Murder. Terrorism. Genocide. Chemical weapons attack. Conspiracy. Assassination. Serial rapist. Child molester. Bubblegum thief. Jay walking. The charges leveled against people over the years are almost endless. Charges against someone in a court of law shape a person’s future.
Some crimes deserve death. Some don’t. And as we have seen in the news lately, sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes, even before they are formally charged, tragedy happens. Sometimes justice is not served. Sometimes people get it wrong. And sometimes people do wrong things and get away with it.
We read in the headlines, and on sports uniforms, the political sound bite charge. But often these politically correct sound bite charges don’t tell the whole picture. They leave out the violent attacks that proceeded the headline, or the aggressive resistance that lead to an act. Any tragedy can be spun to tell a story. These stories could be spun to highlight the failure of fathers to take their responsibility to raise sons to be people of honor. Or to be involved in their lives in any productive manner.
We could spin it to demonstrate that police forces are chronically underfunded. Or as it is being spun currently, that “white privilege” is to blame. But the charges that could be written don’t accurately reflect the realities.
But charges are quite different from verdicts. People can be charged with almost anything, but to be found guilty of something and sentenced is quite a different matter. Many people are charged with things, but when the evidence is examined, they are not found guilty. They might have done the accused deed, but there isn’t enough evidence to convict them. Or maybe they didn’t do it at all and the evidence supports that conclusion.
Jesus is found guilty of being “The King of the Jews.” What a funny verdict. Pilate didn’t find any of the evidence presented by the religious leaders to be substantial enough to warrant Jesus’ arrest, let alone His conviction and execution. And yet he has yielded to political pressure.
So in writing his verdict Pilate sticks it in the eye of the Jews. He shows them that he is no fool. If they want to play politics, so can he. Pilate kills their king! If they want to pretend to exercise power, Pilate does them one better. He places a label on Jesus that infuriates the religious leaders. They never said Jesus was their king. Jesus had said that His kingdom was not of this world, but not that He was king of this world.
If the religious leaders wanted to wield power, Pilate would cause his axe to fall on their own necks. He would kill the very One they hated and then emasculate them by labeling Him their king. If they wanted to play games, Pilate would win with a checkmate. Game, set, and match. World Championship. Rome one, Jews zero.
But remember, the religious leaders did not say that Jesus was their king. But claiming to be king was something that Rome would be interested in. They didn’t like others trying to take what was rightfully theirs, and only one king could exist in Rome, and the position was already filled.
So if you are tempted to take on the power structure of your day, realize that they can use their power for evil and for good. Right now they control the media, so that their nakedness won’t be exposed. The king doesn’t have clothes, but even pictures won’t convince anyone.
The Arnold Journey 