Holy Week – The Loudest Voice
Matthew 27. 22 - 23 (NIV)
‘What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?’ Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’
I’m a big fan of BBC’s The Apprentice. The long process where everyone tries to dodge Lord Sugar’s pointy figure, and those fatal words – You’re fired! The concept is simple: Sugar sets ridiculous challenges with a view to finding his next business partner. The first few weeks of the show are chaos as two teams of strangers try to make a series of unified collaborative decisions about things that, in truth, don’t really matter. What is evident is, it’s not the first idea, the most thought through idea, or even the best idea that is often chosen. It’s the idea that has been shouted loudest.
In our verses today Pilate the Governor of Judaea presents Jesus to the crowd. Pilate had the power to release a prisoner on this day. Would Jesus be released, a blameless and innocent man, or Barabbas a known criminal?
He turns to the crowd and asks what to do with Jesus and the voices that shouted loudest screamed – CRUCIFY HIM. Reading the passage, you can feel the internal tussle that Pilate is going through. He wants to set Jesus free, the vengeance demanded doesn’t sit right with him, but he caves in to the loudest voice – CRUCIFY HIM.
We can all be guilty of going with the flow, listening to the loud voice of the world and not the voice of God. We ask what might people think if we're different?
Sometimes it can feel hard to hear from God, but in my experience, it can be even harder to follow through on what we think we’ve heard. It requires faith, sacrifice, and a confidence to say – I’m trusting you God for this.
You can see this struggle playing out so clearly in this passage with Pilate where, despite his inner voice urging him to do right, he surrenders to the loudest external voice. Let’s learn from his mistake.
Pray — Lord, help us to be confident in following you. Help us to not just listen to your voice but to act too. Strengthen us to reject the loud (and quiet) voice of the Enemy.
