Politics makes strange bedfellows

"Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked?  "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered. --John 19:15

History is replete with stories of mortal enemies come together against a common foe.  My father, an ex-Marine, used to tell stories of how Marine Corps men would always get into bar fights against Navy men, but they would defend each other to the death against an Army man. And so it goes.

The facts about Jesus' crucifixion bear this out.  The Jewish leaders, whose ox had been repeatedly gored by this man, arrested Jesus and sentenced him to death.  Why didn't they stone him to death, as was the preferred Jewish method of execution?  Perhaps they remembered what he had told them when they dragged a naked woman through the streets and threw her at his feet.  "Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone," Jesus had told them.

So they tried to gin up some capital charges with their Roman overlords.  The Jews doubtless hated the Romans, for they had come in and occupied their lands, taking away Jewish autonomy, and bringing with them a plethora of false gods.  The best excuse they could come up with was, "He claims to be King of the Jews."  Apparently, this concept offended the Jews' religious convictions more than it did the Roman governor Pilate.  Nor did it seem to bother Herod, the Roman Tetrarch. These political leaders did not see a standing army, just eleven close followers who were not trained as soldiers, and a few women.

Pilate interrogated Jesus in private.  "Are you the king of the Jews?"  Jesus answered this question with a question: "Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?"  The governor tried to put Jesus on the defensive.  If his claim was to be King of the Jews, what difference would it make to Pilate? He was not a Jew.  He even tried to apply logic to the situation--a king would be a unifying force for his people, but the Jews were divided.  Not three days earlier, Jesus had been welcomed into Jerusalem like a conquering hero. The people had waved palm branches, and had placed their cloaks on the cobblestone streets so that the donkey he was riding would make soft steps, making the rider more comfortable.  Now Pilate was seeing quite the opposite.  "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me.  What have you done?" (John 18:35).

Jesus took the opportunity to preach a mini-sermon to the governor.  "My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by these Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.  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." (John 18:36-37).

The governor's response is telling:  "What is truth?"  We hear this a lot in the secular world today: Truth is relative; what is true for you may not be true for me.  Pilate could not find any crime in this man worthy of death, but he also wanted to keep the peace.  He could release the prisoner and start a riot, or he could hand Jesus over to be crucified, and mollify the crowd.  That was the political reality he saw.

The Jews, on the other hand, had been taught the Truth from their childhood.  They had doubtless memorized Psalm 44, where in the 4th verse it says, "You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob."  They had likely sung the words of Psalm 24, where David had written:

Lift up your heads, O  you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the KING of Glory may come in.  Who is this KING of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.  Lift up your heads, you ancient doors, that the KING of Glory may come in.  Who is he, this KING of Glory? The LORD Almighty--He is the KING of Glory. --Psalm 24:7-10

So the Jews knew that they had no King but God; none but the Lord would they serve.  Yet they, like Pilate, compromised their long-held standards for short-term gain.  "We have no king but Caesar".  Indeed!

Friend, have the courage of your convictions.  Do not set aside your beliefs for expediency.

When I was young, I heard scary sermons of the end times, when God's people would all be persecuted for their faith.  They would refuse the Mark of the Beast as described in Revelation, and for that they would be  unable to buy and sell in the open marketplace.  I often wondered, in my young and impressionable years, why the end-times Christians wouldn't just lie about who they were, in order that they could buy groceries and avoid persecution.  God knew their hearts; why couldn't they just say whatever it takes to make it until Jesus came and rescued them?  Now I know, if that were the case, those people would be no better than the Jews who claimed allegiance to Caesar.  Now I know why Jesus called these people hypocrites.

Neighbor, don't be a hypocrite. Don't cover up your faith for love or money.