WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH JESUS?

Pilate asked the crowd, “What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?”

Though he treated the question as a political problem, he saw that the case against Jesus was driven by envy. He questioned Jesus and found no crime deserving death. Yet, he wanted the crowd’s approval and his own security more than he wanted justice.

Pilate tried to wash his hands of the decision. But every person eventually faces Pilate’s question, though not in a governor’s court:

You can admire Him as an ethical teacher. But He claimed the authority to forgive sins, spoke of judging the world, received worship, and identified Himself uniquely with the Father. Admiration that edits His identity is not acceptance of the real Jesus, or at least, of who He claimed to be.

You see, we have to differentiate between who people tell us Jesus is, how groups and systems have described Him, and who Jesus Himself claimed to be. The question is not whether we approve of a version of Jesus created by others. The question is whether we are willing to confront the identity He claimed for Himself.

Jesus once said, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). Those listening understood the gravity of His words and took up stones against Him. He was not just claiming to have existed before Abraham. He used the divine name by which God had revealed Himself. Later, when Thomas stood before the risen Christ and said, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus did not correct him. He received his confession (John 20:28–29).

You can place Him among the prophets. But the prophets said, “This is what the Lord says.” Jesus repeatedly spoke on His own authority and placed people’s eternal destiny in relation to Himself.

You can regard Him as a victim of injustice. He certainly suffered injustice. Yet, He said that He came to give His life, predicted His resurrection, and interpreted His death as a ransom.

You can postpone a verdict. But postponement leaves the present under another lord. No one lives in a vacuum while deciding whether Jesus deserves obedience.

Jesus once asked His disciples who people said He was. They offered public opinions. Then He made it personal: “Who do you say I am?”

The question was not an invitation to invent a private Jesus. It demanded recognition of the One standing before them. And one of the most compelling and confrontational claims Jesus made was this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

It is either He was lying, seriously deluded, or telling the truth. He did not leave us the comfortable option of calling Him a good teacher while rejecting what He said about Himself. We have to decide who He is.

The Bible makes it clear: Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Son of God. He lived without sin, announced God’s Kingdom, and embodied its truth and mercy. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, bearing our sins according to God’s saving purpose. He was buried, and God raised Him bodily from the dead.

That requires more than intellectually agreeing. When people heard the apostles announce the crucified and risen Christ, they asked what they should do. The answer was repentance: turn from the old allegiance and publicly identify with Jesus.

Belief in the Gospel is not a leap towards a vague spiritual possibility. It rests on the person and work of Christ. Yet, evidence alone cannot make the decision emotionally painless. Jesus may threaten the approval, relationship, ambition, habit, or self-definition you currently protect.

Pilate’s tragedy was not a lack of information alone. It was disordered love. He knew enough to recognise injustice, but he loved his position too much to act on the truth.

Perhaps you fear disappointing your family or crossing a religious boundary. Perhaps Christian hypocrisy has made public identification with Jesus costly. Perhaps accepting Him would require admitting that a defended relationship or lifestyle is sin. Perhaps you simply do not want anyone, including God, to have final authority over your life.

Jesus does not ask for a careless decision made under manipulation. Consider the truth seriously. Read the Gospels. Ask honest questions. But recognise when investigation has become camouflage for refusal.

You will do something with Jesus. You will receive Him, reject Him, remake Him, or postpone Him. But He will not remain in the position you assign to Him. He did not remain where Pilate placed Him. God raised Him from the dead.

The One who was once judged by human power is now the Lord before whom human power will answer. And you will eventually answer to Him.

This is your opportunity to receive His salvation because Jesus did not only claim to be the truth. God vindicated His claims by raising Him from the dead.

The good news is that the Lord you must answer to is also the Saviour who offered Himself for His enemies. His authority is not cold domination. The King wears scars. He understands suffering, toil, rejection, and pain because He went through them Himself. He can carry you, not only through this life, but into the life to come.

So, do not wash your hands of the question as Pilate tried to do. Turn from self-rule. Trust in the One who died for your sins and rose again. Receive Him, not only as the Saviour who forgives you, but as the Lord who now has the right to direct your life.

What will you do with Jesus?