Have you ever wondered how you would handle it if you were held captive? Over the years, there have been endless television shows and movies about hostage situations. How would you behave if you were taken captive? Would you be the model hostage behaving as asked or would you be the hero looking for the opportunity to sneak up behind one of the bad guys and take his gun? A 73-year-old woman in North Carolina entered her kitchen one morning and found herself facing the gun of an escaped criminal. Not easily intimidated, she said: listen young man: I am a Christian lady and I don't believe in violence. Put that gun down and sit down. The convict relaxed his grip on the shotgun and said: I'm hungry. The woman said: You wait right here while I go and fix breakfast. She turned to her husband and said Nathan: Go get this young man some dry socks. She made bacon, eggs, toast and tea. Before they ate, she prayed. She told the young man: I love you and God loves you. Jesus died for you. Before long, they heard sirens, and the police arrived with their guns. But there was no shooting. Louise told the police that she wanted no violence. As they put handcuffs on the prisoner, they looked at this couple and wondered how they had managed to avoid being killed by this violent criminal. Imagine you were in this situation. How would you conduct yourself? Would you be defiant or would you be cautious?
When Jesus stood before Pilate, he was a prisoner: a prisoner of war in the battle between darkness and light, between the forces of the status quo and the kingdom of righteousness, between the forces of evil and the reign of God. We can imagine that his hands were bound behind him. After all, he was a prisoner. His clothes were probably stained and dirty from the inhuman conditions in the primitive jail. Yet there was a dignity to him that Pilate obviously recognised. Are You the King of the Jews? Pilate asked. If Jesus claimed to be King of the Jews, he could be tried for treason. If he claimed to be the Son of God, he could be tried for blasphemy. Jesus answered Pilate with a question: Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me? Pilate was defensive. I am not a Jew, am I; your own people and the chief priests delivered you up to me; what have you done? The truth was that Jesus had done nothing unless you count making blind people see and deaf people hear and giving strength to withered limbs. It wasn't anything Jesus had done; it was who he was that was the threat to the established order. Jesus replied: My kingdom is not of this world. Aha! So you are a king? Jesus answered: You say correctly that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. No wonder Pilate didn't want anything to do with Jesus. Here was someone the likes of whom he had never encountered before. He was a King; but the word king was inadequate for the role he was to play. The king who stood before Pilate was the king of righteousness, the king of the ages, the king of heaven, the king of glory, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. His life is matchless, his goodness limitless, his mercy everlasting, his love never changing. His word is enough. His grace is sufficient, his reign righteous. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Death couldn't handle Him and the grave couldn't hold Him. That was the kind of king Pilate was dealing with.
There are some lessons from Pilate's encounter with Jesus that we could benefit from learning. The first is this: Be careful about putting other people in a box before you learn their story. Often you’ll hear stereotypes like this: oh it’s just a bunch of women, children, migrants, criminals or prisoners. It would have been easy for Pilate to deal with Jesus as no one of consequence, for we often pass judgment on people who are in difficult situations without knowing them as they really are. There are people around us like that. We see them on the street. The rough, unshaven homeless man, but when we get to know him we discover he was once a university professor with a wife and family, until he started having mental problems and his world fell apart. Be careful about putting people in boxes without knowing their story. Secondly be careful about putting Christ in a box. We like the Jesus who is like us; who holds the same values, treasures the same traditions and embraces the same politics. We are horrified at the Christ that other people in other places worship because he is different from our Christ. Friends; Christ is more than the sum total of all the theologies that have ever tried to understand him. How can our little brains ever contain the fullness and the splendour of the triune God?
And finally; be careful about putting yourself in a box concerning your relationship with Christ. Many people have only a tepid and fearful relationship with Christ. They have never let Christ truly be king of their lives. Why? Multiple reasons: in their hearts some people feel they've made too many mistakes. Christ could never accept them as they really are. Some people feel it's too late because they're too old. What could Christ do with them? Others feel they're too young or too shy or too limited in their education or abilities. Friend, Christ can do amazing things through you if you give him the chance. There was an interesting article in Reader’s Digest about a new ministry to young people in street gangs. Many street gangs have their own code of conduct and dress. Gang members can also identify one another through special gang symbols tattooed on their bodies. But if a young person wants to leave a gang and start his life over again, then it’s necessary to painfully remove this tattoo. One young gang member said: it’s like being reborn again when you get all that negative stuff out. You are not branded anymore. Some of you may have a tattoo that needs to be removed not on your skin but on your soul. It is a tattoo that says, I'm not good enough, I'm not young enough, I'm too old, I'm not outgoing enough for Christ to use me and so forth. That tattoo is wrong. Be careful about putting yourself in a box that keeps Christ on the outside looking in. Let him be the king of your life today. Amen.