WARNING: THIS IS A THOUGHT-PROVOKING MESSAGE FOR EASTER THAT SOME WILL FIND ‘TROUBLING’!
(Note: All emboldened and italicized quotations are directly from God’s Word, our Holy Bible).
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“Pilate said unto him, ‘What is truth?’ (quid est veritas?). And when he had said that, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, ‘I find in him no cause at all.” (Nullam causam invenio in eo!) - John 18:38- 1599 Geneva Bible
“Then came Jesus forth wearing a crown of thorns, and a purple garment. And Pilate said unto them, ‘Behold the man’” (ecce homo). - John 19:5- 1599 Geneva Bible
WHAT IS TRUTH? THE 2000 YEAR OLD QUESTION THAT STILL HAUNTS MANKIND!
You know, in certain respects one almost feels sorry for Pontius Pilate, the Roman Procurator, or Governor, of the Roman Empire’s conquered yet troublesome Province of Judea from 26 A.D. to 36 A.D. Judea, (also historically referred to as “Judah”), including its capital, Jerusalem, was full of quarrelsome Hebrews (Jews) whom the Romans, in all their multi-deity confusion, considered to be “religious fanatics”. Here was Pilate—the most powerful representative of Caesar’s government in Judea, who had a reputation for corruption and cruelty, supported by thousands of battle-hardened Roman soldiers who were all too willing to sink their short swords (the famous 20” Roman ‘gladius’) into the flesh of those pesky Jews—caught, in effect, between the rock of upholding Caesar’s laws—and not wanting to condemn Jesus-- and a hard place of placating a mob of angry and misled people threatening to start a riot at best, or complain to Caesar, at worst, that he--Pilate--was “coddling” a man who proclaimed that he was “king of the Jews”, thus violating one of their most sacred laws.
That Pilate was part of an eternal drama that had been conceived by our Heavenly Father in Eternity past, before time, space, and matter existed, was not remotely a part of his thinking that day. God ordained that he become an “actor” in the most important drama that ever had or ever would happen in the universe—a drama that had been conceived by our Creator before there was a “universe”.
Picture the scene that day, if you will: An agitated crowd of “self-righteous” and legalistic Hebrews (Jews) brought our Savior from his mock trials with Annas, the former Chief Priest, and then with his son-in-law, Caiaphas, the current Chief Priest of the Temple, then to His first meeting with Pilate, who sent him to King Herod Antipas (who was in Jerusalem that day), and who “passed the buck” and sent Jesus back to Pilate’s palace, probably part of the Roman fortification in Jerusalem called Fortress Antonia.
The Jews refused to make themselves “unclean” by entering the Roman building, so Pilate reluctantly came out to them, and asked them, “what charges are you bringing against this man?” The mob replied that it was “obvious” that Jesus was a “criminal”, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought Him to Pilate. Pilate, cagey politician that he must have been, told the Jews to be gone and try Jesus under their own laws, whereupon the mob weaseled out and told the powerful Roman that they had no right to execute anyone, and since obviously Jesus was guilty of the crime of “blasphemy” only the Roman government could execute Him.
WAS JESUS JUST “A GOOD MAN”, OR IS HE THE SECOND PERSON OF THE “TRIUNE GOD” WHO LIVED AMONG US FOR A BRIEF TIME?
Pilate surely must have been frustrated and annoyed by this time. He went back inside his palace and had his soldiers bring Jesus to him. He asked Jesus directly: “Are you the king of the Jews?” Our LORD’S response must have puzzled him. “Is that your own idea”, Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” Pilate, obviously trying to “turn the tables” on Jesus, asked Him: “Am I a Jew?...It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus’ response must have puzzled the Governor, for Jesus replied: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Surprised by Jesus’ response, Pilate said: “You are a king, then!” Jesus then told Pilate to his face the eternal truth that resonates through time, from that day to this very hour: “…You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
JESUS’ SUFFERING MUST HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE! DID GOD THE FATHER FORORDAIN THAT BRUTALITY?
Harsh questioning and beatings with rods had been perpetrated against our Blessed Savior, Jesus, before the above events occurred that day. Mock trials and demands that Jesus answer His inquisitors’ questions had occurred; He endured multiple scourgings with the dreaded Roman whip, called a flagrum, which was a short whip consisting of a handle and two or three leather thongs, in which were knotted several pieces of metal—usually lead or iron or zinc—and which would swiftly shred away the victim’s skin, so weakening him from blood loss and pain that he would give little resistance to his executioners as they crucified him.
Jesus mostly refused to respond to his torturers, but He did respond to Pontius Pilate eventually, in the words written above. Exasperated, Pilate replied to Jesus: ‘QUID EST VERITAS?’—“WHAT IS TRUTH?” His words were as much a statement of resignation as a question. It’s amazing that Pilate even took this time to talk with Jesus, for he had a deserved reputation for violence, corruption, and cruelty and used these many times during his tenure to maintain order, especially in Jerusalem (he was recalled to Rome in 36 A.D. over charges of excessive cruelty).
Well, to Christians the “rest of the story” is well known, or at least it used to be well known. Procurator Pontius Pilate, speaking to Jesus, was looking eternity in its face, but he didn’t realize it. Though he obviously wanted to free Jesus, he “washed his hands” of this sordid affair and, after speaking with Jesus one last time, resigned himself to the demands of the mob, released the terrorist Barrabas to the screaming crowd, and handed Jesus over to be crucified. And so He was. Horribly and painfully. Pilate had told that mob that “he found no cause in him”—i.e. NO real reason to condemn Jesus to an agonizing death by crucifixion, but the mob would not listen to him. It wanted Jesus’ blood (or at least its scheming leaders did)! And they got it!
FROM THAT POINT THE FOREVER CONTROVERSY THAT AFFECTS MANKIND TO THIS DAY BEGAN, AND SATAN DETERMINED TO USE THE SIN OF “ANTI-SEMITISM” AGAINST HUMANITY!
DID THE JEWISH MOB CONDEMN THEMSELVES? IT APPEARS THAT THEY DID!
As Pilate reluctantly turned Jesus over to his military crucifixion squad and to the throng howling for his blood, the crowd of Jews yelled:
“His blood is on us and our children”. (Matthew 27:25 N.I.V.)
“Then answered all the people, and said, ‘his blood be on us, and on our children.” (Matthew 27:25 1599 Geneva Bible.)
This verse surely captures that moment in history when that howling Jerusalem mob, in response to Pilate’s question about Jesus’ fate, takes responsibility for demanding His crucifixion. The enraged throng, unthinkingly, yet probably convinced of the righteousness of their actions, declared that they and their descendants would willingly bear the consequences of their cruel act. And for almost 1500 years it was the official teaching of the Church of Rome that Jews should be forever blamed for Jesus’ Crucifixion, and that Jews were no longer to be considered as ‘God’s Chosen People’ because of what they did to Jesus.
ANTI-SEMITISM (HATRED OF JEWS/ZIONISTS) IS NOT A RECENT PHENOMENON!
Now we approach the ‘heart’ of this story of history, of violence, and of God’s sovereign will. Over that history the mob’s words of self-condemnation have been interpreted by non-Jewish and/or Christian people in various ways, with grave theological and societal implications for Jewish people forever after, involving the accusatory arguments that instantly arose, and STILL persist, over the “interpretation” of “Jewish guilt” over Jesus’ cruel death (among many other “conspiratorial” charges directed against Jews for many centuries), and which have engendered the SIN of anti-Semitism often directed against ALL Jews from that day to today and which resulted in all Jewish people being banished from many European nations during the Middle Ages and later--charges that have engendered hatred and loathing against all Jewish people, and especially against Jewish bankers and heads of vast investment conglomerates, and members of prominent Jewish families throughout Europe and the U.S.---charges which conceivably could be justified as truthful or accurate, at least in part. Or so we are constantly assured by many posturing “do-gooder” anti-Semitic individuals and organizations all over our U.S.A.
Opinions on the validity of Jewish conspiracies vary from total acceptance to total rejection. (Many of these “Jewish/Zionist conspiracies” were originated mostly in Europe and in Islamic dominated lands, from the earliest days of the Christian church through the Middle Ages, when much of what is probably irrational and untruthful nonsense first originated). I was introduced to anti-Semitism and “Jewish conspiracies” way back in the 1950’s, and its proponents were saying much the same things against Jewish people then as they do today! But the charges of total evil against Jews/Zionists of today, especially what they are accused of doing to children, is in a class of “evil” by itself, IF true and IF provable with ACTUAL FACTUAL EVIDENCE (and not just with “esoteric evidence” provided as ‘opinions’ and ‘hearsay’, or by ‘research’ and ‘written publications’ by those with suspicious agendas), which always seems difficult to obtain and to PROVE as authentic to everyone’s satisfaction—or at least to mine). The “assurances” of the anti-Semites that they have always proclaimed ‘truth’ long ago made me instantly suspicious of their ‘facts’ and their ‘histories’, and my suspicions have only hardened over the years, especially after I learned of their “adulation”—their “admiration”—of the evil and despicable Nazi, Adolf Hitler and his disgusting socialist Nazi party!
This historic hatred of Jews and/or Zionists was promoted by supposedly noble and trustworthy people, beginning mainly in Old Europe, and without any doubt in Islamic infested nations, whose populations in both centers of ‘civilization’ entertained suspicious agendas devoted to spreading what many considered to be confusion, delusion, and suspicion of their fellow citizens based on what they were convinced was truth. Some of these people became notorious as “Jew haters”, such as Moslems who have been “instructed” since the 7th century by their ‘moon god’, “Allah”, in their Qur’an to despise, lie about, and kill all “Jews” (and Christians) as a tenet of their false “religion”; AND members of the notoriously anti-Semitic Russian royal family and the anti-Semitic Russian government prior to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, which we are assured was fomented by “Jews”); AND anti-Semitic hatred spread by the so-called “Christian Church of Rome”, for sundry reasons, for 1500 years, all of which have intensified the increasing divide between Jews and non-Jews here in the U.S.
(It’s interesting to note that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church apologized to the Jewish world for that Church’s “unchristian” attitudes against Jews for much of that organization’s history. That apology was issued by Pope John Paul 11 on March 12, 2000, and it acknowledged the Church’s historic wrongs and all of the violence committed by many of its members against Jews for a millennium and a half. But it is well known that some conservative/traditional portions of the Roman Church still persist in holding traditional anti-Semitic beliefs, still blame Jews for Jesus’ crucifixion, and still deny that Jews are “God’s Chosen People” today.)
Some of these true or false conjectures may possibly be concerns caused by the lack of education in the period of time in which they occurred, but most of them revolve around hate of “non-Christians” for hate’s sake, for 1500 or so years, and which STILL afflicts many Christian believers and unbelievers to this very day (hatred which is becoming virulent right now in the U.S.), although many of the haters direct their anti-Semitic venom toward “Zionists” only. Or so they claim. (It should be noted here that to many Jewish people, “Zionists” and “Jews” are synonymous. If you are a Jew, you are a Zionist, and if you are a Zionist, you are a Jew.)
DID OUR LORD JESUS FORGIVE HIS PERSECUTORS AND EXECUTIONERS BEFORE HE “DIED”?
These people, screaming for Jewish “blood” over the millennia, in effect seem to forget a few very important words uttered by the dying Jesus as He hung in agony on that terrible Roman cross, paying the penalty for OUR sin. Apparently the Jew haters of the past, and of TODAY, seem to have forgotten:
“Jesus said, ‘father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing….’” ( LUKE 23:34, New International Version Bible.)
“Then said Jesus, ‘father, forgive them, for they know not what they do….’”: (LUKE 23:34, 1599 Geneva Bible.)
Just WHO was Jesus asking his “Father” in Heaven to forgive, as He died in agony? His Roman executioners? Yes, of course. His fellow Jews who were wildly anticipating His last breath? Ah yes, our Savior was asking God the Father to FORGIVE all those who were lusting for his death—ALL of his Roman torturers and ALL of the Jewish crowd—ALL of them. WHY would He do that? And for how long does Jesus’ prayer for FORGIVENESS apply? One day, two thousand years, or until He returns on The Day of the Lord? To whom did our Savior’s prayer apply? What do YOU think?
What about those “Jews/Zionists” of today who might possibly be involved in evil activities that the anti-Semites among us assure us are true and happening in the U.S., in Europe, and in Israel? Do they deserve “forgiveness” if they repent? What about those who don’t repent? What does our LORD Jesus expect us to do with THEM? Will they be punished for those evil acts they’re accused of committing? When will certifiably truthful PROOF (not just statements on a printed page) be released? I’ve asked anti-Semites that question but I’ve never received an answer. Perhaps there is no answer that all American could accept. Perhaps some of the Jew haters don’t want “definite proof” to be exposed, because the proclaiming of “conspiracies” is profitable.
The condemnatory words from that Jerusalem mob 2,000 years ago, which we must accept as part of our Creator’s Divine Plan have, as we have learned, been used historically to at least partially justify these “anti-Semitic” sentiments on the part of some “Christians” (real or nominal) ever since that tragic yet God-inspired day so long ago when “God the Son” was crucified, with often harsh and violent and fatal consequences, as spiritual vigilantes unwisely have taken it upon themselves (especially historically) to “bring justice” upon all Jewish (or is it just “Zionists”) people and treat them worse than animals, irrationally accusing them of causing virtually ALL of the misfortunes, plagues, wars, and economic miseries that have befallen western civilization at different times over many centuries.
It would seem that these “accusers” conveniently overlook our LORD Jesus’ pleading prayer to God the Father as he was dying on the cross to “FORGIVE” His enemies. What did Jesus really mean—what should we who live today infer about what LORD Jesus actually meant when he prayed for His Father to “forgive” His Roman/Jewish persecutors as they crucified Him? Forgive WHAT? Just the evil yet God-inspired events of that day, or something deeper? I can’t answer that.
But as we all should know, the sin of “anti-Semitism” is alive and well in our time, especially here in our freedom loving and proclaiming U.S.A., mainly to cause DIVISION among Americans, and is being used by our Marxist/collectivist/globalist enemies to bring charges of all kinds of “Jewish/Zionist Conspiracies” and “perverted and demented acts by Jews or Zionists directed against children because their Talmud approves it”, to foment hatred of all Jewish (or conversely all “Zionists”) people, including hatred of the nation of Israel, which is supposed to be the center of Jewish/Zionist evils, among the concerned patriots of America who should be resisting and exposing their Marxist/globalist/collectivist enemies instead of attacking our religious minority, some of whom, of course, MAY be involved in “conspiracies” and/or “evil acts” to the SAME DEGREE that other groups of people (pseudo-Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Masons, and even Moslems) may be involved in those same evil conspiracies or evil activities! Calling oneself “spiritual” and a faithful member of some Christian, Jewish, or other “faith” tradition does not automatically assure that one IS such!
When one is a “pseudo” anything he is no longer a “genuine” Jew or Christian or anything else (with the exception of the theologically twisted followers of Islam who as part of their “faith” preach hate and violence against all who stand against their Satanic pseudo “religion”) and has sold his soul to the forces of evil, which includes in our context the sinister and despicable people who support the Marxist/globalist/one world government of anti-American groups such as the “New World Order” proponents of the treasonous Council on Foreign Relations, and the “Trans-Human worshippers of “Mankind 2.0” in the despicable World Economic Forum (whose new leader just resigned after he was exposed as “dallying” with Jeffry Epstein’s young lady friends), and their reprehensible scheme to mix humans and computers. All totally evil and which must be THE subjects of our derision and exposure, and NOT the persecution of our Jewish fellow citizens who admittedly are as good or as evil as ANY OTHER group of citizens, and who should be bought to justice should they be convicted of doing evil things!
WHAT REALLY WAS GOD’S “PLAN”?
But IF God decreed the events of that “Day That Changed History”, which I truly believe He DID, then the Jewish mob in Jerusalem was only acting as a part of a Divine Plan brought to fruition in the mind of God long before the Jewish people, OR the universe, existed. Therefore, to place the blame for Jesus’ cruel death on a people that were essentially “characters” in God’s plan for mankind is both unjust and irrational, because God was (and IS) the AUTHOR of human actions for HIS purposes, for HIS glory.
WHY DID “GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE” WANT JESUS KILLED?
God the Son suffered horribly to atone to God the Father for ALL of the past, present, and future sins committed by mankind, including repentant Jews. The Jews in Jerusalem that day wanted Jesus to die, but in reality they became mere characters in God’s “Morality Play”, the same as Pontius Pilate and all of the Romans were. That the Hebrews (Jews) of THAT time were Scripturally identified as “God’s Chosen People”, whom he loved for HIS reasons, makes their “guilt” in crucifying Jesus (the Second Person of the Triune God) all the more tragic, at least on the surface, for it appears that God the Son was killed upon the insistence of “God’s Chosen People”, a fact that I find difficult to understand, even though we must acknowledge that this was the eternal plan of our Heavenly Father before the Creation of all time, space, and matter. Do I understand God’s “reasons” for His plan? Only imperfectly, and only what Scripture tells us. But I DO accept his Divine plan, for its ultimate purpose was to provide believers a Way to live with Him forever. I suggest that YOU investigate and do likewise while you still can.
THE ULTIMATE TRUTH WAS REVEALED
Although neither Pilate or his soldiers or the Jerusalem mob knew it, they were about to witness the “apparent death” of Deity (which those of other faith traditions find difficult or impossible to accept, almost as difficult as it is for them to understand the “TRIUNITY” of God—i.e. ONE God (NOT THREE) who manifests Himself in three forms). It’s a matter of true faith to accept our Savior’s cruel, painful, and torturous death that He endured for us—for you—for me—for all who name Him as their LORD AND SAVIOR. His family and His followers then—as now—felt and feel so helpless, so ashamed, yet so thankful—that the Creator of the universe, who had come to live among us for a few years as a Man and teach us His message of love and redemption from His lips (and NOT from the often incorrect teachings of priests or so-called pious holy men), suffered in such an ignoble way, bearing the very pain of Hell for those of us over all the centuries who have taken our Savior into their very hearts and tried to live—and often die-- for Him.
Sometimes, thinking about His suffering for me—for those of us who call ourselves “Christians”—is almost too much to bear, especially when we know that ALL of us deserve to bear the pain that He endured for us. As I said, even today those of other faiths refuse to accept the truth that GOD came and lived among His people for a time, and died (as human beings understand it) for those same people who rejected His eternal plan of offering redemption from sin for ALL who would accept His sacrificial death for them on that cruel Roman cross.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked myself the question: WHY would the Creator do this for me, and for you, or for any of us? Why would He be concerned for these sinful, rebellious, troublesome creatures called “humans” that He made in His very image? Why would He not just let us go about our brief lives and end up in Hell, where we belong, and do as Pilate did—just wash His hands of all of us? Well, I can’t presume to speak for our Creator, but His Word tells us that He did this because He loved us, and wanted to provide us a way back to Him after the curse of sin had entered the world because of the rebelliousness (sin) of our first parents in God’s beautiful garden. He so loved the world of sinful men that He came among us AS A MAN (otherwise humans who beheld Him would have been consumed by His Glory) to teach us, so that whoever believed in Him should not perish—should not end up in Hell—but would have eternal life. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:17). His glorious RESURRECTION that we celebrate on Easter Sunday was but the culmination of God’s eternal plan to bring everlasting life with God for those who are true Christian believers!
Yes, God’s plan was based on love for us. But God the Son paid a terrible price because of His creatures’ sin—because of OUR sin. His Passion tears away the veil of indifference from us, and forces us, if we are honest, to see ourselves as we really are. Pontius Pilate asked the Savior of Mankind: WHAT IS TRUTH? He was looking at “ultimate truth” eye to eye, but he never realized it.
There is an UNFOUNDED story in part of the Christian Church that Pontius Pilate was saved before he died—that he became a follower of Jesus the Messiah. This side of eternity we’ll never know with certainty. I truly hope that Pilate did accept the One he allowed to be crucified as his Lord and Savior before he went into eternity, because if he did, when we see him in God’s Paradise, wherever that may be, we can ask him about that day, and about his role in God’s eternal plan, and see him smile and say: ECCE HOMO—Behold the Man, our Savior, the ultimate truth!
