I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21.

    When Jesus was before Pilate He told Pilate that he only had the power to crucify Him because it had been given to Him from God. The same thing applies to us and the authorities. Jesus did not answer to Pilate and we do not answer to the authorities of this world either. Jesus answered only to the Father and Pilate, the authority of this world, only had the power over Him which the Father had given him. Now, as I was re-reading this in order to compose the above thoughts, something new struck me. Jesus told Pilate that he was going to order His crucifixion even though Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges. By doing so, Pilate would be sinning, even by Pilate’s own moral code. When those in authority break the rules to mete out punishment on the innocent (whether they know they are innocent or not), they are sinning and God will hold them accountable. I wanted to point out that Jesus’ statement about those who turned Him over to Pilate had the greater sin still implied that Pilate sinned because all of the commentaries I remember on this verse tend to make you think otherwise. Those who bring punishment down upon those who they know have been falsely accused sin, but those who bring the false accusations commit a greater sin.

    I have often wished we knew more about Thomas because he is the one of the Twelve I most identify with. Thomas was not willing to take the word of the other disciples on Jesus’ resurrection. He needed to see for himself. He was skeptical of the testimony from the others because it seemed to him like wishful thinking. In many ways Thomas represents the answer to those who question why, if Jesus did the things the Bible says He did, so few non-Christian sources mention Him at all. How could someone see what Jesus had done, even before the resurrection, believe that He was someone significant enough to mention, and not become His follower? If you saw what Jesus had done and were skeptical of His miracles, then He was just another rabble-rouser, and not a particularly significant one since He made no attempt to raise an army to overthrow the Romans. Only those who believed He was the Messiah would have viewed Him as significant until His followers numbers in the 10os of thousands. I want to circle back to Thomas before I end. Thomas shows us that God will provide convincing evidence for those skeptics who genuinely seek the truth.