Dirty Hands

If you have someone else do your dirty work for you, does that mean you remain clean?

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.” The Jews replied, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death.” (This was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.) Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him. - John 18:28-38

They did not enter the headquarters of Pilate because they didn't want to defile themselves, so they could eat the Passover dinner.

You would think that means they saw themselves as holy, right?

Yet what they wanted was for Pilate to put Jesus to death.  That doesn't sound like holiness to me.

Is it possible to have someone do your dirty work without you having dirty hands?  Or are you just as defiled as if you did the act yourself?

To them, Jesus was deserving of death for claiming to be from God and one with God.  But that wasn't a crime, at least not to Pilate who had the power to judge him.

For them it was a heinous crime, but for Pilate, it was a waste of time.

He found no case against Jesus.

But he would eventually give in to the will of the crowd, and the crowd was controlled by those who wanted Jesus killed.

So, who is guilty here?

Jesus makes it clear that the lesson here is about truth.  Regardless of the consequences, we need to seek and speak the truth.

It is when we twist the truth to achieve our own end that we dirty our hands and become part of the problem.

More to come...