John 19:6When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
The Chief Priests, officials, and guards all rejected Jesus Christ. They willfully chose to reject Him and demand His death. “We have no king but Caesar.” “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” In their hearts of stone, their rejection of Jesus was rock-hard solid.
As believers, when we read this account of how Jesus was rejected, beaten, whipped, and crucified our hearts ache and feel empty. We wonder how could they not see that this was the Son of God. We wonder what could be in their hearts and minds that did not allow them to see and understand who it was they were condemning. Pilate caught a glimpse of who Jesus was and tried to find a way to release Him. He knew one thing for sure and that was that this man, Jesus, did not deserve punishment or death. In the end, Pilate made his choice right along with those who demanded Jesus’s death.
Rejection of Jesus can be aggressive like this or it can be passive. Every day we make choices. These choices will either honor and glorify Jesus Christ or they will either aggressively or passively not. Jonah is a great example of aggressively rejecting what God told him to do. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh he aggressively rejected what God told Him to do. Though this is wrong I think it is far better to be aggressive in rejection than to be passively rejecting Jesus. When a person aggressively rejects what God has told them to do, that person has made an absolute conscience decision to reject it. They know it and they know God knows it. Though their mind seems to be made up, their heart is not and God works through their heart to convict and turn them away from their acts of disobedience. Passive rejection is much more subtle. It quietly sneaks into the neglecting and complacent heart. It allows a person to passively reject things of God and living for God. Awareness of Godly living passively drifts away. Awareness of the hardening of their heart is blinded to their mind. They live each day without being aware they have passively allowed themselves to openly reject or seek things of God.
Aggressive rejecters and passive rejecters both have this in common. They reject the Word of God. The aggressive rejecters outrightly reject it and openly deny it. The passive rejecters do the same but through neglect and complacency. Day after day goes by without as much as a thought about His Word. They might give a passing nod toward it on Sundays but continue on their passive lives as soon as they leave the building.
The most depressing, heart aching, mind-numbing words that any soul will ever hear will come from the mouth of Jesus Christ “Depart from Me for I have never known you”. Don’t allow Satan to blind your heart and soul to the things of God. Do not allow worldly pleasures and wants to lead you down a passive road of rejection.