John 18 - Religion

“28Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.” Though there were many powerful verses in this passage, this verse kept coming back to me. The Jews wanted Jesus dead, wanted to kill an innocent person, YET they would not enter the palace so they could avoid UNCLEANNESS?! How absurd!

They were more interested in their religious rituals than in doing the right thing by God. Its as if it didn’t matter how they behaved, as long as they kept to the religious rituals, they were clean; it’s heartbreaking. Now, one could argue that they didn’t know (or didn’t want to know is more like it) that Jesus was the Messiah, in that case, He still did nothing wrong, Pilate (who judged Jesus) even said so. It is a shame that hate, fear, envy, loathing, lust for power, etc. can corrupt one to torture and kill someone AND still think “all is well if I follow the proper religious rituals, I am still clean”. To think, “we can kill this guy and all is OK, but stay away from the palace or you are unclean”, now that’s missing the point in a BIG WAY.

BUT, before we are quick to judge, we do similar things. We can pray, read the Bible, go to church, worship, etc. all because we feel we should, because it’s the “right” thing to do, do it all without feeling a thing; essentially, doing it because we feel we “have to” not necessarily because we want to. Is this any different than what the Jews did? If we are simply “going through the motions” without letting the Word change us and the Holy Spirit control our lives through a closer relationship with Jesus, then we are simply going through “religious rituals” hoping all is well. There will be a “wake up” call, and it might be too late. If this is you, I encourage you to pray right now, give it over to God and ask Him to change you from “going through the motions” to experiencing Him in a big way.