the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Luke 23:13-32
More embarrassed than ever, Pilate assembles the chief priests and the rulers of the people and affirms three times to them that he has found nothing worthy of death in the Lord Jesus. But his persistence in wanting to set Him free only increases the people’s determination as they demand His crucifixion. A crowd is easily swayed to be cowardly and cruel because the basest instincts are given free course under cover of anonymity. This crowd is the more cruel for being urged on by its own leaders. In the end their cries triumph and in exchange for the freedom of the murderer Barabbas, they obtain the Lord Jesus "delivered . . . to their will". For Pilate, an unscrupulous man, one human life has less value than the favour of the people.
Among those who accompany the condemned, innocent man, many are seized with pity and they weep. But emotion is not a proof of the work of God in a heart, otherwise these women would have wept over themselves and the wicked city, as the Lord Jesus had done in Luke 19:41. Many people are touched sentimentally by the Lord’s goodness and are indignant at the injustice meted out to Him, without thinking that they, by their sins, have a personal responsibility for His death (Isaiah 53:6).
