Author: Jojo Agot

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

—William W. Walford

Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” John 18: 28-31

Such hypocrisy. The Jews wouldn’t enter the Roman governor’s headquarters because they didn’t want to be ceremonially defiled. They had dinner plans that night. And the dinner was to commemorate their freedom from slavery in Egypt hundreds of years ago.

Ironic, isn’t it? They were celebrating God’s goodness, yet there they were, committing a grave injustice on an innocent man; an injustice that was far worse than what they experienced in Egypt. Didn’t anyone ever stop to think the grave irony they were doing?

But the mother of all hypocrisy was this: they wouldn’t get into the Roman headquarters for the sake of ceremonial purity. At the same time, they fully intended to kill Jesus as evidenced by their blatant admission to Pilate’s question. Why would murderers even care about ceremonial purity?

Years ago, I read a book (unfortunately I forgot the title) about high ranking German soldies who refused to smoke, drink wine and go to dances because they believed it was inconsistent with their faith in God. At the same time, these soldiers were the ones who operated the gas chambers and hauled off millions of Jews to their deaths.

What is wrong with the value system of these men?

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. –John 18: 37-38

Much of what Jesus said in the first part of the verse probably escaped Pilate. I am quite certain that he had no idea what Jesus was talking about when He mentioned the purpose of His birth. But when Jesus mentioned the truth, something inside Pilate’s head made him turn around.

Pilate was probably the most important historical figure of his time to ever had the opportunity to ask Jesus the most important question that philosophers and thinkers were dying to ask: What is truth? The problem was that he never took another minute to wait for the answer. He simply walked away and busied himself with the most pressing issue at hand.

What would he have learned? If he listened, would he have believed? I know we are a few centuries late to ask that question.

The point is that there really are times when men completely miss the opportunity to stumble over a treasure because they simply don’t stick around a little while longer.

Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. (Judges 14: 5-6, 8-9)

For many years, I have read this story with only one thing in mind: a big, fat YUCK! Never mind that Samson killed the lion singlehandedly. Never mind that the killing was done with his bare hands. Never mind that this story is politically incorrect nowadays because of animal cruelty issues.

In fact, I lost sight of the spiritual implications of the story just because I couldn’t stomach the thought of eating honey taken from the decaying carcass of a lion. I mean, come on! We’re talking about a stinking, slowly rotting, flies infested body of an animal that was just thrown in the back woods. Can you imagine scooping a bottle of honey from that thing? Where did the honey come from? Did it drip from the eyes, ears, mouth? Or was there a pool of honey somewhere in the stomach area?

Yuck!

Until I read John Bunyan‘s writing today. The opening of his book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners arrested my thoughts:

“Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them, we shall find a nest of honey within them.”

There, no more “yuck.” Finally, I understood.

Like a lion, trials and temptations are scary. They can be very intimidating. Sometimes when we face them, they make us want to cower in fear and run away. But that doesn’t mean they are undefeatable. If we stand our ground and, like Samson, allow the Spirit of the Lord to rush upon our hearts, we can walk away from the scene as victors, not victims.

The next time we pass that way again, we are not struck with fear anymore. We see blessings, favor, goodness and victory. What used to be a cause for fear will now be a cause for rejoicing and praise.