Pontius Paterno

I'm assuming that you have heard about what is going on at Penn State; where a child sex abuse scandal has rocked the University. A major reason why this has blown up is that Penn State's legendary coach, Joe Paterno, has been caught up in the middle of it. Paterno, who has been coaching in some fashion at Penn State since 1951 and head Coach since 1966, was told about an assistant coach sexually abusing a child, and instead of reporting it to police, he washed his hands of it by telling his superior about the incident. In a story that is very hazy, this fact is very clear: Joe Paterno did not want anything to do with this monstrocity of a problem, and he was able to clear his conscience by sending it up the flagpole. This was a fatal flaw in his handling of the issue; finally coming back to not just bite but destroy him. He has now been fired and his 5-Star reputation has been tarnished, if not ruined, in front of millions of admirers.

What it boils down to is that Joe Paterno fulfilled every legal obligation in this case; however he failed at all other moral obligations. And in a child sex abuse case, no one makes it out alive. He will be judged based upon his moral obligation failure and will not have anything to lean back on. His reputation means nothing now, all of the young men he helped are suddenly outweighed by the few boys he chose not to help. And thats the issue. He chose to not help. He chose to wash his hands of it.

In Matthew 27:11-26, Jesus is being questioned by the Roman governer of Israel, Pontius Pilate. Pilate presides over the case, to the point of disbelief as Jesus does not defend himself against the jealous accusations brought by the Jews in charge. Finally, after Pilate is frustrated by the stubborness of the Jews, he goes in front of the mob and asks this key question:

"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?"

After again realizing he will not be able to reason with the Jews, he commits the fatal flaw that many people have made and will make: He washes his hands of Jesus and proclaims himself as innocent.

Unfortunately for Pilate and all of the others who have washed their hands of Jesus, Jesus does not allow you to do that. You have to make a decision with what you will do with Jesus who is called the Christ. CS Lewis once put the Jesus decision as broken into 3 thought processes: To the person, Jesus is either a Liar, a Lunatic, or Lord. He can't be put off of your mind that easy; he makes you make a decision.

Joe Paterno's fault was not making a decision beyond what he could do to wash his hands of things. Ultimately, he didn't do enough. What to do with Jesus who is called Christ is a decision we have to make. If we wash our hands of it; then we have made our decision.

No man is infallible, as we certainly learned with Joe Paterno. We are all witnesses to what we have seen, and we are held accountable to that which we have witnessed, and what decisions we made. When you see Jesus for who he really is, you either believe it or you don't. You can't wash your hands of this.