“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).
Oh wow!
So that is why I’m here!
Does that matter to me?
Yes.
To the extent that it should?
No.
Too bad.
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3).
Can the world see Jesus when they look at my life?
He will help me grow in that.
If I ask Him.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much to cause a human to compromise his beliefs.
I don’t know much about Pilate, particularly the private man, the real man. But in some ways, he seems a man with some sense of justice. And he certainly was a man capable of fear (John 19:8).
And yet he compromised justice and overcame some significant fears concerning Jesus’ identity because of a greater fear: being perceived as having the wrong friends.
“And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar” (John 19:12).
How important is it to me to have the “right” friends?
Whose friend am I ready to be?
And what kind of compromises would I make for that?
Let me never be as Pilate.
May I always stand for Jesus. And may I always stand with Jesus as a friend to those who, because of bigotry and bias, are despised by others.