Choice

Read John 18

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”

  Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king.

  For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world,

 that I should bear witness to the truth.

  Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” 

 And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, 

“I find no fault in Him at all.

“But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. 

 Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

Then they all cried again, saying, “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” 

 Now Barabbas was a robber.

                                                                                                     John 18:37-40
“Pilate  said to Him, What is truth?” this phrase that has echoed down through the ages.  “What is truth?” the words of Pontius Pilate Governor.  It is something everyone who lives must ask about Jesus.
Pontius Pilate made a judgment on Jesus, he said, “I find no fault in Him at all.”
Pilate gave the crowd the chance to free Jesus.  But, as far as is recorded no one said release Jesus.
Represented in that crowd were three groups, the religious leadership of Jesus’ day, who claimed to know the Scriptures. The average person, standing in the crowd, and the secular government.
The representative of the secular government did what all governments do ‘bowed’ to political expediency.  Not wanting a riot, Pilate acquiesced to the demands of the crowd and gave into their demands.
The average person in the crowd did what the average person did in the crowd, not think.  Just followed taking on the mentality of the crowd.  Demanding without any thought, the death of an innocent man.
The religious leadership did what they did best, followed their dogma, their distorted beliefs, their self righteousness.  They played politics for fear that if the truth be known, they’d loose their position of power.  And as a result, they too committed an innocent man to death.
Something to think about
Truth was lost that day, but as Scripture says:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, 

to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

God had a purpose and a plan for Jesus’ life, the plan is stated earlier in the Gospel of John, when it says in John 3:16-18:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes

 in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

     “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but that the world through Him might be saved.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; 

but he who does not believe is condemned already,

 because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

While sinful men perverted the truth and condemned the innocent son of God to death. God’s purpose was fulfilled. Christ died for our sins.
Thus giving us the same choice as those who condemned Christ at his trial had. To accept Him as Lord and Saviour or reject Him.