"What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" (Matthew 27:22).

Today we will all deal with a lot of questions. Many are minor and routine. Some questions are verbalized by others, many we are working through on our own. Am I going to have a leftover piece of carrot cake from last night for breakfast or my regular bowl of grapenuts?  But there are huge questions that can easily be overlooked amidst the hustle and bustle of life.

The daily text is a question that Pilate asked the crowd at the time of our Lord's trial.  Pilate had seen the flimsy evidence. He had heard the cautions of his wife and in examining the text one can detect a wavering in his own convictions.  But rather than act on principle he polled the crowd and the crowd of people cried out "Crucify Him!"  Politicians haven't changed much have they?

But I look this morning at Pilate's question and see it as a fitting expression of what every single individual must deal with.  It's life's most important question.  It's already worded in the first person singular so everyone merely needs to personalize it and make it their own question. "What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" 

Pilate was confronted face to face with the divine Son of God.  In one way or another all reading this are being confronted and probably have many times.  We will simply be unable to use the excuse "but I didn't know." 

Responses to this question "what shall I do?" vary from outright rejection to ignoring, from procrastinating to compartmentalized religious lip service.  Do you fit in any of these?

But the only acceptable answer that pleases God is to express the essence of Peter's great confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" and to submit daily to the Lordship of Jesus.

Jesus came into the world "to seek and to save that which was lost" but was violently rejected by many and He continues to be rejected, often violently. This is also true of His followers including some reading this today.  The apostle John wrote, "He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11).  And for the last 2,000 years men and women continue to be confronted with the choice whether to receive or reject. 

Pilate's question, "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" is life's most important question. In one sense this question is dealt with when we receive Christ but there's another sense that it's an ongoing daily question. Today we have a choice whether or not to submit to the Lordship and Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  I hope each reader will choose to do so.  I proclaim again today that "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!"


Be encouraged today,


Stephen C. Weber

Note from Brooksyne:  I have a very dear friend whose adult daughter is going through the time of questioning Stephen writes about today.  She was raised in church but has stated that she must "know this Jesus who is called Christ" for herself and not through her parent's beliefs or experience. I know this is also something Ester deals with off and on in her life as well.  It's a time of growing and planting spiritual roots, not merely in our parents way of life, but in the "Way, the Truth and the Life."  I can respect that and I know I also had to settle that decision in my heart as a young teen.  What a difference it made when it came to church attendance and all the other spiritual things expected of me before I accepted Christ personally.  Those of you parents whose children are in this spiritual stage of life, take heart and entrust your child to God.  Your steadfast prayers, your godly example and your enduring patience will see you through this difficult period. 

"Lord, Jesus, I commit my child to Your care.  Only You see his heart and know the questions that are yet unanswered.  May he, through his study of Your Word, through the believers who surround him, and through the valleys and mountains of his personal experiences come to love You, trust You and to fully surrender his will to You.  In Jesus Name, Amen."

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I have a Canadian friend who wrote this beautiful poem that touched my heart and I felt it would bless our readers as well.

 
- David W. Fisher  David's Pilgrim Scribblings