Significant words these. Let us look closely at the man who uttered them.1
“The councils and kings, the orators and lawgivers of Rome, tower out in the backward book of history, when men nearer us in time are lost in the haze. But there is one Roman who shall still outlive them all. He held only a petty post in an obscure corner of the Empire, but he sat as judge on him who shall one day judge the world, and he delivered unto death the Prince of Life … The name of Pontius Pilate, the governor, shall be remembered when every other Roman name may be forgotten.”2
He was the man who took such an important part in the events of over 1900 years ago, recorded in the Gospels. We have in our hands the account of what eye witnesses noted of the words, deeds and gestures of this governor.
“He stands for four or five hours in the light of Christ, and no man, now, or evermore, shall stand in that light without being revealed.”
It was Pilate who was being judged and revealed. He was of excellent birth and education with a hatred of arrogance and bigotry expressing itself in violence and cruelty. He was a man of thoughtful mind, quick to read the motives of those who accused Jesus.
“Pilate’s fine mind is seen in the strangely significant words he used. They burned themselves into the minds of the disciples, and they have a strange and prophetic power: ‘What is Truth?’; ‘Behold the man’; ‘What shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?’; ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’; ‘What I have written, I have written’ are all words of Pilate.”
There is one tender touch in the record and that relates to Pilate’s wife.
“The face of Pilate’s wife is seen only for a moment; and the prayer of her lips is only a sentence in the record; but the face is that of a devout and reverent woman, the prayer is the breathing of one who could give noble wifely counsel.” “When he was sat down in the judgement-seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, ‘Have thou nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him’.”3
Matthew tells us very little about her, for it is her act he fixes our thoughts upon. We know that she is the only Roman woman in the Gospels, and that she is the only woman of the highest whose heart was touched by Jesus. She was of a refined and sensitive spirit and knew Jesus well enough to pass a penetrating judgement upon him. Her testimony to him is simply “that just man”. T
hat phrase meant much in a Roman woman’s mouth.
“She knew him to be innocent of the charges made against him. She knew him to wear a moral loveliness which had ensnared her heart. She saw him stand out in striking contrast to Pharisee and Sadducee, like a shining star in the darkest night, and she threw her testimony into the phrase which was the highest a Roman could give, and the strongest a judge could feel. ‘That just man,’ she said, and yet, no doubt, much more could have been said of the spiritual grace of Jesus. She had seen him pass in the street as he went up to the Temple, she had heard his sayings and pondered their grace. She had been touched by his deeds.”
There may have been a risk in sending the message to the judge to influence his judgement, but she took it, and appears to have been the only one who had a good word for Jesus apart from the judge himself, and what he said was significant. But before we consider his verdict let us remember that all the details have been recorded; some a thousand years before and some later. We are but considering their complete fulfillment.
Daniel the prophet had recorded that the Messiah would be cut off but not for himself. So reads the A.V. translation which some would accept, not perceiving that the “cutting off” was for himself, as well as for others. The difference between Jesus and the rest of mankind, was essentially in this fact: HE WAS THE ONLY MAN WHO HAD NEVER SINNED. And some think that is the reason why Jesus did not die for himself. Never was a greater mistake made: somewhat like the mistake Peter made who tried to divert Jesus from his course, and was rebuked in consequence.5
To declare that Jesus was the only man who had never sinned is to state in another way that HE WAS THE OBEDIENT MAN. The Messiah was to be cut off WITH NO DISOBEDIENCE IN HIM. HIS CUTTING OFF WAS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF HIS OBEDIENCE MANIFESTED IN HIS LIFE AND DEATH BECAUSE IT CONSTITUTED THE CONDEMNATION OF DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD. Now follow the thoughts and actions of Jesus in his declarations concerning the events which lay before him.
“For judgement I am come into this world.”6
He realised the pressures which were mounting to deflect him from his purpose.
“Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgement of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.”7
What was this prince to be cast out? Let the Spirit, through the Apostle, answer:
“And you (Ephesians) were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, THE SPIRIT THAT NOW WORKETH IN THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE.”8
This, then, is the ruling power in the world. What did Jesus say about it? This is his answer:
“The prince of this world cometh AND HATH NOTHING IN ME”.9
He was the OBEDIENT MAN, and in this strength he stood before Pilate, not with downcast eyes, but with the eyes, which expressing a clear conscience before his Father, could meet Pilate’s gaze and cause him to flinch and to say three times: “I find no fault in him”.10 Every attempt by Pilate to release Jesus was met with strong resistance. He observed it all and sadly contemplated the pre-recorded words: “They hated me without a cause”.11 Pilate also perceived that for envy they had delivered him: Envy, the killer disease of religious bodies from that day to this. We may now understand what Daniel had written: The Messiah to be cut off with nothing in him which constituted disobedience.
He was the Obedient Man, and in the attitude of his accusers which led to his death THERE WAS THE VERY PROOF THAT HE WAS THE MESSIAH TO BE CUT OFF BECAUSE HE WAS OBEDIENT. This was the significance of Pilate’s words, “Behold the Man”, although he realised it not. As for Pilate, he was confronted by a man more astute than himself, one who was determined that Jesus should die. Pilate was reminded and threatened that his worldly interests were at stake. He succumbed, and Jesus was delivered to death. What was the secret of THE MAN WHO NEVER SINNED?
It was first and foremost the desire and determination to please God by unswerving obedience to his Father’s will: And how to be accomplished? By the complete absorption of the Spirit of God in His Word, and his union with his Father and the help which came thereby. Although he bare our nature and was tempted to disobey he always conquered and became, through the resurrection from the dead, the first-born of a new creation which will bear the Divine nature, a nature in complete union with the Father and His great Son. This is the prospect before the sons and daughters of God today whose aims in life must be the same as those of their forerunner: to be the obedient ones, resisting the spirit of disobedience by the spirit of the Word.
Our manner of life has to be one which reveals us as being on the side of our Lord in his judgement of a world of sin, being raised to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, which shuns the manner of life of an ungodly world. It is by the constant reading and meditation upon the spirit-Word that we become conscious of the difference between the sons and daughters of God and the sons and daughters of men by reason of the difference of the power which controls the life. By means of the spirit of the Word we are enabled to judge all things, examining all that we read, see or hear, and to make our decision to stand on the side of the man who never sinned.
It will mean a life of sacrifice of worldly interests, even if they bear a “religious” gilt. We have to glorify the Father, not ourselves, and if we imbibe the spirit of the Word of God we shall have the means to resist the spirit of disobedience by a “Thus saith the Lord” even if it involves resisting our nearest and dearest. We have to be identified with the Son of God and not the world—secular or religious—which he comes to destroy. To help us to reflect upon our own position the Spirit of God through Paul writes:
“If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless, and harmless, the sons of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of Life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ.”12
The qualification if there be any fellowship of the Spirit is designed to make each individual assess his or her own position, very necessary in these days when many who are of the world, and some who claim to be not of the world, are much concerned about the position of others rather than themselves. There is always the danger of esteeming ourselves better than other brethren and sisters and thinking and acting as if Jesus was not the only one who never sinned. It is only when we “Behold the Man” that never sinned that we realise that we fall far short of his manner of life. There were those who beheld the Christ and put him to death in consequence.
There is no man or woman who beholds the one who is the “altogether lovely” who will put Christ to death, but rather will then put themselves to death by carrying out what Paul wrote for our guidance in a world of sin which invades “religious” bodies as well as others, and is ruled by fear and not by love. Jesus was put to death by those who never saw any beauty to desire.
They never understood the love of God being manifested in His Son and yet they were his brethren, but brethren “after the flesh” and they not only put him to death but also put to death his brethren “after the spirit”. It has always been so, and should force us to consider what class we are in. “If there be any fellowship of the Spirit” it can only come by “beholding” the loveliness of “The Man” and reflecting that loveliness in ourselves, in what we say, and how we say it; in what we do, and how we do it.
Assuredly if the mind of Christ be in us from thence will issue that loveliness which will not repel, but attract every son and daughter with the like “fellowship of the Spirit”. The Gospel records have been written and preserved for that specific purpose; they center in THE OBEDIENT MAN who has shown us the way in which to walk and it is God Who says :
“BEHOLD THE MAN: THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD: WHO LIKEWISE SAID: HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.”
References
1. Matt. 27:2.
2. The Day of the Cross, W. M. Clow, from which the quotations have been taken.
3. Matt. 27:19.
4. Dan. 9:26.
5. Matt. 16:21-23.
6. John 9: 39.
7. John 12:27-33.
8. Eph. 2:1-3.
9. John 14:30,31.
10. John 18:38; 19:4,6.
11. John 15:25; Psalm 35:19; 69:4.
12. Phil. 2:1-5.
The Solution