The thing about temptation is that loud voices often drive the wheels toward sin. In hindsight I’m sure we regret listening to the loud voices. But on other occasions, I’m sure we ask ourselves what if… That is to say, what if I were builder, braver, more purposeful.
But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. (Luke 23:23-24)
Pilate became infamous in history because of one moment he gave into the crowd voices. This one lapse in judgment and will caused him to put the Son if God to death for no reason other than a very loud crowd at his window. But we don’t judge the man for his decision. After all, this man didn’t just have a loud crowd at his window, he had a very large and obnoxiously loud crowd that had been agitated into a mob-like riot. Honestly, I’ve probably done a lot worse with a whole lot less voices hollering at me. Don’t even begin to count the number of times you feel into peer pressure– voices; if you’re anything like me, human, you lost count a few years ago and decided some random new year to asp counting as a resolution and it’s the only one you ever kept in your life.
See the beauty of this passage is not the condemnation of bad decision making. Rather, the beauty lays in how Good uses the folly of Pilate to bring upon man kind the greatest revolutionary movement it has ever seen– forgiveness of sins. If there are voices prevailing in your life or if voices have prevailed in your life, it’s not beyond redemption. You may have made a bad decision as a result of bad voices prevailing; but that is not the end of the story.
There is a greater voice that prevails in the end. Time to listen to the voices declaring who prevails through all our folly, sin, and bad decisions. Listen to the prevalent voice of God in your life.
No responses yet