Read John 18:28-32. Circle the word(s) that stand out to you. What is the Lord saying to you?
28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
Reflection on the Word.
Manipulating the situation. Merriam-Webster defines manipulate as: “to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantages.” In other words it’s unfairly using someone else to attain one’s goal. It’s the “behind the scene” person who is controlling the events and people to get their desired result.
The Jewish leaders brought Jesus to Pilate early that morning. Part of the exchanged of words between Pilate and the Jewish leaders were as follows: “30 If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
Were the Jewish leaders speaking the truth? Technically, yes. But they never stated the religious or civil complaint against Jesus. The guilt was implied that he had said or done something wrong. No witnesses were brought forth by the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders had judged him by their own law and they charged him with blasphemy or was it?
Matthew 26 says this, “The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered” (NIV).
The Sanhedrin themselves could have condemned Jesus to death and stoned him for blasphemy but doing so would have incurred the wrath of Rome. Under Roman law, only Rome could legally execute the penalty of death upon her people. While this seemed like a problem the Sanhedrin, I believe they worked this for their advantage. I think, they preferred that Rome would carry out the execution of Jesus. This way the followers of Jesus and the Jewish people couldn’t blame them for the death of Jesus but on Rome. It was a brilliant strategy. They used Pilate to achieve their murderous plot.
Have you been manipulated or outmaneuvered by your children, spouse, or even a friend? Have you manipulated or bribed your child to obtain what you want? While we may think it is very clever to manipulate someone when they don’t even know it, but in reality, it is misleading and deceitful.
Should the ends justify the means? I don’t believe so. As Christians, we need to not only consider the result, but also the way in which we obtain the result. In other words, our words and actions should always bring honor and worth to God as we represent Him to others. Take a moment and consider if we are just speaking our own minds to manipulate the situation or speaking the mind of Christ to glorify Him in all things. Let’s speak the truth in love instead of manipulating people to achieve our own goals.
-Kingston