Wanting to Satisfy the Crowd

"Pilate! Pilate, wake up!" 
"Do you know what time it is?!" Pilate angrily responded, making himself crawl out of bed. 
"Sir, I know, and I am sorry. But this is urgent, sir. An angry mob of Jews are outside. Among them are the chief priests, elders, and the entire Sanhedrin."
Pilate, now intrigued, "What do they want?"
"Well, sir, they are bringing a man by the name of Jesus to you to judge."
Jesus. The name rang a bell. Could this be... Yes! This was him! The man he had been hearing the servants talk about. The one that could make lame to walk. Blind to see. And dead to rise! He had been wanting to meet this man for quite a while, now was his chance! 
Pilate quickly put on his royal robe and sandals. For some reason, his heart beat had kicked up a notch. This was merely a man... But something inside wanted to know all there was to know about this man named Jesus. 
Pilate! We want Pilate! Bring us Pilate! Rang out louder and louder as Pilate swiftly walked down the hallway leading to the front entrance where the mob had gathered. As soon as the torches the mob carried shone the smallest sliver of light on Pilate, the crowd roared with accusations against this man named Jesus. He says he is king of the Jews! He opposes paying taxes to caesar! He's a liar! Blasphemer! On and on the crowd roared as Pilate tried to quiet the crowd. Finally, there was enough silence to be heard by the furious mob.
Pilate glanced at Jesus, only then realizing the severity of the situation facing him. Hands bound behind his back. Blood gushing from his nose. Bruises forming under badly swollen eyes. Cracks of blood covered his lips. Later he would discover that the Pharisees did this to him during his initial judgement. 
Pilate cleared his throat, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
"It is as you say."
The crowd erupted in anger. I told you he was a blasphemer! The chief priests threw accusation after accusation at Jesus, yet, He said not a word. How could a man take this much abuse, and control himself from lashing out? How could he stay silent, and maintain this look of determination on his face? 
"Are you not going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of?"
Pilate was completely amazed at this man. Just watching, Pilate knew that this man was innocent. 
The governor, Pilate, had a custom of releasing one prisoner at passover. Barabbas was brought before the crowd. "Which would you have me release: Barabbas or Jesus? The thunderously roared for  Barabbas. A crowd of this size had the power to over run him and his guards if he made them angry. He couldn't just deny them, he loved his job! He loved his life! All though he knew that he knew that Jesus was innocent, it was just one mans life, right? It would be better to sacrifice this one man, than the life of all of his palace guards if the Jews were to attack. Sometimes maintaing in power involves making compromises, at least thats how the rest of the world worked, so why not as governor? This one compromise of honesty will ensure him his trust with the Jewish community. Just this once...
"Release Barabbas."
The crowd went crazy, as the blood thirsty men and women cried in approval. 
"What should I do with Jesus?"
Crucify Him! Crucify Him!
Crucify him?? An innocent man?? No! He would not allow it!
"Why?? What crime has he committed?"
They yelled and screamed all the more Crucify Him!
This proved it! The crowd had nothing on him! Jesus was in fact innocent! It was all so obvious to Pilate... But, he didn't want to make the crowd unhappy. Plus, he had a reputation of being a likable governor to keep up. The crowd was still incredibly angry, they could still turn on him and his men if he were to decline them this 'pleasure' of killing this innocent man. He had to please the crowd...
"Okay... Take Jesus and have him flogged."

Compromise. Pilate's greatest mistake and sin was compromising what he knew to be true and right (Matthew 27:18 and John 19:4, 6 show us that Pilate knew in his heart that Jesus was innocent.) for the sake of following the crowd and protecting his own reputation. Mark 15:15 says, "Wanting to SATISFY THE CROWD, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified." With the angry crowd hanging on his every word, the easiest way out was to send Jesus off to be crucified, even though he knew it was wrong.

So many times in our walk with Christ, following the crowd is such an easy thing to do. Wanting to please the crowd and not offend anyone is even easier, even if it means a compromise in your faith. For ministers, this is particularly easy. You feel God nudging you to speak on the issue of homosexuality, but you don't want to offend the crowd, or run anyone out of the church, so you choose not to listen to God for that Sunday. But you still pray that God will give you a sermon to preach? I don't see the logic behind that at all. It would be much easier to just not speak on that issue, even though you know that God is speaking to you. You can be in town and the perfect opportunity arises to share the gospel with someone you are talking to, the Holy Spirit nudges you, but you refuse. It would be much easier to just not say anything, I don't want to offend them... How are we any different than Pilate?? Pilate compromised what he knew to be true for the sake of not offending the crowd.

I ask you, what are you compromising for the sake of not offending anyone? Don't take the easy way out! Right now, take a few moments and ask God to search your heart for any areas that you have been taking the easy out in. Don't offer a half hearted prayer to the One who did everything but take the easy way out for you. Really, I mean really, seek God. It all comes down to this: Would you rather offend the crowd or offend God.

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God."

Psalm 42:1

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