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 This
early Friday morning finds it a perplexed governor that has come
to sit on the judgment-seat just outside the Praetorium. Having
already examined Jesus, Pilate has found him to be innocent.
Now, he must face a hostile and prejudiced mob who wants to hear
this innocent man declared guilty. Not only has Pilate found no
crime in Jesus, he knows that “for envy they had delivered him
up” (Matt. 27:18). And, with all this weighing on his
conscience, his wife sends unto him saying, “Have thou nothing
to do with this righteous man” (v.19). Pilate represented a
powerful government that prided itself in its good laws and
their equitable enforcement. For an honorable and just judge,
the verdict should have been easy in this case. But placative
Pilate was on the spot. And he responds by ignoring his wife,
his conscience and justice to become history’s best known
coward.
“So
when Pilate saw that he prevailed nothing, but rather that a
tumult was arising, he took water, and washed his hands before
the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this
righteous man; see ye to it” (Matt. 27:24). What justice! The
innocent man is scourged and delivered to be crucified (v.26)
while the man who decrees it declares himself innocent! Pilate
wasn’t on trial. Yet, he feels compelled to vindicate himself
by washing his hands and saying’ in effect, “I AM NOT
RESPONSIBLE!”-- even when no one cared. Pilate should have
known that responsibility is not a disposable commodity. It
cannot be transferred; it won’t wash off. Yet, many before and
since have imitated Pilate’s wash-pan ethics.
Even
in Eden we can see signs of this
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unwillingness to face up to
responsibility. Adam says, “The woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” Eve says, “The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Gen. 3:12,12). Like
Pilate, each was saying, “I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE!” Their son
Cain was saying the same thing in asking, “Am I my brother’s
keeper?” (Gen. 4:9). We see the Pilate problem in Aaron; we
see it in King Saul; we even see it in the slothful one-talent
man (Matt. 25:24). The Pilates of modern society blame guns,
laws, poverty, affluence, heredity, environment--they are never
without some kind of a “wash pan” with which to declare
themselves “NOT RESPONSIBLE!”-- not even in the spiritual
realm where men need most to see self guilt and face
responsibility.
No
man is without responsibility to God. Free-moral agency says it;
stewardship says it (1 Cor. 4:2); knowledge says it (Jas. 4:17);
redemption says it (1 Pet. 1:1S-19) and certainly, judgment says
that all have responsibilities that are inescapable. Like Pilate’s,
they can’t be washed off. Neither can they be blamed off;
palmed off; regretted off; or ignored off! For the follower of
Christ, it is a responsibility of freedom. We are saved to serve
— even if only with one talent. How inconsistent then, for
Christians to stand where Pilate stood! — excusing ourselves
when we ought to be facing-up and steadfastly doing those things
we know to be right. As elders, preachers, teachers, parents,
and concerned Christians may God help us to see and say: “I AM
RESPONSIBLE!” Dan S. Shipley
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