“So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’ And all the people answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’ Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.”

A few lessons…

1) “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17)

Pilate seeks to clear himself of injustice with words and a symbolic washing. But his indecisiveness was a decision for injustice itself. He knew why the leaders had come. He realized that Jesus was innocent. But he gave way to the crowd. He protected his own temporal status and in turn, lost his soul. And, no doubt, his temporal position was soon to give way as well. For anytime you seek to maintain power by appeasing the crowd, you inevitably face a day when the crowd can no longer be appeased.

2) Let us beware of speaking for our children.

The Jewish people present at the ‘trial’ of Jesus cry out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” So sure were they are their righteous stance, that they put the lives of their children on the altar of injustice and sin. Let us beware. For in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. And anyone who believes the Scriptures cannot doubt that such a judgment came from the hand of the Lord. The legacy of those who crucified Jesus did not end well.