Gabbatha

John 19:10-16

Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"
Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."
From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar."
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!"
But 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!"
Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

‘Gabbatha’ means ‘the raised place’, or ‘elevation’, and in Jerusalem it was known as ‘The Pavement’, because of the square hewn stones which were laid there. It was also the Jewish name for the Roman tribunal which sat there — a place of judgement.

Judgement dispensed here is not God’s Judgement, but man’s, and man putting himself above God — not that many of the players in this drama understood that distinction. In any courtroom that I have seen, the judge, magistrate, sheriff or Law Lord is in a raised or elevated position. In the natural world, judgement (but not necessarily justice) comes from that self-elevated place. However, with God, justice and judgement are handmaidens and the place of elevation is who He is.

Pilate says again, that he finds no fault in Jesus, even to the point of saying "Behold your King!" The crowd disagree and Pilate in his weakness accedes to their cries. The mob had their way, just as those who stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6th 2021, were intent upon having their way — some believing they had been given licence to attack their governmental representatives; others merely to create havoc and chaos.

The Lord always gives us a free will choice, He never coerces. He allows us to choose the ruler of this world, and many plainly do. Their eyes are blinded to The Truth. At this point in the Gospel story, Jew and Gentile collude in the death of Jesus. This is a fundamental truth which shows that the Jews alone were not responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion — and in that part of every one of us untouched by the life of Christ, the responsibility lingers on. Never was going ‘on to perfection’ a calling of greater importance.

Jesus is sent to be crucified by those of the world, but it is worth remembering Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20, words that bind us inescapably as believers to our Lord -- I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS

HEBREWS 6:1-8
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
And this we will do if God permits.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;
but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

IT’S NO LONGER I THAT LIVETH

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LOVE with all your MIND

IF MY WORSHIP is consumed in the glory of the Lord till that is the one thing left in my mind, I have come to the right place of vision. Anything that belittles or obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God is untrue to the revelation given by Jesus Christ.
[from ‘Notes On Isaiah’ by Oswald Chambers]

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