Psalms 8:1, 16:1-2, 31:1-3
My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down (Psalm 23:1-2a) in Luke 23. Verse 24 stood out to me:
Luke 23:24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.
I’ve often said the Bible teaches the doctrine we call “The Consent of the Governed.” I’ve also pointed out that it’s a law written into nature by our Creator. Gravity is a constant force ubiquitous throughout nature, but it can be violated. Someone can leap from a window on the 163rd floor of the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, and plummet 1,921 feet to the street below.* Or a person could be pushed from a window on the 163rd floor. Also, someone could conceivably find themselves flailing to the ground due to an accident. In either instance, the natural law of gravity will punish the “violation” with utter indifference to what occasioned it.
In the case before us, the violators were “the people,” and the Person cast off “the pinnacle” was Christ Jesus, the King, our Lord.
Pilate was compelled to yield to the “will” of the people, even though he personally disagreed with their judgment, even though doing so violated not only his own conscience and judgment, but also Roman law.
Along the still waters (Psalm 23:2b), I reflected on this story. It illustrates the power of “the will of the people,” when it is unified in a clearly defined purpose and energized with insistent fervor. It also illustrates what happens when that purpose is evil: the governed demanded and consented to the murder of God’s Son. The people and their leaders “consented” even to the consequence of their violation of God’s law, and abuse of their power delegated to them by their GOD.
The voices of the people, and their “influencers,” prevailed (Luke 22:23). When Pilate washed his hands in a symbolic gesture saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it,” the people and their “influencers” cried out: “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25).
But another important truth concerning the Consent of the Governed emerges in this story: the people are not Sovereign in the exercise of their power. Ultimately, all power is derived from God, including the power of the Consent of the Governed. Therefore, the people’s authority is derived from GOD. They have capacity to abuse their power, but do not have capacity to direct or control the consequences of their abuse.
Although Jesus was murdered by the “consent of the governed,” the Sovereign Who gave them the stewardship of this power intervened.
First, note that not everyone in the crowd called for Christ to be crucified: His mother did not, His faithful disciple, John, did not, Mary Magdalene didn’t, and not even Peter, who denied him, joined the braying beasts. Indeed, there were others, like Joseph of Arimathea, a ruler of the Jews, who “had not consented to the counsel and deed of them” (Luke 23:51-51). But the majority did! So what of these? God, acting in His Sovereignty, worked the wicked deed of “the people” to good, for the death of Christ was purposed by God to provide atonement for the sins of mankind (1 John 2:1-2).
Second, Pilate could not wash the innocent blood from his hands in a basin of Roman water. Eusebius believed Pilate committed suicide within three to four years after surrendering Jesus to the will of the envious, murderous mob.**
And as for those who “consented” to their own guilt for the shedding of innocent blood (Matthew 27:25), the people could not transfer the guilt of their own evil deed onto their children (Ezekiel 18:1-4). It is near certain that some of the three thousand Jews who were saved on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41) were connected to someone who cried with the mob: “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” (Luke 23:21). It is also possible, even probable, that some of those who joined in that evil act later repented and received the benefit of the atonement provided by the very blood they shed (Acts 3:14-21).
The power of the consent of the governed is indeed illustrated in this story, but we also see that this power, like all power delegated by God to man, is limited under His Sovereignty in the ultimate working out of His purposes (Acts 2:22-24). ***
Man had his purpose for the Cross, and God had His. Their purposes were not aligned, although the same event served both. God grants a stewardship of power to “the people.” But He retains Sovereignty. His purposes prevail over man’s perverseness. But only those who love Him ever see it! (Romans 8:28).
The same thing is true today. We are sometimes abused by the abusers of the power ordained by God (Romans 13:1-6). When this occurs, we must remonstrate within the law (Acts 22:25; 16:35-39), and sometimes defy it (Acts 5:29; and consider the three Hebrew children’s defiance of Nebuchadnezzar—Daniel 3:14-27). The world will hate us and pursue their own purpose for the persecutions they inflict on us (Luke 6:22-23; etc.). But God has His purpose for the “cross” we are called to bear. They are not Sovereign, GOD is! His purpose will prevail.
In the valley (Psalm 23:4), shadowed by His Cross, I heard Him say: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). So I said, “And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:30-31). Presenting this body to Him as a “living sacrifice” was and is easy. Yielding my spirit to His when confronted with “evil beasts” (see 1 Corinthians 15:32), but I know that my redeemer liveth and that He shall “stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job 19:25), and I with Him (Revelation 20:6), but, beware, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12), so let us “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corithians 15:34).
At the table (Psalm 23:5), after we discussed the truth that some will be ashamed at His appearing (1 John 2:28), He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup for the day, intermingling His sufficient grace (Psalm 23:5; 2 Corinthians 12:9). Goodness and mercy appeared, helped me from my seat, and followed us into the harvest.
Praying for revival! 🙏
Going live asap:
https://rumble.com/v7bs2oe-shepherds-pasture.html
[*The Burj Khalifa building in Dubai is over 1/2 mile high—2,717 ft. The highest occupied floor is 1,920.6 feet from ground level—just over 1/3rd of a mile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa?utm_source=chatgpt.com ]
[***Notice that this is premised upon foreknowledge. For God to remain Sovereign in all these matters does not require that He initiate, and use any sort of coercion, or exercise any Divine intervention in the matter to compel the people into the abuses they perpetrated upon His Son. What He foreknew they would do did not require Him to foreplan its doing. What He did, however, is Sovereignly intervene to work out His purposes through their evil deed.]
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