Injustice and succumbing to peer
pressure: Are we choosing to please people or God?
Today devotion is taken
from Luke 23:13-25
In this passage, it is clear that
Pilate could not find any fault in Jesus and had no basis of charge on Him. He
even called out to the crowd several times to say that Jesus was innocent.
Despite this fact, Pilate succumbed to peer pressure and failed to uphold
justice. Pilate had every authority to prevent the crucifixion of Jesus but he
decided that it was easier and more convenient for him to give in to the
crowd’s desire, in order to keep the peace and maintain his political power.
This reminded me of the Central Park Five case, an infamous miscarriage
of justice case whereby five Black and Latino teenagers wrongfully convicted of
attacking and raping a white woman, and their eventual acquittal came only after
all five teens had served their time. There were documentaries which saw that due to peer pressure
and racism, the police were determined to catch the culprit at all costs.
They had interrogated the teens for hours and it was also suggested that the
police had coached the teens what to say in their statements which resulted in
coerced confessions.
Sometimes we tend to take the
easy way out and close a blind eye to injustice in order to please people
rather than God. Perhaps, a situation where you could not bring yourself to
report to the authorities knowing that your boss is giving out bribes. Or to
put the other way round, you had the authority to fire your employee for misconduct
but decided not because he is earning the company a huge income. We struggle to
do what is morally right sometimes because we want to prioritize worldly values
over Godly values.
Let us set our minds to Godly
goals and be conscious to always seek God’s kingdom first (see Matthew 6:33). We
should do this even if it means alienating some people. The followers of Jesus had many enemies because they determined to
please God above all else. As Paul told the Galatians, “For am I now seeking
the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still
trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). The Pharisees and Pilate in putting an innocent man to
death were short sighted and focused on what is seen. We must always fix our
eyes on the unseen for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal
(2 Corinthians 4:18). They saw the death of Jesus as their victory but that was
short lived because Jesus’ victory over death is eternal which is given to all
who believes in him.
Prayer
Heavenly
Father, we know that you are a Just God. In a world where there are so much
injustice and corruption happening today, help us to become more like You and
less like us. We pray to be compassionate and to uphold justice for the
helpless even if it means being unpopular amongst our peers. Give us the
strength to do the right thing and to choose pleasing You with the truth over
convenience.