Great Amazement

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

GREAT AMAZEMENT

Matt 27:11-14

11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge — to the great amazement of the governor.

NIV

John gives us a more detailed account of this exchange between Jesus and Pilate. It is interesting the Jews, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the elders, and all those who decided that Jesus was worthy of death, would not enter the palace of Pilate because they did not want to be unclean because they wanted to observe the Passover. How hypocritical of them, to want Jesus to be put to death, and want to celebrate their redemption from slavery when Jesus is the one who will bring them true redemption from slavery to sin. They did not understand they were fulfilling the plan of God, but only wanted to fulfill their own desires and plans. Here, Matthew does tell us one of the questions that Jesus was asked by Pilate. What John tells us is that first Pilate came out to speak to the Jews who were bringing accusations against Jesus. John also tells us that they did not bring their real reason, but rather accused Jesus of being a criminal, breaking Roman law. Pilate takes Jesus inside for further questioning away from the ears of the Jews. Here is where Jesus answers the one question. Yes, he is the king of the Jews, however, as John tells us, Jesus said that his kingdom was not of this world therefore he was not in violation of Roman law, claiming to be a king as Caesar was king. However, Jesus is the King of kings, and He is our King for we are citizens of His kingdom. The question which is before us is, what does our being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven look like? One of the things that Jesus did say was that unless we change and become like a little child, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus also said that if we want to see the kingdom of heaven we must be born again. It is obvious there needs to be a change in our lives, we need to change from being who we were, or are, into who we need to be. There is no doubt that we are saved by faith in Jesus, but then what does faith look like? Maybe we should look at the faith of a child. Maybe that is what Jesus meant. Nevertheless, because Jesus told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world, Pilate did not find any fault with Jesus, any reason to put him to death. Pilate was amazed at the response or rather the non-response of Jesus against all those false accusations of the Jews. When people see Jesus for who he is, it would seem right the natural response would be of great amazement. Should not we be living in great amazement because of what Jesus did for us, that He is our King?