Caught Between Two Worlds

...for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. 

Everyone who is of the truth listens to me (Jesus before Pilate--Jn. 18:37).

 

Pilate is caught between two worlds, and he is afraid.  He tries to set Jesus free because hi s wife has been warned in a dream about this innocent man -- and also because he recognizes in Jesus the word of truth.  He knows, he senses, that Jesus is not only innocent, but also speaks the truth when he says that He is a king -- but His kingdom is no threat to the kings of this world.  Pilate says, "I find no basis for a charge against him."

 

Pilate begins to be afraid when he asks Jesus if He is the king of the Jews -- obviously a charge brought against Him by the Sanhedrin.  If Jesus says, "Yes," He speaks the truth, but He also in the eyes of the world makes a claim against the kingship of Caesar, which then justifies his execution.  If He says, "No," then He perjures Himself, for in truth, He is a King.

 

"Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks.

"Are you asking for yourself?" Jesus replies; "Or have others said this about me?"

 

Depending on Pilate's answer to this question, Jesus will answer him.  Depending on our answer to Jesus, He will also answer us.  If we are asking for ourselves, if we want to know the Truth, we will hear His voice in answer to us---Everyone who is of the truth listens to Me.  If we care nothing for Truth, but just want to challenge and question and condemn, then we will receive no answer at all.  Nicodemus received one of the world's greatest answers in response to his question of Jesus; the Sanhedrin heard no response at all from Him.

 

Jesus came into the world to testify to us and in us the Truth.  But we can receive the Truth only insofar as we are receptive to it.  When Pilate asked his question of Jesus, he was partially receptive, because of his wife's dream--and the Truth was revealed to him by an inner witness:  You are a king, then!

 

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king."  And then, after Pilate hears from the Jews that "he must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God," he knew the truth and was even more afraid.  It was not that Pilate did not believe Jesus; his problem was that he was caught between two worlds.  If he allowed Jesus to go free, he would be "opposing Caesar," in the words of the Jews.  His own life hung in the balance.  He could not oppose Caesar, even though he recognized that Jesus spoke the Truth.  That is why he ordered the inscription above the cross: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, and he would not remove or change the inscription.  If questioned, he could also claim the sign was a mockery, but in his heart, he knew it to be the Truth.

 

Like Pilate, we are also often caught and squeezed between two worlds.  If we acknowledge Jesus as King, the world mocks, hates, and condemns us as fools.  If we pretend we don't know that He is King, we are respected by the world but condemned in our hearts.  If we are not "of the Truth," we cannot hear His Voice and cannot listen to Him in the depths of our souls.

 

The choice is ours.  May we not crucify the Son of Man all over again because we are caught between two worlds -- the world of appearances and the world of Truth.