Summary
Doing the Right Thing
The fork in the road appears in countless ordinary moments. A line on a tax form that could be quietly altered. The last item on the shelf, reached for at the same moment by a stranger. A public face that does not match the private one. In each case there are two signposts, one pointing to what is right and the other to what is convenient — and the question presses upon us: will we do the right thing?
Luke 23 sets that question before Pilate in its most consequential form. After being shuffled between Pilate and Herod, Jesus stands again before the Roman governor. Pilate is no neutral judge. He had governed Judea for ten years and had built up a record of bad decisions — provoking the Jews with Caesar's emblems, raiding the temple treasury to build an aqueduct, slaughtering Galileans. Rome was watching, and Pilate knew that one more misstep could cost him his position. Into that pressure walks Jesus.
Three times Pilate openly declares Jesus innocent: "I have not found this man guilty of any of your charges" Luke 23:14; "I will therefore have him flogged and release him" Luke 23:16; "Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death" Luke 23:22. The crowd demands Barabbas — a man imprisoned for insurrection and murder Luke 23:19 — and shouts for crucifixion. Pilate knows what is right. He says it out loud. And then, fearing the loss of his position more than the loss of his integrity, he hands Jesus over to their will Luke 23:24-25.
Matthew 27 records his attempt to escape the weight of that decision. Borrowing a Jewish ritual from Deuteronomy 21, Pilate washes his hands before the crowd and pronounces himself innocent. But no amount of washing makes a wrong thing right. The resemblance to ourselves is uncomfortable but honest: outside pressures, past failures, and present fear can paralyze us into doing what we know to be wrong. Paul names the same struggle in Romans 7 — "when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand." When we fail to do the right thing, it is not merely a lapse in judgment; it is a reflection of the sinful nature we confess every Lord's Day. We are not right.
The crowd's response to Pilate's hand-washing is one of the most stunning lines in Scripture: "His blood be on us and on our children" Matthew 27:25. Spoken as a curse, it becomes — by the mercy of God — the very confession of the Church. Peter writes that we were "ransomed with the precious blood of Christ" 1 Peter 1:18-19, and John declares that "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" 1 John 1:7. His blood is on us indeed — not as a curse, but as cleansing. His blood is on our children indeed — for the grace of the cross is for all.
This reframes the whole question. Doing the right thing is not, finally, a matter of summoning enough courage to outperform Pilate. It is the fruit of being made right by Christ. Paul prays that our love would "overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight, to help [us] determine what is best" Philippians 1:9-11, and he reminds us that "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" Philippians 2:13. When we fall short — and we do — we are met by stunning grace: the perfect life of Christ credited to us, His blood covering us, making the unrighteous right. From that gift, and only from there, the courage to do the right thing begins to grow. For more on this teaching, see Doing the Right Thing 3-17-24.
Video citations
- Doing the Right Thing 3-17-24 — Would you open your Bible's please with me to the 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Luke for our study today? If you're using a Pue edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that on page 76 in the…