Judica Wednesday 2020 – Devotion in Exile


Judica Wednesday 2020 – Devotion in Exile

Our text from the lectionary for this Wednesday of the week of Judica, the 5th week of Lent is from Mark’s Gospel. (Mark 15:1-15)

Mark 15:1-15

Did you read what Pilate did when the chief priest stirred up the crowd demanding that Barabbas be released and the Jesus be crucified? He, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified. (vs. 15)

Pilate wished to satisfy the crowd. Wow! He knew Jesus was innocent, that the charges against Him were bogus, that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered Him up, but he acquiesced to the rabble before him anyway. We could talk about his spineless nature. We could mention that Pilate did not want his name connected with the events of this day (to the point of even symbolically washing his hands), but he has been remembered for centuries in both Creeds (Apostles’ & Nicene) as the one under whom Jesus “suffered.”

You and I often do things that are wrong, oftentimes sinful, in order to keep people happy. We sin by our silence, when we know we should speak to defend the faith, or even to defend the defenseless.

But Pilate was only the instrument of God’s will. He was the right man for the job! And the job was that Christ needed to go to the cross. Christ needed to suffer and die! It was necessary the Christ be the sinless, Lamb of God, led to slaughter, as the atoning sacrifice for sinfulness.

Did you catch it? Barabbas, (Bar = son of; abba = father, daddy) son of the father, goes free from his imprisonment and sentence of death. Meanwhile, the innocent, beloved, Son of the Father goes to the cross. This is no coincidence. God plays out the great exchange giving all the evidence that He can. For us to be freed from our imprisonment to sin and eternal death and be called sons of the Father, the Beloved Son of God must give His life unto death. God’s plan must be accomplished! God uses Pilate to do His will, and bring about the salvation of souls.

As God used Pilate to accomplish His will, so God is at work today, even in the midst of our bondage to this virus sweeping the globe today. God’s will is accomplished, and His will is the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of souls. Amen.

Keep one another in your prayers. Pick up the phone and speak to one another.

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