My Daily Pause

Ecce Homo – 1871 – Antonio Ciseri (1821–1891)

It is hard to avoid feeling compassion for Pilate. (Mark 15:1-15)

In some respects, he tried to do the right thing. He knew Jesus was innocent. He attempted a few things to get the Jews to release him. He took the time to talk to Jesus personally. He even discussed it briefly with his wife.

But where it counts, he failed miserably. He might even be representative of weak people in general.

• He was the leader – Nothing could really stop Pilate from declaring Jesus innocent and setting him free
• He was free to not grant the mob’s wishes – Just because a mob demanded it did not mean he had to rule in such a way. He even had the military strength at his disposal to break up the crowd
• He had the legal system as reinforcement – Even if his personality was too weak to stand up to the Jews, Pilate knew there was no legal reason to execute Jesus.

Once Pilate washed his hands of Jesus’ fate, he contributed as much to Jesus’ death as the Jews’ illegal trials or the person that drove the nails.

“Washing our hands” of something we know to be wrong is usually as bad as assisting in the sin. We often know someone close to us is sinning, but we say nothing.

It is difficult to rock the boat.

It is difficult to go against the crowd.

It is easy to hope it “just works out.”

Washing our hands of something we can influence – just hoping it will work out – is as good of a strategy as waiting for something different to happen without making a change. It is our duty as the “salt of the earth” to be an influence for Christ.

What did Jesus say about salt that has lost its ability to influence the taste of food?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. – Matthew 5:13

Sometimes we have to be strong enough to face the crowd to set things straight.

Christ before Caiaphas – ca. 1630 – Matthias Stom (fl. 1615–1649)

The Jews needed something. Anything.

And they weren’t going to stop until they got it.

As Jesus was enduring his first trial in front of the council, every word he said would be twisted against him. Jesus would finally give them what they wanted when he was ready, but they would take any and every lie, any bit of hear-say, or snippets of his teachings and try to convict him. They weren’t being too choosy about it. (Mark 14:53-72)

People aren’t much different now.

If someone doesn’t want to believe in God, it is easy enough for them to come up with a way to get to that conclusion.

Want to deny Christ?

It’s easy, just scoff at one of the key parts of the gospel and a denial can be completely justified. (At least in that person’s mind)

Even in light of all the miracles that were witnessed during Jesus’ ministry, the Jews ultimately believed what they wanted to believe. They didn’t take the time to investigate what they heard about. They didn’t take the time listen to Jesus and compare it to their own teachings. At the end of the day, crucifying Jesus was about being able to maintain the life they knew.

It takes a lot of time accept the gospel.

It takes even longer to want to live a Christian life.

What we do and what we say will give others a reason to accept or reject Jesus. The challenge for us is life a godly life without getting in our own way as a teacher. To do that we have to be:

• Consistent – Sin is sin, we can’t be caught waving the Bible about one type of sin and letting another type slide
• Knowledgeable – We have to know what we are talking about and not say things that simple logic or trivial Bible knowledge can dispute. Basic errors can cause our whole case and the best of our intentions to be suspect
• Loving – Teaching is done best with a kind heart. Showing others a better way should be done with a gentle approach. Remember that we are asking them to change their life.

The key to making others interested is living a great life within the bounds of God’s word. We have an expectation of a generous reward – we should be wearing that on our sleeves!

We have the power of God supporting us.

We have a savior that told us not to worry.

Now go give them a reason to ask why we are so happy! (1 Peter 3:15)

Most of the time, a difficult Scripture can be worked through logically.

Matthew 9:38-41 is one of those challenging scriptures that have as many explanations as there are teachers of the word. It is an extraordinary example of why we do not take any person’s word without comparing it to what the Bible says.

The disciples experienced a tinge of jealousy when they saw someone who wasn’t a member of their group able to cast out demons in Jesus’ name. The person could have been a follower of John or he could have been one of the 72 (Luke 10:1 ff) after he completed his commission.

Jesus forbid them from stopping him.

Trying to figure out how to apply this teaching has challenged Christians since the gospel was written. Comparing what people teach about it with logic and other Bible passages gives us a good start on how to treat it. Here are a few thoughts I have about what the passage does and does not do for the Christian:

What it doesn’t do:

• …allow a church to overlook her members living in a sinful way – we cannot use it as a way out of having “difficult discussions” with fellow Christians
• …excuse error and false teaching just because it is in Jesus’ name – we still have to call out and avoid false teachers
• …relieve us from trying to teach someone the better way – we are always responsible for teaching the one true gospel

An excellent example of these points can be seen in Priscilla and Aquila. They did not allow Apollos to keep teaching the baptism of John. (Acts 18:24-28)

What it does do:

• …tells us not to be judgmental of others solely because they are not among “our group” – this is vastly different from identifying a specific sin and helping someone correct it.
• …allows us to give others that believe differently enough room to continue to learn and eventually correct their beliefs – the same goes for us! Don’t forget to allow the possibility that we have it wrong.
• …discourages the feeling of jealously of what others are doing at the expense of what we have going for ourselves – The disciples were sitting at the Messiah’s feet but were more worried about what another was doing!

The Parable of the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and Hebrews 5:12-6:7 among others can help us resolve these discussion points.

So Here’s the Point

A key part of faith and loving Jesus is keeping his commandments. (John 14:15) When we are reading and studying the Bible, we can never use any of his teachings to get around that basic concept. Some of the improper applications of Mark 9:38-41 try to do just that.

In the same way, what we believe a passage of scripture says should never be in conflict with what another passage says. We can use this simple logical method to make our Bible study a more rewarding experience.

For so many, listening is not their strongest habit.

The Bible really captures the essence of human nature.

A group of people who do everything together should know and understand each other perfectly. If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit the opposite happens most of the time.

Jesus is recorded in the gospel of Mark three times foretelling his death and resurrection. (Mark 8:31-33, Mark 9:30-32, Mark 10:32-34) All three times, the apostles missed the point. I’m pretty sure the core problem is they were not listening.

So many put their relationships under the same stress that Jesus must have felt with the disciples. We get into a routine, we turn on autopilot, then we forget to pay attention:

• We live, eat, and sleep with our spouses and forget to take time to have real conversations. Sometimes for days at a time.
• We interact with family, coworkers, fellow church members, etc. and can barely remember having spent the time with them.
• Worse of all, we go to worship, go through the motions, but often cannot recount anything that was said during the service.

I really wanted to bullet point a three step plan to help improve this for everybody, but we aren’t really ready for that are we?

We are not listening.

Once we listen to our spouse, we will know what they need.

Once we listen to the others we interact with, we will know how to contribute to the collective.

Once we listen to God, through his word, we will know how to serve him properly.

Stop.

Listen.

That’s one habit we should all have!

The cost of following Jesus is high. Do you have enough in you to do it right?

Being a Christian isn’t very popular right now.

The world’s leaders, the personalities on television and those with popular platforms are doing their best to exchange what God commands for what they define as “good.”

Even some Christians are picking and choosing what part of God’s word they want to obey.

Mark 8:34-38 contains some very straightforward teaching from Christ to his followers:

• One must deny himself – What we want is irrelevant in the big picture (Mark 8:34)
• We should be ready to sacrifice everything for Christ – Up to and including our lives (Mark 8:35)
• Worldly luxuries and recognition are worthless compared to our soul (Mark 8:36-37)
• We can make Christ ashamed of us – We should always be willing to confess Jesus as the son of God and talk about him whenever we get the chance. (Mark 8:38)

In the United States, there used to be a general respect for a person’s beliefs. This has slowly become an attitude of “Your beliefs are offensive” and tolerance has become a very one-sided proposition.

To be the kind of follower that Jesus wants, we have to be ready to face that kind of attitude. If we don’t, I’m afraid we will allow the momentum against us to continue to build.

Christians are in a tough position. Especially the kind of Christian who has the wherewithal to take Mark 8:34-38 seriously. Jesus knew it would be tough and he told us to “count the cost” before we take on the responsibility of being his follower. (Luke 14:28)

But think about it – if we are not willing to make that kind of sacrifice for Jesus, how much faith do we really have in him?