Gossip: merciless sin

Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Meditation:
    When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
    —Matthew 27:24 (NIV)
Quotation:
    They say it was old sins that troubled him, the past failures of the man, that made things difficult for him now. There had been days when he had been too hectoring or domineering; so, at least, these impossible people had said, though he himself denied it still. At all events, protesting to Rome, they had won the Emperor’s ear, and humbled their governor. And that must not happen again. Ah, me! Is not this life of ours a fearsome thing? Take care! take care! for if you sin that sin, be sure that somehow you will pay for it—and, it may be, at how hideous a price! So Pilate found in his day; so you, too, will find it in ours... Only God knows what may come out of that, if you give way to it. Pilate was curt and domineering to the Jews one day. And it was because of that, months later, his unwilling hands set up the cross of Christ: unwilling—but they did it. Take you care! for sin is very merciless. If you have had the sweet, [sin] will see to it that you quaff the bitter to the very dregs.
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 134 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 27:11-24; Mark 15:2-15; Luke 23:4,13-24; John 18:33-38; 19:4-16; 1 Cor. 2:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Do I have a sin that is cascading through my life? CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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