The tragedy of the Christians

“What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him” (John 18:38).

                Our church first confesses the Apostles' Creed at the beginning of the early Morning Prayer meeting.  When we look at the Apostles’ Creed, there is the phrase, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate.”  In the background story of that phrase, John 18:38 appears.  When Pilate said to Jesus, "You are a king then!”, Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (v. 37).  Then Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" (v. 38)  And then he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him” (v. 38).  As I read John 18-19, I pondered about what Pilate repeatedly said not only in 18:38, but also in 19: 4, 6 that he found no guilt in Jesus.  And I realized an interesting fact.  Pilate, who found no guilt in Jesus, found no guilt in himself.  The reason was because he didn’t know the truth (18:38).

                As I meditated on the sufferings of Jesus by Pilate based on the words of John 18-19, I saw the tragedy of two kinds of people.  The tragedies of those two peoples are the tragedies of Pilate and of the Jews who cried out, "Crucify, crucify!” (19:6).  The tragedy of Pilate is that even though he found no guilt in Jesus based on the Roman law, he found no guilt in himself because he couldn’t see himself by the God's law.  How could he know a lie since he didn’t know the truth?  How could he understand his sin of unrighteousness without believing in Jesus who is the Righteous One and the Truth?  It is indeed the tragedy of the one soul, Pilate.  Then what about the Jews who cried out, “Crucify, crucify!”?  Unlike Pilate, they found sin in Jesus.  In other words, when the Jews saw Jesus based on their law, Jesus ought to die because he made Himself out to be the Son of God (v. 7).  That is, the reason why the Jews regarded Jesus as a sinner deserved to die on the cross was because Jesus committed blasphemy in their view of their law.  Isn't it interesting that Pilate found no guilt in Jesus on the basis of the Roman law, while the Jews found the guilt in Jesus that He ought to die on the cross based on the Jewish law?  But the fact that both Pilate and the Jews found no guilt in themselves based on the God's law of truth is true tragedy.  What was their sin?  Their sin was not believing in Jesus who is the way, and the truth, and the life (14:6).  He did not believe in Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life (14: 6).  They were not of the truth as Jesus said (18:37).

As I thought about Pilate and the Jews, I thought about the tragedy of us, the Christians now.  You may wonder how can there be tragedy in us who believe in Jesus.  But I think there is a tragedy in us who believe and know the truth Jesus Christ.  And that tragedy is that we find other people’s sins but not our sins because we don’t hear the Lord's voice of truth.  In other words, the Christian tragedy is that we don’t realize our own great and many sins before the holy God and His holy Word of God.  The reason is because we don’t hear the Lord's voice which testifies to the truth (18:37).  That’s why we aren’t only looking for our own sins, but looking for other people’s sins as we live in the legalistic life by falling into our own self-righteous.  As a result, we are making the grace of God cheap and making the merits of Jesus worthless.  And we live for our own glory by relying on our own merits and stealing the glory of God.  Where else is this tragedy?  This is a greater tragedy than a tragedy outside the church.