143. Tuesday after Third Sunday in Lent.
Lord, let me not enter into the path of the wicked. Amen.
Luke 23, 4-12. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching, throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilæan. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time. And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracles done by him. Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.
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Pilate had, no doubt, been greatly impressed by the purity and majesty of Jesus, and quaked at the thought of passing sentence on him. He had the greatest reluctance to having any hand in the matter. But the decisive moment is come, and Jesus must be the means of either bringing him down or raising him up. — Jesus has met you and me also. What is he to become to us? None can evade him. Everyone must either be offended in him, and deny him; or believe in him, and serve him.
To Pilate there was a certain attraction in the majesty of Jesus, and in his words of truth; but Pilate loved his own advantage and his honor among men so well that, in the face of his better knowledge and conscience, and directly contrary to the admonitions of Christ and his Spirit, he pronounced the sentence of death on the Son of Man. It is a triumph for the innocence of Jesus that Pilate is hard put to it before he is able to prevail upon himself to condemn him. — When I speak of this there is in me a feeling of distress and sadness to think that this man, for whose soul the Lord labored so earnestly, under the crowns of thorns and the purple robe, while being scourged and mocked; — that this man did not allow himself to be vanquished, and that he did not, to the glory of God’s everlasting grace, become the second murderer to be saved by the Lord at the time of the crucifixion. For even if Pilate had acted as a just judge, the rage of hell and the eternal decree of the Father would still have brought Jesus to his death.
— Wilhelm Loehe
The Lord places a thousand obstacles in the way of men who are determined to go to hell; but Pilate, and many others, alas, with him, fight their way through the difficulties, and imagine that it is wise to sell their conscience and their soul’s eternal happiness for fleeting pleasure and empty honor.
The pleasure-hunting Herod Antipas tries to jest with the Lord, and wants him to perform some trickery for his amusement. This also the Lord tolerates, and holds his peace; and thereby he atones for the world’s wantonness, but gives his Christians grace to renounce carnal pleasures, and teaches us in what light we are to view the vanities of the world. Those who wish to be called Christians, and who yet take part in the world’s unseemly amusements, should look at Jesus as he stands before Herod and his courtiers.
Thou holy Savior, we heartily thank thee for thy walk between Herod and Pilate, and for thy meekness and patience in suffering all these things. We wonder, we fear, and we worship before thy throne, thou glorious Son of God. Have mercy on us, and help us to believe in thee, to renounce the pleasures of the world, and to rejoice in thy salvation. Amen.
God of grace, whose word is sure,
Thou who keepest truth forever,
That my trust may rest secure
On this ground that wavers never:
Let thy truth be dear to me,
That my soul may faithful be.
To the banner of the cross
I fidelity have plighted;
It will be my endless loss
If this solemn vow be slighted;
Therefore Jesus, none but he,
Shall my constant watchword be.