but only by God.