Easter the holiday has come and gone and while reflecting on the events that we commemorate with this special day, I had some thoughts start to buzz around. Nothing novel but interesting nevertheless.
First, as I was mulling over the scriptures where these events are recorded for us, Luke 23:20 stuck out, “Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus.” This got me thinking, could Pilate or any of the players surrounding the crucifixion, have decided as an act of their “free will”, that Jesus wouldn’t be crucified? In other words, as Pilate desired to let Jesus live, did he have the ability to do so? Did any of the players have the ability to thwart what Luke in Acts 2:23 (ESV) calls the definite plan of God that was to crucify the Lamb of God at that time and in that way between those two robbers?
The second thought runs in the same vein. No one took Jesus’ life, He laid it down freely and yet those who put Him to death and Judas who betrayed Him with the kiss were really guilty of the most heinous crime and sin in the entire history of creation, namely murdering the Son of God (John 19:11, Acts 2:36). Was this sin not God’s hand and plan? And yet God did not sin in authoring this plan—this love story.
Lastly, why didn’t Jesus or the disciples try and evangelize the other thief on the cross? Or if they did, why did their proclamation fall on deaf ears? The other thief believed and was promised paradise and yet the other thief mocked. Didn’t he realize that there hanging on the cross moments from death, he had nothing to lose and paradise to gain to truly believe on this Man beside him? Apparently he did not.