Yesterday, we saw the world through the Roman Praetorium arch, like the arch through which Jesus passed for his flogging and crucifixion. The view of that world is dim, while the view of the world through Christ is bright, indeed glorious. Let us walk with Jesus through the arch and into his kingdom. Today, though, we stand before the judgment seat found in the praetorium courtyard we have visited over the last couple of days, a seat like that from which Pontius Pilate sent Christ to the cross.
When Jesus stood trial before Pontius Pilate, and at the crowd's demand Pilate passed sentence on Jesus, Pilate would have sat above Jesus and the crowd on a judgment seat like the one pictured here in this excavated smaller praetorium. Judges in America today also commonly sit above their courtroom in a position intended to convey power and authority.
The religious leaders and crowd demanding that Pilate crucify Jesus believed that Pilate was passing judgment on the stooped figure before and below him. But a very different kind of judgment, God's divine judgment to which all present were blind, was actually at work.
God's judgment gloriously displayed the extraordinary, other-worldly character of his revealed Son Jesus Christ. Rather than lifting himself up on a judgment seat as he had every right and power to do, Christ instead willingly stooped so low as to suffer death to pay a penalty he did not owe.
Have you accepted Jesus's unprecedented payment for your condemned soul? Eternal life is at the foot of Jesus's cross, offered for you. Stand with Christ when you stand before the judgment seat. Then Christ will have already suffered judgment for you.