PILATE AND OURSELVES GUILTY OF THE SAVIOR’S DEATH – Charles Spurgeon
Pilate and Ourselves: Guilty of the Savior’s Death
“When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” Matthew 27:24, 25.
Introduction: The Crowning Sin of Humanity
The crucifixion of Christ was the crowning sin of our race. In His death we shall find all the sins of mankind uniting in foul conspiracy. Envy and pride and hate are there, with covetousness, falsehood, and blasphemy, eager to rush on to cruelty, revenge, and murder. The devil awakened around the seed of the woman the iniquities of us all; they compassed the Lord about; yes, they compassed Him about like bees. All the evils of human hearts of all ages were concentrated around the cross, even as all the rivers run into the sea, and as all the clouds empty themselves upon the earth, so did all the crimes of man gather to the slaying of the Son of God. It seemed as if hell held a formal reception and all the various forms of sin came flocking to the rendezvous, army upon army they hastened to the battle. As the vultures hasten to the body, so the flocks of sins came to make the Lord their prey. By all the assembled troops of sins there was consummated the foulest crime which the sun has ever beheld. By wicked hands they did crucify and slay the Savior of the world.
Our Guilt in the Death of Jesus
We have been singing two hymns in which we took to ourselves a share of the guilt of our Lord’s death. We sang:
“Oh, the sharp pangs of smarting pain
My dear Redeemer bore,
When knotty whips and rugged thorns
His sacred body tore.
But knotty whips and rugged thorns
In vain do I accuse;
In vain I blame the Roman bands
And the more spiteful Jews.
‘Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were;
Each of my crimes became a nail,
And unbelief the spear.”
And then after the same manner, we sorrowfully asked a question, and sang a penitential reply:
“My Jesus! Who with spit vile
Profaned Your sacred brow?
Or whose unpitying scourge has made
Your precious blood to flow?
‘Tis I have thus ungrateful been,
Yet, Jesus, pity take!
Oh, spare and pardon me, my Lord,
For Your sweet mercy’s sake!”
Perhaps some of you hardly understand what you have been singing. But others of us have sincerely and intelligently pleaded guilty of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that He not only suffered for our transgressions, but by our iniquities. This is not clear to a great many, and I would not have them pretend that it is. They cannot see that they have anything to do with the matter of Jesus’ death, and therefore they are not moved to repentance by hearing of it. Indeed, they imitate the example of Pilate in our text, when he took water and washed his hands before the multitude and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.”
The Object of This Discourse: Awakening Consciences
The object of our present discourse will be to awaken slumbering consciences. Without going into any metaphysical questions as to whether such a man did or did not actually have a share in the particular action by which Jesus died, I shall show you that in many ways men practically commit a like crime, and so prove that they have similar dispositions to those ancient Kill-Christ’s. Though they repudiate the crucifixion, they repeat it, if not in form, yet in spirit. Though Jesus is not here in flesh and blood, yet the cause of holiness and truth and His divine Spirit are still among us, and men act towards the kingdom of Christ, which is set up among them, in the same way as the Jews and Romans acted towards the incarnate God. True, all men are not alike against Him, for the Lord spoke of some who have “the greater sin,” and few are as guilty as the traitor Judas, that son of perdition, but in every form of it, the rejection of Christ is a great sin, and it will be a great gospel blessing if it is repented of after the fashion of the prophet when he said, “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.”
I. Determined and Avowed Opponents of Christ
I shall now take up the story of our Lord’s appearance before Pilate, from the moment of His being sent back to Herod to the time when He was delivered to the Jews to be led away for crucifixion, and I shall try to exhibit by this narrative several ways in which men virtually put the Christ to death, and therefore become partakers of the ancient transgression which was committed at Jerusalem.
First, there are some—and these are they who have the greater sin—who are determinedly and avowedly the opponents of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the men who are represented by the chief priests and elders of the Jews, who of old sought the Savior’s blood, because they could not endure His teaching. Nothing else would satisfy them but that He should be removed from the earth, for He was a standing protest against their evil deeds. They hated Him because by His light their wicked lives were reproved. These were the true murderers of Christ, who gloried in their shame and defied the punishment of it, crying, “His blood be on us, and on our children.”
We still have among us those who cannot endure the teaching of our Lord Jesus. His very name seems to excite their worst passions. They rave at the mention of Him. Oh, the atrocious things that some have said of late of the Christ of God. They have gone out of their way to insult Him. If anyone else had been slandered as He has been, society would not have tolerated the loathsome tongues. Accusations against Jehovah and His Son would seem to be delectable morsels to modern blasphemers, dainties upon which they feed greedily. My flesh trembles when I think of the hard speeches which the ungodly still utter against Him who in the day of His humiliation endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.
II. The Tragic Choice: Choosing Barabbas
Many of these slanders would have been absurd, and to be dismissed with utter contempt, if it were not for the guilt of the men themselves, for in these speeches we see that the poison of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. They do not treat so the heroes of war, the philosophers of antiquity, nor even the notorious scourges of the race. To all of these, they show some candor, and often award honors which are doubtfully due, but when they touch upon the person and life of our blessed Lord, candor and honesty are dismissed, anything like an attempt to understand Him is refused, and He and His are treated with ridicule, misrepresentation, and falsehood. They heap up their coarsest epithets, they put the worst interpretation upon His words, and they give the vilest misrepresentations of His deeds, and attribute to Him motives to which He was an utter stranger.
Such men are among us, clamoring to be heard. There have been unbelievers and deriders of Jesus in all times, but just now the race is of fouler speech than usual. Once infidelity was philosophical and thoughtful, and great names were to be found upon her roll, but now her noisiest advocates are bullies after the manner of Tom Paine, men who seem to delight in wounding the feelings of the godly and crushing every sacred thing under their feet. These are the true followers of the men whose mouths were full of, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” They cannot endure that Jesus should be remembered, much less revered. They claim to be “liberal,” and to be large-hearted towards all religions, but their unmitigated scorn of the faith of Jesus is displayed on every possible occasion, proving that the spirit of persecution burns within them. It would be idle for these to say that they would not crucify Christ, for they do crucify Him to the utmost of their power by their profane speeches against Him.
III. The Sin of Heartlessness and Contempt for the Savior’s Suffering
By decrying His atonement by which He reconciles men to God, by setting men’s hearts against Him and causing them to refuse His salvation, these men do as far as they can, rob Him of the joy that was set before Him, for which He endured the cross, despising the shame. Is this nothing? Put me to death if you will, for I shall live when I am dead by the words which I have spoken. I should count it a far worse murder if you could sweep out of men’s minds all that I have taught and overthrow all the good which I have attempted to do. And if it is so of a mere man, much more must it be so of Jesus—that merely to murder Him upon the cross is comparatively little compared with declaring, “We will not be influenced by Him, nor believe in Him as Savior and God, and to the best of our power we will prevent others from believing in Him.” What a wretched objective for a man to live for, what a horrible fame for a man to seek after—to stamp out the gospel of Jesus. Terrible will be the punishment of this sin. Oh, opponent of Jesus, instead of being less guilty than the Jews of our Lord’s day, you are even more culpable. You are not slaying Him in one way, but you are doing it in another, and the crime is the same in spirit.
IV. Cowardice and the Fear of Public Opinion
I see a mystic cross to which your cruel words nail my Lord, I see before my mental eyes a Calvary whereon the Lord Jesus is crucified afresh and put to an open shame by infidel sarcasms and skeptical insinuations, I see Him derided and made nothing of by those who deny His deity and refuse to believe in His sacrifice. Enough of this. May conscience be present here, and the Spirit of God be present too, that men may not dare to wash their hands in innocence if they have been the open antagonists of Jesus and still are so. Oh that you would turn to Him, and become His disciples. His beauties are such that they might well charm every honest heart. His teaching is so tenderly reasonable, so full of sweetness and of light, that it is marvelous that men do not receive it with joy. His cross is unique—a bleeding sufferer, bearing offenses that were not His own, that His own enemies might live! The conception is so strange that it could never have originated in the selfish mind of fallen man. It bears its own witness on its brow. Woe unto those that fight against it, for it shall cost them dearly. He that stumbles upon this stone shall be broken, but upon whomever this stone shall fall it shall grind him to powder. See what came to these Jewish people, they were themselves crucified by Titus in such numbers that they could no longer find wood enough for their execution. Jerusalem destroyed is the result of Jesus crucified. Beware, you that fight against Him, for the omnipotent Father will take up His quarrel, and all the forces of creation and of providence will be at His command to wage war for truth and righteousness. The Nazarene has triumphed, and He will triumph even to the end, when He shall have all His enemies under His feet. O you that hate Him, be wise early and close the hopeless contest in which you chiefly fight against your own souls.
Conclusion: The Sin of Self-Righteous Hypocrisy
Lastly, and oh that the Spirit of God may bless this sharp medicine to some heart that it may feel the pangs of penitence this morning—there is the sin of self-righteous hypocrisy. This Pilate committed in set form. He took water and washed his hands and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it.” What a contradiction! He is innocent, but he gives them permission to be guilty. They could not murder the Lord without his permission. He gives the necessary permit, and yet he says, “I am innocent.” Do I not see another of the same class over yonder? He says, “I do not despise Christ, or speak a word against Him. I am perfectly innocent of any ill will towards Him. Of course, if others oppose Him they may, for it is a free country, let them do as they like, but I am perfectly clear of it.”
It is not the way that a man acts if he sees another being murdered. He does not look on and say that he would rather not interfere. You say you cannot help other people’s opinions? Have you no opinion of Jesus of your own? Do you say, “No, I never think of Him”? Is not that contempt? Do you decline to hold any opinion about one who claims to be your God? About one who must be your Savior or you must perish forever? You cannot sheer off in that way. Now that rebellion is afoot you must either be loyal or be a traitor. The standard is unfurled, and each man must take his side. Your negligence of Jesus contradicts your claim to be neutral. You pretend to leave Him alone, but that leaving alone is fatal.
Closing Appeal: Take Action for Christ
A man is in yon upper room of a burning house, and you can save him. You refuse to touch the matter, for it is no concern of yours either way, and so you leave it to the firemen and their helpers. Meanwhile, the man perishes because you will not help him. I say that you are inexcusable, that man’s blood lies at your door. It was your duty to have rescued him. So the Lord Jesus Christ comes here among men and He is persecuted. You quietly say, “No doubt it is a pity, but I cannot help it.” Just so, but by your inaction, you side with His foes. Do you say that you are so righteous that you do not need a Savior? That, indeed, is smiting Him on the face. He comes to be a Savior and you tell Him that He is superfluous, that you are so good that you can do without being washed in His blood. That is spitting in His face, and telling Him that He was a fool to die for you. Why should He shed His blood if you are innocent enough without it? In effect, you charge God with folly for providing a great propitiation when such good people as you are need nothing of the kind. I do not believe anybody can more grossly insult the Son of the Highest! This is crucifying Him indeed! The self-righteous man who says, “I am clean,” deprives Christ’s sacrifice of its glory, His life of its end, His person of its dignity, His whole work of its wisdom. The very heart of God is set upon the objective for which Christ died, and yet the self-righteous man counts this a folly.
Come, my hearers, there is no room for any of us to accuse his fellow, let us all come with humble confessions to the feet of Jesus, now risen from the dead, and let us each say to Him right sorrowfully:
“‘Tis I to whom these pains belong,
‘Tis I should suffer for my wrong.
Bound hand and foot in heavy chains
Your scourge, Your fetters, whatever You bear,
‘Tis my soul should bear,
For she has well deserved such pains.
Yet you do even for my sake
On you, in love, the burdens take
That weighed my spirit to the ground:
Yes You are made a curse for me
That I might yet be blest through Thee:
My healing in Your wounds is found.”