I watched from the sidelines as He stood before the practical statesman, Pontius Pilate in judgment of His life. Pilate, though he knew the Man to be an innocent victim of circumstances, nevertheless delivered Him to be crucified.

Pilate is to be pitied more than scorned. He was caught between God’s will and man’s will. He was conflicted and could not readily decide between the peace of the city and the peace of his own mind; between condemning an innocent Man and disobliging an angry mob. So, against his better judgment and in defiance of his own conscience, he surrenders the Man to the bloodthirsty crowd. He ignores the laws of justice. And in an effort to assuage the guilt that follows, Pontius Pilate took water, washed his hands and declared himself innocent of the blood of “this just man.”

But, I need not judge Pilate too harshly because most of us fall into the same trap of self-contradiction. In psychology, it is know as cognitive dissonance. It is a state of tension that occurs wherever a person simultaneously holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent. We protest against a thing and yet practice it. We talk against the manifold ills of the world, yet contribute to it. We like to boast of being Church folks and different from other folks yet, many of us go to the same places and do the same things as worldly folks. We say we love the sinner but hate his ways yet; some of our ways are so evil and hateful that the term Christian does not even apply. We are no different from Pontius Pilate and washing our hands will not relieve us of this inner tension.

I noticed Peter retreating in weakness – denying he knew the Man under the stress of circumstances. Nicodemus approached the Man at midnight wanting to learn about being saved and then goes away quietly.

I see Him hanging between two thieves. The crowd is furious and their hearts filled with malice and utter contempt. The Man was hemmed in for the death; His body limp and tired from carrying a heavy cross. But as I look at Him, I see that He accepts the pain. I hear no groan, no sound of complaint, just acceptance; acceptance of the torment that inflicts His body. As I look into His eyes I see no hatred, no revulsion, and no contempt. Instead, I see eyes of love, eyes of compassion, eyes of grief, and eyes of forgiveness. As I peer into this Man’s eyes, I see eyes that see beyond our years into God’s eternity. I see eyes without shadow and eyes without fear.

When I look into His eyes, I see all the evil that is within all of us. I see all the hatred, all the meanness, and the conniving little things that we are capable of doing. When I look into this Man’s eyes, I see mankind for what we really are; poor, lost, defeated, condemned souls.

As He dies, I hear His last words, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Then it struck me.

While we were yet sinners, the innocent, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of the living God, was found guilty so that guilty sinning mankind could be found innocent.

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