THE SUPREME INJUSTICE! 

March 20. (F.W. Hertzberger, The Family Altar, 1922)

 

 

“Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do, then, with Jesus, which is called Christ? “

 Matthew. 21:22.

 

         Pilate does not know what to do with Jesus, his prisoner.

He ought to have known, and in his inmost heart did know. The

path of duty lay plain and clear before him. He knew that Jesus

was innocent, that the Jews had delivered Him into his hands

and demanded Jesus' death from envy. (Matt. 27:18.) So it was

his sacred duty to set Jesus free. But Pilate was a politician

who curried favor with the elders of the Jews and was afraid

to anger them by releasing Jesus. He finally gives way to their

insistent clamor and sentences Jesus to be crucified, and so com-

mits judicial murder. 

 

                    What shall I do with Jesus ? Alas ! so many raise that 

Question of Pilate in our time. So many do not know what

 to do with Jesus. Many, even so-called ministers of

the Gospel, who ought to know better, hold Him to be a mere

man, a great teacher of human love and social reform, who died

a martyr's death on the cross. But they contradict themselves.

They all regard Him as a good and pious man, in fact, as the

highest type of human goodness and morality. But no good,

moral man will die with a lie, even a false oath, on his lips.

Jesus, put under oath by the high priest Caiaphas, declares that

He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. What will these

unbelieving critics do with this sacred oath of Christ concerning

Himself? 

God in His holy Word tells all men what they should

do with Christ. He has made Christ our Wisdom, from whom

we should learn divine, saving Truth ; our Righteousness, in whom

alone we can find forgiveness for our sins; our Sanctification,

in whom alone we can stand holy and blameless in the sight of

God; our Redemption, in whom alone we find salvation from

death and the wrath to come, and gain eternal life. (1 Cor. 1:30.)

Only when we, by faith, make Christ all this to us, is He in fact

our Savior.

 

In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime.

 

When the woes of life o'ertake me,

Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,

Never shall the cross forsake me.

Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

 

When the sun of bliss is beaming

Light and love upon my way,

From the cross the radiance streaming

Adds new luster to the day.