If it's all about me, I will pay little attention to what I am doing to Christ's body. "Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate ... handed Him over to be crucified" (v. 15).

A man-fearing, man-pleasing spirit, illustrated perfectly here by Pilate, is really nothing but a self-pleasing spirit. I want to be recognized and honored by others, and I am willing to sacrifice anything—even Christ—to hear my name applauded by the multitude.

Each time we live for such a wicked, base goal, we unleash a cascade of wickedness that hurts Christ's body in more ways than we can imagine. We join the mindless mob that crucified Christ.

Honoring His Body

Some, like the blessed Joseph of Arimathea, are living to see the kingdom of God, which is experienced in our daily lives by placing the King in His rightful, royal place. These do not live to please themselves but God alone. They "gather up courage" and treat the body of their Savior with honor.

Even when they know it may cost them (for surely Joseph, as a member of the very Council that ordered Christ's death, weighed the price of his act of worship), they are more concerned with what is happening to Jesus than to themselves. They are willing to face any personal loss to glorify Him.

When Pilate and Joseph's responses are seen in such bold contrast, every true Christ-follower longs to be done with man-pleasing forever. But we must watch with great vigilance, for the crowd is always pulling us to their way of treating Christ. We can go there easily, almost unconsciously.

Mistreating His Body

• We may do this through gossip and slander—speaking against another pastor or believer, slicing apart Christ's body in a way that makes us seem superior, all for the purpose of self-advancement.
• We can ignore the needs of His body, the church, taking what God has blessed us with and spending it on ourselves.
• We can strut in pride, pulling all glory to ourselves while the Savior goes unnoticed.
• We can passively ignore something we should do or aggressively pursue something we shouldn't, just to make people like us.

The motivations for almost everything we do can be purely self-pleasing. "Wishing to satisfy the crowd," we deliver up Christ's body to be crucified.

Oh, that we would love Him so hourly, so consciously, so humbly, that we would "know Him ... and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). Oh, to join the blessed few who live to honor Jesus alone as they treat His body with the respect the King of kings deserves!