March 5, 2024
Adrian Rogers
Scripture Passage: Matthew 27:22
In Matthew 27, Jesus Christ stood on trial before Pilate, and in verse 22, Pilate asked the most personal and pressing question: “What shall I do with Christ?”
What we do with Jesus is an unavoidable decision each of us will make; what we decide—or not decide—will dictate our eternity.
We must consider Pilate’s decision: as the people cried out for Jesus’ death, Pilate’s voice of reason and conscience raised alarm. He examined the evidence and listened to witnesses, including his own wife (see Matthew 27:19), and Jesus Himself, who confessed that He is the King for everyone who is of the truth (see John 18:37).
Though the voices that confronted Pilate clearly revealed the right thing to do, his warped values pressured him to decide otherwise.
Pilate was pressured by public opinion; the people were viciously calling for Jesus’ blood.
Pilate’s pride, position, and possessions were more valuable to him than the innocent man standing before him.
Adrian Rogers explains, “Pilate had to do something with Jesus. He was faced with the inevitable, unavoidable Jesus Christ, and so are you.”
At first, Pilate ignored the issue, then he tried to hand the decision off to someone else. Finally, he decided not to decide.
Matthew 27:24 says, “When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.’”
Pilate’s rejection of reason and misplaced values made Jesus’ trial a mockery of justice. Pilate’s “neutral” verdict condemned Jesus to death; with the verdict, Pilate also condemned himself.
We have an opportunity to make a different decision.
Analyzing the evidence from Scripture, the witnesses of the saints, of old and of new, we know Jesus is exactly who He says He is. And perhaps the most crucial witness of them all is God the Father.
1 John 5:9 says, “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son.”
We know that Jesus is Lord, because after He was crucified, God reversed the decision of the court and raised Him from the dead!
You cannot be neutral about Jesus; you cannot avoid Him, escape Him, or bypass Him: so what will you do with Him?
