Oxford Lent Sermons Mark 15:15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas to them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him… In Pilate's case, the particular influence that prevented was the fear of man. "What will the Jews say, what will the Jews do, if I discharge this Prisoner whom they wish me to condemn? "When once men are governed in their conduct, not by the sense of right, but by the desire to obtain the world's approval, or the fear of incurring the world's hatred, they are at the mercy of the binds and waves, without chart or rudder. They are not rocks against which the waters break, but which stand unmoved because they are rooted into the solid earth, but they are things that drift upon the surface, borne hither and thither as the current sets or the breezes drive them. The man who owns Christ only when the world tolerates it, or as far as the world bears it, will deny Christ when the world frowns. It is impossible to be a lover of Christ and a lover of the world; it is impossible to fear God and man too; it is absolutely impossible to please men and be the servant of Christ. (Oxford Lent Sermons.) Parallel Verses KJV: And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. |
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