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Let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 27. We return today to a portion of Scripture we began to study last Lord's day, Matthew 27, verses 11 through 26. And in that passage the most impactful question ever faced occurs. The question comes in verse 22. "Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" The question that every soul has to answer: what shall I do with Jesus Christ?
And to introduce our look at the text again, I would like to digressif I mightfor a moment from it to sort of pose another question. And that is this, why is it that every person must answer that question? What is it about Jesus Christ that lays such a claim on every heart? Why is it that every one must deal with Jesus Christ? Must make some decision?
And the answer to that is because of who Jesus Christ is. Because of what He said and what He did. Because of the person and work of Christ, the question for every heart is inescapable: what shall I do then with Jesus who is called the Christ?
The Scriptures proclaim that Jesus is God. From the very beginning in Matthew 1:23 it said His name shall be called Emmanuel which is God with us. The Scriptures proclaim that Jesus is the possessor of the divine names of God. For example, in Acts chapter 3 verse 14, Peter calls Jesus the Holy Onean Old Testament name decidedly and distinctly given to God.
The Scriptures also proclaim that Jesus is one with God the Father. In John 8 it says to know Him is to know the Father. In John 15 it says to hate Him is to hate the Father. In Matthew 10, to believe Him is to believe the Father. In John 14, to see Him is to see the Father. In John 5, to honor Him is to honor the Father. And in Mark 9, to receive Him is to receive the Father.
Furthermore, the Scriptures proclaim that Jesus is omnipresent. He Himself said in Matthew 28:20, "Lo, I am with you always." A characteristic only true of God.
The Scriptures further proclaim that Jesus is unchanging and eternal. In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8, it says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
The Scriptures further proclaim that Jesus is the creator of the world. It says in John 1 that all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
The Scriptures also proclaim that Jesus is able to forgive sin. Repeatedly in His ministry, such as in the second chapter of Mark, it says He said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." A prerogative belonging only to God.
The Scripture also proclaims that He is to be worshiped as God. Paul writing in Philippians chapter 2 said that to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow of things in the earth, above the earth, under the earth.
So, you see, Scripture very clearly indicates to us and those are just samples that Jesus Christ is God...that Jesus Christ is every bit God, fully God. And as God, He lays a tremendous claim upon man to respond to Him. Now these things do not tell us that He is any less man. He is the perfect Godman. We read the Scripture and we find out that He was fully human. How do we know that? For one thing, He was born. For another, He was circumcised. For another, He grew. For another, He had a human name. For another, He had flesh and blood. He was hungry. He wept. He thirsted. He slept. He was weary. He suffered. He was tempted. He would...He was wounded. He died and He was buried. All indications of His humanness.
This Jesus was the Godman. No one like Him exists ever. And so, He makes tremendous demands upon our lives because of the uniqueness of who He is. We have to deal with that.
Furthermore, the Old Testament clearly indicates that He is the promised Savior, that He is come into the world not only to show us what God is like but to bring us to God in an act of redemption. And the prophets outlined the details of life with astounding accuracy. For example, His birthMicah said it would be in Bethlehem. Daniel gave us the approximate date. Isaiah told us it would be a virgin birth. Genesis 9 indicated that it would be a Semitic line through which He would come. Genesis 22 indicated it would be the line of Abraham. Genesis 49 indicated it would be through the tribe of Judah. Second Samuel 7 said through the seed of David. Hosea said He would be taken out of Egypt.
And then you look at His life. In Deuteronomy it said He would be a prophet like Moses. In Psalm 22 it indicated He would trust God from His birth onward. Isaiah 9 said He would begin His ministry in Galilee. Isaiah 11 said He would be anointed by God's Spirit. Isaiah 53 said He would carry our pains and diseases. Zechariah 9 said He would enter Jerusalem on a colt. Isaiah 35, He would perform miracles.
And even His death. In Psalm 2, that kings would see His death. In Psalm 22 that He would be forsaken in death by God. In Psalm 22 again, He would be scorned and mocked. In Zechariah chapter 11, the prophet said He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. In Zechariah 12, He would be smitten and pierced. In Isaiah 52, they said He would be brutally treated. Isaiah 53 says He would die for the world's iniquity. Psalm 22 said His garment would be divided. Psalm 41, He would be betrayed by a friend. Psalm 34, not a bone of Him would be broken. Isaiah 50, verse 6, His beard would be plucked out. Isaiah 50 also verse 6, He would be spit upon.
And then, of course, Hosea 6 said He would be raised from the dead. And Psalm 16 said He would never see corruption. Psalm 22 said He would conquer death.
And even His priestly work at the present. In Psalm 110, verse 4 indicates that He would continue as a priest. And Amos 9, that He would sit on David's throne. And so it goes and so it goes.
You see, we have to deal with someone who is such a dominant theme of Scripture and who is none other than the Godman Himself. The perfection of the person of Jesus Christ is absolutely astounding. And His perfection is demonstrated. You study His life and you find out, for example, that He was holy. He was clean from defilement. He loved righteousness. He hated sin. He was victorious over temptation every time He confronted it. He rebuked sinners. He will judge the unbelieving.
We learn, also, from the Scripture as we look at His life that He was loving. That He loved the Father and He loved Him obediently and He did His will. That He loved people. He loved the lost, the ungodly, the sinners. He loved His own. He loved the church. He loved children. He showed His love by becoming poor, by giving His life, by forgiving sin, by seeking the lost, by healing, supplying needs, sympathizing, strengthening His people, showing compassion on those who were without a shepherd, those who were lost, those who were hungry, those who were sick and blind and demonized and grieved and repentant and even dead. And He was prayerful. And He was meek. And He was humble and righteous and good and faithful and truthful and just and self denying. And in every way the spotless perfect Lamb of God who came for the sins of the world.
It is this person of whom Pilate asks: what then shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? And the answer to that question is the determiner of every person's destiny. For Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem the world from sin, to bring salvation, to remove transgressions, to destroy Satan, to set up an eternal kingdom of peace and glory for those who love and believe in Him. And it was essential in doing this that He die for sin. And as we come to Matthew 27, we know that we are close to the cross and therefore close to the climax for which Christ came into the world. He came to die for our sins, to pay the penalty as our substitute and to rise again that we might live forever.
And so, no other person has ever come even remotely close to Jesus Christ. And the destiny, as I said, of every human being hinges on what that person does with Jesus Christ. Therefore I say Pilate asks the most important question that could ever be asked.
Now let's look at our text. What brought the question up? Why does he even ask it? Do you remember? Jesus had spent three years teaching and preaching, healing, casting out demons, raising the dead. Three years training the Twelve. Now that's all come to a climax as He enters into Jerusalem for this His final Passover. He comes into the city, as you know, on Monday and cleanses the temple on Tuesday and comes back to the temple on Wednesday and teaches all day long in a confrontation with the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and even the Herodians and everybody else who could get involved. And then Wednesday night, as He retreated from that busy, busy day of teaching and confrontation and rebuke in the temple, He goes to the Mount of Olives and there He gives the great Olivet Discourse which is the sermon of our Lord on His own Second Coming.
And then on Thursday He makes preparation for the Passover. And the disciples get everything ready and Thursday night they eat the Passover. And near midnight they leave that upper room in Jerusalem to go out to the Mount of Olives to the garden of Gethsemane where the Lord wants to pray to ready His heart for the death that awaits Him later that very same day. And it is at the midnight hour as Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane, sweatingas it weregreat drops of blood in agonizing conflict with Satan who comes at Him in three waves of temptation that He is completely victorious again. Resolute, He sets His face to the cross.
No sooner does He come back from that prayer time then Judas arrives with all of the religious leaders along with a spira(?), that's a cohort of Roman soldiers numbering about 600 men. They come into the garden. They take Jesus captive. They rush Him off to the house of Annas and Caiaphas for a mock trial in order that they might somehow legitimize their desire to execute Him to get Him out of the way.
The whole nation of Israel has been eternally impacted by Jesus Christ in this brief ministry. Some believed. And for them the impact was eternal life. Many rejected with hostility and for them the impact is eternal death. The most of the people, the majority were just curious and noncommittal and suffered the same fate as those who hostilely rejected Him.
So, when Jesus comes to Jerusalem for this last time, everything comes to a climax. The hostility and the rejection of the populous of Jerusalem reaches a fever pitch. And as we saw in our last study, they screamed for His blood in this very passage, to have Him crucified.
Now remember, there were three phases to the Jewish trial. Jesus was first taken to Annas because Annas was the power behind the scene. And they thought Annas could come up with an indictment. They didn't have any indictment, they didn't have any crime for which to try Him. They tried bribing false witnesses. They tried getting people to lie. They paid off Judas. But even Judas came and threw the money back and said, "I have betrayed innocent blood." They couldn't get any legitimate accusation against Him. They brought Him to Annas figuring Annas might come up with something. Annas was absolutely unsuccessful, sent Him to Caiaphas. And from one to three in the morning, Friday morning from 1 A.M. to 3 A.M., there was a mock trial in front of Caiaphas at which time they accused Jesus of blasphemy for saying He was the Christ the Son of God...which was not blasphemy but the truth. Then they blasphemed Him by spitting in HIs face, slapping Him while He was blindfolded and asking Him who it was that hit Him. And then punching Him in the face until He was black and blue with a puffy face and spittle all over it.
Then they kept Him captive till about five o'clock in the morning at which time they brought Him into the legal place of trial, the Judgement Hall. And they had a sort of a...of a quick, maybe a five to ten minute trial in the dawn because the Jewish law required that a trial had to be during the day and in the Judgment Hall. And, of course, there's was in the middle of the night in the house of Caiaphas and thus was illegal.
So, wanting to put a veneer of legality over their...their desire to kill Jesus, they had this mock trial repeated in the morning at 5 A.M. They decided that He must die. The problem for them was they had not the right of execution. So they had to take Him to Pilate. And so, you have three more phases in the secular Roman trial of Christ before Pilate. And as we've noted in this, Matthew's purpose is always the same. He exalts Christ, no matter how bleak the scene, no matter how ugly the surroundings, no matter how dehumanizing and blasphemous the situation might be in reference to Christ, Christ always comes out glorious, always comes out glorious. Even when they're spitting in His face, His glory shines and their ugliness is made manifest.
Now each element of the trial before Pilate exalts the Savior. Let's go back for a moment and remind ourselves of what we saw last time. First was the accusation of the Jews. You can follow your outline if you'd like. The accusation of the Jews in verse 11: "Jesus stood before the governor, the governor asked Him, saying, Are You the king of the Jews? Jesus said, Thou sayest." The Jews had accused Him. Do you remember, they finally sort of formulated an accusation against Him and it indicated that they accused Him ofthis is from Luke 23they accused Him of being the leader of a seditious insurrection, troubling the people, stirring them up, cultivating a revolution. Secondly, they accused Jesus of forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar. And thirdly, of claiming to be a king which made Him a rival in terms of sovereignty against Pilate, against the Herods, against Caesar himself. In other words, they had to come up with an accusation that would involve the Romans. The Romans weren't going to carry out a trial of Jesus for some religious issue that belonged within the framework of Judaism. So they had to manufacture a Roman issue. And so, they tried to convince Pilate that Jesus was in fact an insurrectionist rebel who was vying for the throne of Rome. And, of course, it was a lie. It was all false.
And you remember what happened. They took Jesus to Pilate. They wouldn't go in the Judgment Hall of Pilate because they didn't want to be defiled for the Passover by going into a Gentile dwelling, part of their ridiculous tradition. Jesus went on inside. Pilate came out. Talked to them on the outside. Got their accusations. Walked back in. Conducted his trial with Jesus Christ. Came back out a few minutes later. It's still only about 5:15 in the morning likely. And he says to them, his verdict is "I find" and that is a technical term for a verdict. We use it even today. The jury finds the defendant guilty. The word "find" is indicative of something legal that has occurred. He says "I find no fault in this man." John 18:38 indicates that finding in that first phase of the trial.
The people refuse to accept the verdict and they screamed and yelled and more powerfully accused Jesus of sedition and being a threat to Roman rule. And, of course, we remember, don't we, that Pilate was in a very difficult place. He had already had three riots that he had caused among the Jews. He had been reported to Tiberius Caesar for the last one. Things were very tenuous. The Romans wanted peace and he was having a hard time keeping it. And he was not about to let another riot break out. He knew that if he released Jesus, which would be consistent with his verdict, he would foment another riot. It probably would get back to Caesar and his job would be on the line and maybe even his head would be on the line. He could not survive politically another problem with the people he was given rulership over.
But we saw, didn't we, in that first element, that accusation of the Jews how innocent Jesus was. Because they had to manufacture a lie about Him to even make an accusation. So He is exalted by the fact that they can find no legitimate thing against Him, though they have tried and tried and tried.
The second thing we noted was the attitude of the Lord. Not only the accusation of the Jews, but the attitude of the Lord. And in it all He was completely silent. Verse 12, "He answered nothing." Verse 14, "He answered them not a word." There was no answer. There was nothing to say. Why Pilate had come out after phase one, which was recorded, remember, in John 18, not here in Matthew after that first phase. Pilate had come out...we just have an allusion to it in verse 11, that's all, not the full details. And he had said not guilty.
So when all the crowd started screaming at him and all the accusations, He didn't say anything because there was nothing to say. He did not need to defend Himself. The court had been held and the verdict was in. And calmly and majestically He stands there innocent. And the wonder and the beauty of it is that He is so resolutely committed to the cross that He never bothers to defend Himself. He never bothers to try to argue against their accusations. He is absolutely silent. He is absolutely innocent. He is utterly committed to the cross for the sake of the sins of the people themselves who were even screaming at Him.
Well, one of the things they screamed, as we remember from studying the comparative gospels, was that He was seditious starting at Galilee even unto this place. In other words, He's building a sedition all over the land. And, of course, when Pilate heard Him say "Galilee", that triggered in his mind the realization that Galilee was the territory ruled by Herod Antipas who was one of the puppet kings that Rome allowed to be there. And though they didn't have military power and judicial power, they had a certain sort of...sort of presence. And there were some particular things that they could do, it was mostly pomp and circumstance and not a lot else. But there were times when they were useful, and this might be one of those times.
Realizing then that Jesus was from the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas in Galilee, and that Herod was in Jerusalem for the Passover, Pilate sent Jesus bound to Herod. And all the Jews went along with Him and they brought Him before Herod hoping from Pilate's viewpointthat Herod would take this thing over, condemn Jesus to death, or deal with the Jewish people or do something that he couldn't accomplish. And you remember Herod's response. He thought the idea was ludicrous. This man a king? He laughed. He mocked. He put a robe on Jesus and made a joke out of the whole thing. It was not only ridiculous, it was even funny. And Jesus became a laughing stock, the butt of the jokes of Herod.
And Herod sent Him back. And it's still not even six o'clock in the morning, back to Pilate again robed in this robe supposedly representing a king. And Pilate has Jesus back again. And through it all, it says, when He was in front of Herod, He said nothing, never a word. There was nothing to say. The verdict had been rendered. In fact, you might be interested to know that before this trial before Pilate and Herod is over, the innocence of Jesus will be stated five separate times. The religious world, the pagan world, the demons of hell cannot come up with one accusation that stands.
And so, Jesus is silent. And Peter comments on it and says, "When He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed to Him who judges righteously." Think of what He could have said. Think of the curses He could have said...stated. Think of what Jesus might have said to those people that day but He said absolutely nothing. The defense of Jesus as to His absolute innocence is left with the facts not a selfdefense. And He is exalted again.
Thirdly, we sawand we'll go back to it nowthe animosity of the crowd...the animosity of the crowd. That, too, demonstrates the exaltation of Christ. And that begins in verse 15. But before we look at that, I want to remind you of the twenty third chapter of Luke because as I have said we have to bring in all of these to get the full picture...Luke 23:15...23:13 to 15. Just to get the scene: "And Pilate..." now Pilate has Him back from Herod, "and when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people..." Now he's got to deal with this thing a third phase in the trial. "Said, You have brought this man unto me as one that perverts the people, and behold, I have examined Him before you, have found no fault in this man touching the things of which you accuse Him. No, nor yet Herod." Herod didn't either. "For I sent you to him and lo, nothing worthy of death is done by Him."
And we can go back to Matthew. Now let the record stand, all right? No accusation stood before Annas. No accusation stood before Caiaphas. No accusation stood before Pilate. And no accusation stood before Herod. And the record of history stands that He is not guilty. And Pilate reiterates it and this initiation of the third phase of that Roman trial. And as I said, according to John 19:14, it is about six A.M. and all this hurryup kind of thing has taken only about an hour or so. Pilate wants to get rid of Jesus. He can't afford another riot but he also has to deal with his own conscience and sense of justice.
So, verse 15 says, "Now at that feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing unto the people a prisoner whomever they would. And they had a notable prisoner," that is a prisoner of mark, or a prisoner of note, "called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom will you that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?"
Now you remember what I just pointed out in Luke's gospel, that he called together the chief priests and the leaders and the people...do you remember that? We just read that. Why? Initially, in the first two phases it was only the chief priests and leaders. Now he calls the people because he has a plan. He knows that Jesus is popular with the people. It's now six A.M., the city is moving about, it is the day of the Passover for the residents of Judea, Jerusalem. And so, things are moving very fast early in the morning. And he calls the people because his plan is this, Jesus is popular with the people, Jesus is hated by the leaders. "What I will do is offer them the alternative of Barabbas or Jesus and pit the people against the leaders."
That was his plan, feeling that the people who were attracted to Jesus, whoby the wayand surely he was well aware of it, had hailed Jesus as their Messiah King and so forth on Monday when He rode in triumphally to the city. He knew of the popularity of Jesus. He was well aware of that. He also knew that the leaders wanted Jesus dead out of jealousy, verse 18. He knew it was a matter of envy. So he knew that this was a plot against Jesus by the leaders and thought he could pit the leaders against the people who felt Jesus to be very popular.
But verse 19, an amazing thing happened. There was an interruption. We'll come back to that, go to verse 20. And while he was distracted for a few moments, the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. A providential divinely caused interlude and in the moment of that interlude, it gave the leaders the time they needed to stir up the multitude against Jesus. And so, instead of pitting one against the other, the multitude was sucked in as a fickle crowd by the leaders and Pilate's effort failed.
In verse 21, "The governor answered, came back from his interlude, and said, Now which of the two will you that I release unto you? And the whole mob said Barabbas...Barabbas. The coward Pilate who refused to do what was right and was trying all these little plots was again foiled. And then he posed the question in verse 22, "Pilate said to them, What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?" And he uses that little descriptive phrase "who is called Christ" to set Jesus so distinctly apart from Barabbas. Barabbas, who was a criminal, an insurrectionist, a murderer, a plunderer, a bandit...and Jesus who is called the anointed. With all of the ramifications that that term Christ would have, that term "anointed" in their understanding, he wants to identify for them who Jesus is by definition so that they can see the contrast. And so he asks that very, very essential question, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?
Back to Luke 23 for a moment, we pick up something that's important. In Luke 23:20, "Pilate willing to release Jesus spoke again to them, but they cried saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. He said to them the third time, Why? What evil has He done? I have found no cause of death in Him, I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go." And the question you ask at this point is why? If you find no fault in Him, why are you going to chastise Him? Well, it's an act of condescension. It's to try to appease the bloodthirsty cries of the people. But that's not going to be effective and they were urgent with loud voices requiring that He might be crucified and the voices of them and the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they require.
Incredible. Five times he announces the innocence of Jesus Christ then sentences Him to death. "And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their will."
Now go back to Matthew again. They wanted Him crucified. Pilate did it because Pilate was trapped, he was blackmailed for fear of losing his job and his life. Verse 23 picks up that same scene. The governor said, "Why? What evil has He done? And they just cried out the more saying, Let Him be crucified."
And then in verse 25, remember, we stopped on this note last time, the people then answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children." Listen, dear friends, I have a great love for Jewish people. This does not reflect the attitude of every Jewish person who's lived in history, not even every Jewish person who lived in the time of Christ, not every Jewish person in Jerusalem, not even every Jewish person in that crowd. But this was the dominant cry of that crowd that day. And the fact of the matter is, however you wish it would be, it is true that the blood of Jesus Christ was by their own testimony taken on the people of Israel. Yes, He was executed by the Romans and there was complicity there for sure. But it was the Jewish population and leaders that screamed that His blood be accounted to their charge.
Later on, you remember, in Acts chapter 5 and verse 38, as the apostles went out to preach, they preached this same message. They preached that Israel was guilty of the blood of their own Messiah. A crime of proportions that are so monstrous it's indefinable. And we know they preached that message, we know the apostles preached the guilty of Israel because in Acts 5:38 they said, "You are filling all Jerusalem with this doctrine and intend to bring on us the blood of this man." So we know they preached that...that that nation might understand its guilt.
You say, "Is that the end of the story?" No, the end of the story is that Israelaccording to Romansshall be saved in the future and this then becomes one of the greatest if not the single greatest testimony to the grace of God in all of human history. God is a God of grace to redeem a people who have taken on themselves the responsibility for the blood of His own Son. That is the grace of God. That is supernatural.
And so, we see even in the animosity of the crowd the beauty of Jesus Christ, so perfect. Declared innocent five times by Pilate. And even in this scene, He is exalted as the perfect spotless Son of God.
Now I want you to go back to verse 19. And there's a fourth testimony to the exaltation of Christ. We'll call this the apprehension of the wife...the apprehension of the wife. Let's see what that interlude was that interrupted Pilate and allowed the leaders to stir up the crowd. Pilate was seated on the Judgment Seat, that is the judicial bench, the official seat of authority. Remember now, the Jews wouldn't go into the Judgment Hall where this was suppose to occur so Pilate had to take his chair out and put it on the porch in front and the people stayed out in the courtyard or the patio or the street, whatever. And Pilate takes his seat outside, sits it down, takes a place in the seat and therefore constitutes a genuine judicial act. He is seated on the Judgment Seat.
At that point, his wife sent unto him. Here comes a message from his wife. It isn't his wife, it is a message from his wife. Now there are times in your life when you just really don't need to have a message from your wife. This...this would definitely be one of those times. Don't bother me when I'm judging, you know. That kind of thing. So he's out there and he gets a message from his wife. The message is this: "Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man." Now stop at that point.
Now she must have had a little clout with Pilate. This is a desperate thing. And his response to it indicates that what she said carried weight with him. "Have nothing to do with that righteous man." What is Pilate's wife verdict on Jesus Christ? What is her verdict? Righteous. No doubt they had discussed Jesus even the night before because remember the night before when the Jews came to capture Jesus, they had all these Roman soldiers. In order to get those Roman soldiers, they would have had permission to be given by Pilate and so Pilate knew about Jesus. He was not oblivious to what was going on in the land of Palestine.
Jesus, for all intents and purposes, had banished disease from the whole land. He knew about Him. Everybody knew about Him. He knew what had gone on all week. He knew He'd cleansed the temple. He knew He'd come into the city and been hailed as Messiah. He was very much aware of this miracle worker. The word of the resurrection of Lazarus, no doubt, had even come to him. And that night they had discussed this. He knew that it was envy over Jesus that caused the Jewish leaders to want Jesus dead, verse 18 said. He knew about Him.
And his wife was convinced that this man Jesuswherever she got her informationbasically was a righteous man. And here is the testimony incredibly of a pagan. Now listen to this. The nation Israel with all the prophets and all the messages of God and all the promises and all the law of God to whom the Messiah of God came first and just let the Gentiles lick the crumbs off the table, the nation of Israel curses Jesus Christ, takes His blood on themselves, kills Him as an unjust and evil man and a pagan who knows nothing says He's righteous. What a condemnation of the people of Israel. What depth of evil and sin and denial of the authority of Old Testament Scripture and its interpretation have they come to. And her word to her husband was, "Don't get involved with this man. Don't have a thing to do with Him. Get out of the picture. You're dealing with a righteous man."
She was fearful of the consequence. And she was right. Pilate later on was taken out of Palestine, sent to Gaul and there he committed suicide. He committed suicide for the same reason that Judas did, because both of them couldn't deal with the tremendous guilt of having betrayed and dealt unjustly with the only perfectly righteous person that ever lived. As I told you before, the primary cause of suicide psychologically is retribution. It's selfinflicted punishment. And the ultimate crime demands the ultimate punishment. And we have little to wonder about in the suicide of Pilate as in the suicide of Judas. It really was inescapable.
Now where did she get these fears? Verse 19, "I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him." Now there's nothing in the text to indicate that that is a supernatural dream, that God gave her that dream. The dream may have been simply the providence of God. Oh, I believe God was in it and I believe God sent the messenger at the moment that that messenger was to be there to stir up that crowd because Jesus had to die, right? That had to happen. Everything that happens here is under the control of God by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God...Acts 2 says. I don't necessarily believe it is a supernatural dream but that all of the thoughts about Jesus and they knew the uniqueness of Jesus and they knew that the leaders were jealous of Him and they knew that He was a good man. And that had been confirmed already by Pilate. And all of these thoughts certainly directed by the Spirit of God brought a dream that filled her heart with fear and she suffered through that nightmarish dream and she suffered...we don't know the specifics of what she thought would happen to her husband in dealing with Jesus but her worst fears were coming true. Here he was trapped with this Jesus. A dream of agony, a dream of fear and a testimony of a pagan Gentile woman to the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
So, you see, even in this part of the scene, the exaltation of Jesus Christ appears, doesn't it? He is a righteous man. And He's exalted again. And Israel is indicted by a pagan who could see what they refused to see. And so she said, "Don't have a thing to do with Him." It was too late for that. But her worst fears were realized, there he was trapped.
That leads us to the last point. The acquiescence of the governor...the acquiescence of the governor. And here you see the exaltation of Christ come through again even in what Pilate does. Go over to verse 24. "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing," prevail is the word gain, he could gain nothing. He couldn't gain a thing with all of his attempts, trying to reason...he couldn't even outshout them. "But that rather a tumult," thorubos, an uproar, a riot. He didn't need that. I mean, he really couldn't afford that. The last one of these had gotten him into trouble and he had received a direct rebuke from Tiberius Caesar. He didn't need another one of those. Everything is out of control and another bad incident like the one in which his troops had come in originally to the city of Jerusalem with images of Caesar and started a riot. Like the time when he took money out of the temple treasury to build an aqueduct. Like the time that he had the inscription of Caesar's name on the shields and the Jews thought it was idolatry and all of those created riots because of his obstinate refusal to bend to their wishes. And here it was again. The same situation.
Now we can say something's good about him. I mean, he tried to get Jesus off his hands. He really tried. He had sent Jesus to Herod. He had suggested that He be released at the Passover. He had rendered Him five verdicts of innocence. He had appealed to the people. He had tried to give Him back to the Jews. You remember early on, he said take Him and try Him yourself and do what you want, giving them back the right of execution which they refused because they wanted it to appear legal. And, of course, Jesus was to be crucified and that was a Roman way of death. So the prophets had to be fulfilled. Now he wants to get off the hook.
He's got one other angle here. He saw that he could prevail nothing and rather an uproar was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude. Now what is this? This is a Jewish tradition based on Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 6 to 9. In the cities of Israel in ancient times, a murder could occur. And the elders of the city were responsible to find the one who was the guilty party in the murder. But sometimes that was not possible. And so the elders would then come into a public place in the city and they would take out a basin of water and they would wash their hands in front of the people. And this was a sign that even though they were unable to find the murderer, they were free from the guilt of the murder.
In other words, they looked as long as they could look and when it was realistic that there wasn't going to be any way to find the murderer, they just sort of washed their hands of the whole thing. They had given it their best effort, the blood of the dead victim was not on their hands. You see, there was this principle in the Old Testament laid down and that is this, that God does not tolerate unrequited blood. That is why the capital punishment was instituted in Genesis 9. For a life, there must be given a life. And when Cain killed Abel, God said the ground cries out from the blood of Abel. In other words, wherever there is a death inflicted by someone purposely, there must be blood to pay the penalty. An unrequited blood cries out to God. And so, a city where there was a murder would do all it could to get the murderer, but if it couldn't be done there was a time when they had to say we can't do this but we're still innocent of the blood. We just can't find the murderer.
So, Pilatein a senseis taking this Jewish custom before them and saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this man. I have no responsibility." And that's, of course, when the people screamed "His blood be on us." We will take the guilt of the blood of Christ, that is the guilt for His execution. And again he confesses, "I am innocent of the blood of this...and he uses his wife's word...righteous person." And then he says, "You see to it." And he gives them again the right to kill Jesus. He passes them the eis(?) gladii, the right of the sword. You do it, kill Him if you want.
Pilate just tried to get rid of Jesus. Can't do it. Jesus won't go away. He tried to get rid of Him so many ways, so many times, he couldn't do it. But again he affirms the innocence of Christ. And remember, listen to this, as we've seen it all the way along, do you think Pilate would wish that Jesus were guilty? Of course, it would solve everything. If he could find one thing about Jesus that would make Him guilty, everything would be simple. Then he could execute Jesus and maintain his conscience. I mean, it was like Judas. Do you think Judas wanted to find one flaw in the life of Christ that could justify his betrayal? Of course he did. Do you think Annas wanted to find one thing wrong with Jesus that could justify his hatred and Caiaphas? Of course they did. And Pilate, of course. And the false witnesses, yes. And that is the resounding testimony that these are desperate people who want a justification for their evil acts and can't find one. Again, marvelous testimony to the innocence of Christ. Always the same...Innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent, innocent. And everybody around Him...Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.
So, we go to verse 26. "Then released he Barabbas unto them. He released Barabbas. "According to the custom, and when he had scourged Jesus, he handed Him over to be crucified." He said he would chastise Jesus and then let Him go. Here it just says He scourged Him and led Him to be crucified. That's true. But his intent was to scourge Him and let Him go. It just didn't work out that way. Matthew doesn't give us the details.
Let me tell you what happened. He scourged Him. What is that? A short wooden handle about...maybe about that long, heavy wood and on the end of that wooden handle were a series of leather thongs and in the end of those thongs were bits of lead and brass and bones sharpened to a razor's edge. The man was then taken, and in most cases, by the wrists, he was tied and hung from a post. His feet dangling so that his body was taut and stretched. Two men, one on each side, then whipped him across the flanks through here and the back to the point where arteries and veins and entrails were gashed and exposed...very often brought death, was often done before crucifixion to speed the death on the cross. It is a torture beyond description. And if you want insight into the very scene itself, look with me for a moment to the nineteenth chapter of John's gospel.
Here's the scene. Verse 1, John picks up what Matthew leaves out. "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him." By the way, the Jews always gave 40 lashes save one that the Romans didn't. We don't know how many the Romans gave. We don't know how long they pounded Jesus, tore and ripped His flesh. We do know that He couldn't carry His own cross because He was so weak. And you can believe that if there ever was a man of strength, it was Him. Because a man without sin would be a man of strength. But He was beaten so weak that He couldn't carry His own cross and had to be carried for Him.
And then after the scourging, or as even a part of the scourging, the soldiers, verse 2 of John 19 says, "Put a crown of thorns on His head." They gathered some thorns, wove it together, made a crown to mock Him as a king and crushed it down into His brow and put on Him a purple robe. Tragic scene. They mock Him, verse 3. They said, "Hail king of the Jews." It literally says, "And they kept coming to Him and kept saying and kept giving Him blows." And this...this has been going on all morning now and even in the night, punching and slapping and hitting and spitting all over Jesus.
And they put all this kingly kind of garment on Him because they were playing a game. If you were to go to Jerusalem and to go into the old grounds of Fort Antonius, you would find that the gabbatha, or the pavement is still there, the very same pavement. And on that pavement you will see in those great massive stones where our Lord was brought before Pilate and these soldiers, there are little markings. And the little markings are a game the Roman soldiers played. And I remember the little Scottish nuns years ago who explained to me all about the game. The game was sort of like "King for a Day." And it was a game they played with the prisoners, the way they passed the time down there as a prisoner was there they mocked him and they played the game having to do with these little markings on the floor.
It was also a game they played in the streets with idiot boys. They would find retarded children and they would set them up and mock them and dress them in certain ways and so forth. It was a game for idiots and prisoners. It was a game of mocking, thoughtless inhumane cruelty.
And that's what they did to Jesus. Threw an old robe on Jesus, smashed Him and pelted Him in the face with their fists. Matthew adds, of course, that they spit on Him, smashed His head with sticks, a big long bamboo kind of reed. They would hit Him like a whip almost. And they played their game. And after their game was through, Pilate therefore in verse 4, "Went forth again and brought out Jesus and said, Behold, I bring Him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in Him." Inconceivable, he says it again, and why is he doing this? He's trying to quench their thirst for blood, really. He's exposing now a pathetic man, a man whose face is beaten black and blue, whose head is crushed with a crown of thorns, whose literal back and sides are ripped raw so that His internal organs are visible, blood running down from everywhere, gaping gashes, open wounds, streaking blood, bruised swollen face, ugly appearance. No wonder Isaiah 53 says there's no beauty that we should desire Him. And then Pilate says in verse 5, "Behold the man." Behold the man. Here's your king. Look at Him. Is He a threat?
He wants Him to look so bad he thinks the mockery will be enough so that the people will let Him go, that's enough. We can't take anymore. The inhumane character of it is all we can stand. But they had tasted blood, dear friends, and in verse 6, "When the chief priests therefore and the officers saw Him," here they go again to lead the crowd, these leaders, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." It's the same cry for His blood. And Pilate said, "Take Him and crucify Him. I find no fault in Him. Let the record stand." And he says it again. They literally hounded Pilate to the death of Christ monotonously.
They won't kill Him. They want Pilate to kill Him. They can't kill Him. He Himself said He would be lifted up. If He was killed by Jews, He would be thrown down and stoned, John 12:32 and 33. And so in verse 7, "The Jews answered, We have a law and by our law He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God." And now they get to the blasphemy. As long as he's going to say, "You take care of it," they're going to tell him what the real issue is.
Well, Pilate just heard something he didn't want to hear. He said He was the Son of God. "And when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was even more afraid." See, he knew about Jesus. He knew Jesus was a healer. He knew He was a raiser of the dead. He knew He was a marvelous incredible person. He knew He had unique and strange powers. He had been with Him now for over an hour and in that hour period of time had seen some remarkable things about Jesus. He was amazed at His silence, the calm, the peace. This was a very, very strange and bizarre situation for Pilate to be involved in. And now he hears something that frightens him more than anything, "This man is the Son of God."
Now in the pagan mind of Pilate, there was room for a lot of gods and a lot of gods with a lot of sons. And is he dealing with the son of a god here? And he is spurred by superstitious fear. And so he goes to Jesus back in the Judgment Hall in verse 9, back from the crowd, back inside, and he said to Him, "Where did You come from?...Where did You come from?" He doesn't mean what town either. Where did You come from?
You see, two of the three incidents that Pilate had gotten himself into with the Jews had to do with false gods. First was the image of Caesar above the eagle on the standards that the soldiers carried. Secondly was the engraving of the Caesar who called himself a god. In fact, Caesar called himself the son of God, by the way. And both of those were idolatrous issues. He knew that he didn't want to get involved with the Jews again over false gods. And so his thinking is Are they saying this is a false god...this is another one like the images...another one like the shields...am I back in that same thing again?
Listen, it is a brilliant diabolical tactic sponsered by Satan that's coming through the mouths of these Jews. When they said He is the Son of God, Pilate was right back in the same problem. This is the very issue he had been reprimanded for by Rome and that is interfering with Jewish religion. Are they trying to put to death the son of a false God? Am I right back where I used to be, having to eliminate a false God? It is a brilliant tactic inspired by the mind of all minds, the corrupt mind of Satan.
And so, Jesusverse 9 saysgave him...what?...no answer. Didn't say a word. He knew Pilate's heart. Pilate was a truth rejector. There was nothing to say. And whether or not He was the Son of God was no matter for Roman justice. And Pilate had rendered his verdict five times already. What was there to say? He said nothing.
"Then Pilate said to Him, Speakest Thou not unto me, knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee and power to release Thee?" Petty governor. Didn't even know who he's talking to. "Jesus said, You could have no power at all against Me except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin."
You don't have any power unless God allows it...none at all. But the people who delivered Me to you are the sinners who are the greater. You sin through weakness. You're just a pawn in the whole thing. They sin through willful hatred. There are degrees of rejection of Christ. The severer the rejection the hotter the hell.
Then came the back breaker. "From then on Pilate sought to release Jesus." Now he goes back and he wants to get Jesus out of his hands for sure because he's afraid now that he's going to have another one of these incidents with a God. "But the Jews cried out," here it comes, "If you let this man go, you are not...what?...Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar."
They're back to the political issue. You're not a friend of Caesar. You're showing complicity with an insurrectionist. And he knows that if that message gets back to Caesar, he's done. "And so, when Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, sat down in the judgment seat in the place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew gabbatha, it was the preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour...that's Gentile time, six A.M....he said to the Jews, Behold your king." And he mocked them with that. And, of course, he insisted that be put on the cross. "And they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your king?" And listen to what they say, "The chief priests answered, We have no king but...what?...Caesar." Boy, underline that in your Bible. That is...that is the finale. That is the finale in the rejection of Israel.
It's one thing to say the blood of the Messiah be on us. But to say we have no king but Caesar? Is it any wonder that in 70 A.D. God destroyed their city and their religion? Is it any wonder that for centuries and centuries and centuries they have been under the judgment of God...except for the remnant that are called out by His grace through faith in Christ? Frightening. They said they had no king but Caesar. That is the total rejection of Jesus Christ stated. Put His blood on our account, we have no king but Caesar.
You know something? It was the truth. That's the sad part. Their king was an earthly king, convenience.
So, what do you have in all this? Jesus Christ is innocent. He is exalted. He is perfect. He is holy. Now listen very carefully, why? Because the Old Testament law said one thing, the lamb that is offered for sin must be a lamb without...what?...spot, without blemish. All of this, dear beloved friends, is to prove the suitability of the perfect Lamb of God to die for the sins of the world. Monumental truth here. The whole world of men, religious and irreligious, the whole world of demon beings inspired by the devil himself cannot come up with one spot or blemish on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Thus He is the perfect sacrifice. O how He is exalted. Though His visage is marred, His form is ugly, He is physically abused and battered and smashed and hit in front of Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod, He is slapped, punched, spit on, crowned with thorns, scourged, He still comes forth as the spotless beautiful Lamb of God.
How then could...how could they sentence Him to death? Here it is. "It was the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God," it says in Acts 2. It says in Isaiah 53, "God has laid on Him...what?...the iniquity of us all." God called Him to be the Savior.
Let me close with this. Jesus wasn't on trial here...really, who was? Everybody else. That's right, everybody else. And you're on trial, too. What you do with Jesus Christ will determine your eternal destiny. What are your options? Well, listen:
The Jews hated Him...and I mean by the Jews the leaders, the Jewish leaders hated Him. They hated Him. That's an option.
The crowd rejected Him...mindlessly, stupidly. Led by the nose, fickle, unthinking.
Herod laughed at Him, mocked Him, made a joke out of Him.
Pilate's wife, what did she do? She just wanted to have nothing to do with Him.
Pilate, he tried to shake Him...couldn't. He chose the material world and sentenced Him to death.
What are you going to do with Jesus Christ? That's the question. Hate Him? Mindlessly reject Him because everybody around you does? Or maybe you just laugh at the whole thing. Or maybe you just say, "Well, look, I'm not interested in it, I really don't want to have anything to do with this." Or maybe you just choose what is and sacrifice eternity like Pilate did and put Jesus away, get rid of Him. You will make a choice and it will be one of those. And it will be an eternal thing.
Father, we thank You for the Word this morning, for the powerful testimony of Scripture to the majesty of Jesus Christ. Bless our responses to it. May they be right responses.
In a moment of silence, everyone just staying prayerfully before the Lord, if you don't know Jesus Christ, we invite you to come to Him. In your heart you may open your heart and say, Lord, I want salvation, I want my sin forgiven, I want to receive Christ, I want to be like the Centurion who stood by the cross and said, "Truly this was the Son of God." I want to be like the thief who hung beside Him and said, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom." To whom He said, "This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." I want to be a believer.
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This week's blog post is written by fellow PhD Candidate Nicholas Gorski, who came across yet another bug in Facebook's privacy during the latest rollout. The post germinates from a discussion about how the motto "Move Fast, Break Stuff" sounds fun for an engineer, but is this attitude apt when it comes to your relationships with your friends and family? As an explicit clarification to the engineers at Facebook: This post is intended to incite thought about attitudes towards privacy models, and not make any claims about coding abilities or the inevitability of bugs. —arnab
Mark Zuckerberg's motto for Facebook, now used as company differentiator in engineering recruiting pitches, is "move fast, break stuff." As previously reported, Facebook certainly broke things in changes pushed out Tuesday evening: By previewing the effects of your privacy settings, you were briefly able to see your profile as if you were logged in to a friend's account, which enabled you to view your friends' live chats as they were taking place, as well as look at pending friend requests.
Tuesday's changes apparently also broke another privacy setting, though. By now, everyone is aware that Facebook exposes privacy settings for personal information in your profile. This includes items such as your Bio, description, Interested In and Looking For, and Religious and Political Views. However, Tuesday's changes appear to expose this information to everyone in your network regardless of your privacy settings and even whether or not they are your friend.
[click the pictures to enlarge]
Try it out for yourself. First, set the privacy settings for some of your personal information to exclude certain friends of yours that are in your network, and then preview your profile as them. If the privacy breach hasn't been fixed yet, your friend will still be able to see your personal information even though they shouldn't be able to according to your privacy settings. As we mentioned, this extends beyond your friends: anyone in your network may be able to view your personal information (it may even extend beyond your network).
(Note: the privacy leak may have since been fixed… although an awful lot of people now have public quotations on their profiles.)
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this bug is going to get the attention that it deserves. Facebook is exposing a privacy policy to its users, but is broken such that it ignores this policy. Upon rolling out Buzz, Google was lambasted in the press for defaulting to a public privacy policy for your contacts – if you opted in to creating a public profile. In this case, Facebook let you set an explicit privacy policy, but then exposed that information anyway.
How could this seemingly minor privacy leak hurt anyone, you might ask? The canonical example of the danger of Buzz's public contacts was the case of the female blogger with an abusive ex-husband. No harm actually befell this security-conscious blogger, but it certainly could have. In the case of Facebook's privacy breach, the information that was made public was only profile information relating to your biography, religion and romantic preferences. Given the masses of Facebook users, how many people's sexual preferences could have been inadvertently outed? How many people could have had potentially embarrassing biography information exposed to their parents, people in their network, or potential employers? The privacy safeguards are there for a reason, after all.
One might be inclined to write it off as a mistake, potentially a bug in a PHP script written by a junior software engineer — something hard to believe, given the reported talent of their employees. But Facebook's motto, and their current agenda, makes it clear that the privacy leaks that have come to light this week are more than that. They are a product of corporate indifference to privacy; indeed, Facebook's corporate strategy for monetizing their site depends on making as much of your information public as they can. The EFF has repeatedly sounded alarms about the erosion of privacy on Facebook, but is it too late?
Much of the information that was once personal and guarded by privacy settings has now migrated to the public portion of the site, and has been standardized in order to facilitate companies using your personal information to tie in to their marketing and advertising campaigns. The books that you like, the music that you listen to, your favorite movies: all of these are valuable data that companies will pay Facebook for, in aggregate. It will allow them to target you more specifically. When you expose this information publicly, though, are you really aware of how it will be used – not just today, but tomorrow? Information will persist forever in Facebook's databases, long after you delete it from your profile.
In the meantime, Facebook's corporate attitude of playing fast and loose with your profile information makes it likely that future privacy leaks will occur — that is, if any of your profile information remains private for much longer.

subset: commoncrawl


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By Robert Burns, Texas A&M University
The damage to the wheat crop in the Panhandle, Southern Plains and Rolling Plains regions from the last bout of freezing weather was not uniform, but losses were "significant," according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist.
And further damage could occur with temperatures forecast to drop below freezing in those areas April 22-23, said Dr. Travis Miller, AgriLife Extension agronomist and Texas A&M University soil and crop sciences associate department head.
"They were predicting 27 and 30 (degrees) in Amarillo," he said. "That's enough to do damage when wheat is in boot or blooming."
Freezing weather this late is a rare phenomenon, Miller said. He noted that in his 35 years as an AgriLife Extension agronomist, he's never seen freezes occur this late in the year.
Brad Charboneau, National Weather Service meteorologist, Lubbock, said the late freezes this year haven't broken the record yet, but they are "definitely abnormal." The average last freeze date for Lubbock is April 10, and the record latest freeze was May 8 in 1938.
Generally, Miller said, irrigated wheat in the High Plains was hurt more than dryland wheat, but the damage so far has varied region to region, in some cases county to county — even field to field.
For example, Rick Auckerman, AgriLife Extension agent for Deaf Smith County, west of Amarillo, reported 20 to 50% damage from previous freezes with many of the tillers still in good shape.
"Two fields that I had inspected were 75 to 80% damaged with collapsed stems and heads dying," Auckerman said. "These fields were thin plant stands and not irrigated well when this freeze moved in. Now with this last freeze, all bets are off, so to speak, and again we will have to wait to assess this past round of damage."
But further north, Brad Easterling, AgriLife Extension agent for Sherman County, north of Amarillo on the Texas/Oklahoma border, reported: "After assessing our wheat, overall don't think the freeze damage is going to be as bad as what was first thought. We did freeze again last week and another one is expected this week."
Miller said that dryland wheat farmers who had extensive damage don't have many options.
"They get only one shot at a crop, and then they're done due to the very dry soils," he said. "They had a marginal crop to begin with because of the drought, but some may at least hay it or graze it."
Irrigated wheat farmers have more options.
"Their biggest interest is to get their crop insurance adjustment as fast as they can," Miller said. "On the irrigated fields, they still have time to plant an irrigated crop if they kill this wheat and get it off the field, and plant right into it with cotton, sunflowers, sesame, sorghum or another crop."
More information on the current Texas drought and wildfire alerts can be found on the AgriLife Extension Agricultural Drought Task Force website.


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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Debugger Support Considered Harmful
He was unfamiliar with the debugger because he had been writing tests.
Asking why Ruby has weak debugger support is like asking why a dolphin doesn't have gills. Ruby has weak debugger support because Ruby programmers shouldn't be using a debugger. Ruby supports TDD and BDD better than any other language except possibly Smalltalk. Debugger support is for languages that you can't run tests against gracefully.
Debugger support is like nail-biting support, or farting-in-public support. Its absence is a feature. You want to avoid supporting bad habits. If programmers have to break their bad habits, that's a good thing.
It's also like asking why Lisp doesn't have design patterns. There are definitely design patterns which are only necessary in the absence of particular language features. If you're used to a crutch, you think you need it. Ruby lacks debugger support because it's not limping.
Update: Comments are now closed. I deleted several rude comments and several comments about deleting rude comments. Many comments on this post were aggressive and/or rude. Even the most lucid response I've seen on another blog calls me crazy. Apparently this is a more emotional subject than I realized.
One deleted comment stated that tests were for finding out when things went wrong, and debuggers were for fixing them. I cannot emphasize enough how totally and completely I disagree. Tests have absolutely nothing to do with checking to see if something went wrong. The mere fact that anybody could even think so in 2007 shows the strength of the Sapir-Whorf effect which is the primary argument for referring to tests as specifications rather than tests. Tests are absolutely not for checking to see if things went wrong. They are for articulating what code should do, and proving that code does it.
Another deleted comment referened an excellent screencast on the Smalltalk debugger, custom-created for the sake of this discussion, which I had to delete. Please understand, if your comments are rude, I will delete them, no matter how well-reasoned they are, no matter how polished their presentation, no matter how much I might respect you. Rude discussion doesn't belong here.
For a quick summary, the screencast demonstrated that the Smalltalk debugger works with TDD. Although this was a very cool demo, anyone with any knowledge of Smalltalk's history or the history of TDD knows that, since TDD originated with Smalltalk, and the Smalltalk debugger is famous. So my opinion persists that debuggers work backwards.
Debuggers are based on the idea that the code base has enough places bugs could happen that the work of locating the bug is involved enough to justify machine assistance. This is not true of well-tested code. It is not true of code you understand, either. More importantly, the whole point of [T|B]DD is that you identify the bugs before you write the code. As tools which track down bugs in existing code, debuggers presume and encourage a workflow which is exactly backwards.
It is my opinion that clean, well-tested code renders debuggers unnecessary, and that debuggers arose in the historical conditions which predated [T|B]DD. In that context, debuggers were a useful tool. In the context of well-tested code, specification of the system's behavior can be very atomic, to the point where a debugger is no longer necessary. It was and is my opinion that debuggers are a historical relic of C, and specifically of C pointer mechanics. It was and is my opinion that this historical relic belongs in history books, museums, and Wikipedia screenshots, and that adding a debugger to Ruby would be actively counter-productive to Ruby in the same way that adding C pointer mechanics and re-introducing goto would be.
I think the most important points here are:
1. Debuggers encourage a backwards workflow
2. Debuggers are a historical artifact of C pointer mechanics and primitive flow control
I definitely still consider debuggers harmful. Sorry about the closed comments, and the comments deleted for rudeness, but how much time am I supposed to have? I don't need people stressing me out. I got angry and lost sleep last night. That's absurd overkill. One way or the other, it's just a technique. It's not as if I was talking about your mom or something.
Yet another update: Debugger fanatics might also be interested in an earlier post on Gyre, a Rails debugger written in Rails, a subsequent post on building a ghetto "debugger" out of RCov and Mongrel, and blog responses.
And again: There are definitely smart people who disagree with me; Uncle Bob's similar post in 2003, unearthed in a blog response to a blog response, demonstrates there are also smart people who agree.
4 comments:
Let's not forget that one great feature of Smalltalk is its exceptional debugger :).ReplyDelete
It's an urban myth that Lisp doesn't have design patterns. It comes from Peter Norvig's talk where he proclaims that, in Lisp, the _GoF_ Design Patterns are either invisible or much simpler. People played a game of telephone with this quote until it became: "Lisp doesn't need design patterns" and then backfilled a theory to come up with why.ReplyDelete
You can live without a debugger - until you have to deal with someone else's ("legacy") code :)ReplyDelete
But 'Ruby doesn't have a debugger' is old hat - check out the latest release of NetBeans - the integrated debugger is solid and doesn't take much work at all to get running with existing (non-NetBeans) projects.
And yes - you can debug MRI apps as well as JRuby ones.
Here's Piers' comment, denatured, 1950s-ized, and Miss Manners-afied:ReplyDelete
A good debugger is one of life's pleasures. That moment when you run your sUnit tests, get the method missing dialog and just implement the missing method right there in the debugger is just lovely.
Sure, testing is good, but testing + a good debugger is better.
@reinier: 3 weeks? Wow, you have a good memory.
Sorry, I know I'm a hypocrite with all the swearing I do, but I just don't tolerate it.
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Trainer: Um... well, that's not the same guy as who I'm thinking. Basically, Pareto was this guy who had discovered a very important statistical trend that is today known as the Pareto Principle. Blah, blah, blah...
Me: Ugh... /wanted to desperately explain to the guy how they're exactly the same person.
OK, quick note on teaching. When you are teaching or training people, there will always be someone who plays "stump the prof". I do this now and then. I see lots of people do it. When we do this, we're not trying to make the "prof" look bad. We're genuinely curious about something and want it figured out through dialogue. Or we're bored with the discussion and want to turn it into something more enlightening. Or we're annoyed that something incorrect is being taught. Or maybe sometimes we're just mean, but I don't think there are many who really care to do that. They have other motives, being students. If you're teaching and you encounter a "stump the prof" situation, don't feel embarrassed. Don't back off. Don't get combative. Engage with your students.
OK, back on topic. The Pareto principle basically describes how the majority of stuff is associated with the minority of people, causes, etc. Normally, the numbers are 80-20: 80% of the wealth in a nation can be owned by 20% of the population; 80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the causes. Etcetera. We were being trained on how to identify the 20%. Basic stuff that you learn in any business school.
When you look at movements like Occupy Wall Street, they've altered the framework a bit. Now it's the 99% vs the 1%. It's not like the 1% hold 99% of the wealth, but they hold a significant amount (about 40%). Unfortunately, due to various factors, the 1% is probably a systemic, natural result. Even if the 1% are broken down through revolution, a new 1% will just arise. This seems to be a natural power law.
Case in point? Look at China. There was a lot of strife because of, among other things, the big divide between the rich and poor. So Mao rose up and started the revolution, with the peasants landing on top. Well, over time, we have arrived at the exact same situation again. The wealth gap between the 1% and 99% is way bigger than what exists in the USA and is much more visible. This is probably a simple side effect of the fact that China's population is much bigger, so percentage calculations result in amplified gross numbers. It is very odd to hear people in the west constantly talking about how rich China is now, how China is the benefactor of the US due to being owed so much US debt, etc. The fact is that these statements may be true at a macro level, but at a micro level inside the country, it's not such a simple picture.
There is a HUGE wealth gap between the rich and poor in China. You have millionaires who have no problem buying tons of fancy cars, expensive brand name bags, bubble-level real estate, etc. Then you have the girl in the bakery who's making only $150 per month, while the most basic apartment also costs $150 per month. Lucky for most employees, the employer is usually willing to provide living quarters at a cheap price. Of course, it usually comes out of the $150 per month, unless it's in the factory where it might be free. Well, in the factory, you make more money, but it's a dog fight to get in, and the conditions are horrible by western standards. Even further, there are still many who live in villages without basic plumbing. Since the wealth gap is many times blamed on corruption, the general populace is very upset to the point where any rich girl flaunting pictures of her wealth on the web causes a national media circus (and tough questions for parents that might work for the government). The complaints are very similar to the ones that Occupy Wall Street make about Wall Streeters and the bailouts in the US.
So we have this strange dichotomy where the west views China as very rich, with growing power, while inside China, the poor are plentiful. This dichotomy is not made any easier from the fact that it was the peasants who took over and then sent any remaining rich/powerful/freethinking people to re-education camps. Basically, the whole country became poor, and all the rich/powerful/freethinking people who had the means left for locales like Taiwan, HK, etc, before things got really bad. And if you're a believer of what Malcolm Gladwell wrote in Outliers, it's hard for a people group to shake attitudes and lifestyles that have been in place for hundreds of years, meaning that it's difficult for many of these people to stop thinking like peasants. And yet, a new 1% still arose.
Think about it. We have a real-world experiment that turned an entire large country upside down in the quest to eliminate wealth gaps, but failed in that quest. The corresponding interesting question is whether any other ideas would really solve the issue. It's easy to say that China failed to solve wealth gaps because Communism doesn't work as an economic system (which is an entirely different subject altogether and will not be discussed here). The thing is, capitalism hasn't really solved the problem yet either, if it will ever. Very few countries in the world actually have solved it. The exceptions are a small number of European nations, but the difficulty scale of their problems is much smaller due to the smaller population sizes. Never mind that they have their own economic issues right now.
If anything, I think the symptoms of the Pareto principle will be more entrenched over time. There are a number of factors that I believe will feed into this, but I think the primary ones to consider are globalization and technology. I think these two factors do more to destroy jobs than anything else. But don't label me as a left-wing free market hater. I also think they do more to create jobs than anything else. The problem lies in how to cross the chaotic chasm in between point A (jobs destroyed) and point B (jobs created).
Globalization is the easy one to analyze. If you open up international trade so that anything can be manufactured and sold anywhere, simple product manufacturing (eg. clothing, accessories, trinkets, etc) will always be manufactured wherever the labour is the cheapest because not a lot of capital investment is required (relatively speaking). So the jobs for manufacturing simple things will disappear in the wealthier nations and become abundant in the poorer nations. We saw this happen with simple manufacturing moving from western nations to Asian nations like Korea and China. Now it is happening again, moving from China to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. Imagine that. China is losing jobs because of globalization.
Once again, the important question? In the wealthier nations, who are losing those jobs? Well, those jobs are usually filled with unskilled labour, so therefore cheap labour. It's the uneducated, unskilled, and poorly paid people who are losing the jobs. And because they're uneducated, unskilled, and poorly paid, it's obviously difficult for them to find new jobs, once the jobs they were capable of doing get moved overseas. The effect is exacerbated when even office jobs like tech support, legal support work, etc, get shipped overseas due to outsourcing. So the rich will stay rich, and the poor will stay poor.
It is interesting to note that for high-tech manufacturing, many people in the industry agree that cost of labour does not factor primarily into the decision. Read interesting articles on that here. And here. And here. And finally here. I remember hearing a talk from the CEO of a new solar panel company based in Vancouver, BC. He was asked by an audience member why the company chose to build a manufacturing plant in the BC interior instead of in China. He said it was because he was proud to be making a Canadian company and the cost really isn't that different. The main cost is in the capital investment, plant equipment, etc. That cost is similar whether in Canada or in China. The labour as a percentage of cost is tiny and therefore doesn't factor into the decision.
Technology is a bit more out of left field. Technology is supposed to free our minds and give us new abilities, or at least that's what the advocates say. And to a certain extent, that's true. It is the case that people in the middle east were actually naming their newborn babies Facebook to celebrate how social media and the web had played a part in coordinating the Arab Spring Uprisings. It is the case that there was no way you could make money as an SEO expert 20 years ago (the concept didn't even exist because the web didn't really exist). But it is also the case that the primary purpose of technology in a company is to increase productivity. And the most natural way for it to increase productivity (perhaps the only way) is to automate tasks.
This hit home for me only recently, as I reflected upon my career. I started out as a software developer for a telecom company in Canada. We were a special swat team that went throughout the organization to automate solutions for difficult or stupid business problems. All of us were recent grads from university. So you had a bunch of bright-eyed kids automating systems and processes being handled by people who had worked at a job for 20 years. All of a sudden, no job. Said people were either given a package for early retirement or reassigned to new work. Except within a few years, maybe that new work would get automated too.
Technology has a huge ability to create new opportunities. But in the process, it destroys the old ways. It is a natural economic phenomenon labeled by Joseph Schumpeter as creative destruction (well, according to Wikipedia, maybe he adapted the idea from the Marxists). The problem exists when the people who were depending on the old ways for work cannot easily retrain themselves for the new economic paradigm. And when you have a ton of people who are unable to easily reinvent themselves, you have a lot of unemployment. I remember discussing things in a PMP prep class with some fellow classmates. One lady had commented on how her company implemented SAP and then was able to lay off the entire accounting department. This technology stuff is scarily powerful. P&G is laying off thousands from its marketing departments after discovering how much cheaper it is to just market stuff on the web with some web marketing specialists (greater economies of scale for one thing).
The important question this time: why can't these people reinvent themselves easily? First off, reinventing oneself is not an overnight thing. People go to school for years to attain the skills they have for a job. Or they're an apprentice for some time for some trade. Either way, you're looking at a significant time investment and income drop just to get your foot in the door. And employers don't want rookies in various fields where they have need. No, employers want qualified people that can hit the ground running. It costs too much to take inexperienced people and train them up. Especially when those inexperienced people are demanding high wages because they still have a mortgage and kids to feed. It's only after reading about the stories of the long-term unemployed that I realize there's a huge disconnect here between what technology hopes to do and how newly unnecessary employees are supposed to become employable again. There are jobs out there right now. High-quality software engineers simply cannot be found in a very big tech boom. Again, SEO experts didn't even exist 20 years ago.
What's the answer? I don't know. There are much smarter people than I working on these issues. That being said, I think we can conclude that the most important skills people need these days and well into the future are not in specific technical skills or domain knowledge. That comes and goes and may get totally automated tomorrow. Traders? Probably. Doctors? Possibly. Software developers? Heck, I saw prototypes of stuff that automated simple application development back in 2005. The list goes on. Yeah, some small niche of jobs in whatever category has always remained after getting totally automated. But that doesn't comfort the vast majority of people in those job categories who had to reinvent themselves.
Rather, the most important skills are probably the ability to learn and adapt to new environments quickly, think on one's feet, be creative and innovative, and take calculated risks to do new things. These are skills that people already need to learn today. But they'll probably be even more important in the future for that time when your job is suddenly outsourced to another country or automated out from under your feet. Technology's capability to change the world seems to be only accelerating, so it'll be harder and harder to adapt in a timely manner. Good luck, huh?
The last thing I'll say is that I think it's unfortunate when people think they can solve the negative effects of globalization and technology through policy. If the two things are unstoppable forces, no policy is going to prevent them from doing their damage. The policies that need to be created need to focus on containing the damage and prepping for the new reality so that the pain endured during the transition is minimal and everyone is ready to party rock when the transition is complete. That would probably involve a lot of education and training programs, but hopefully not for skills that will become obsolete quickly.
The last thing I'll say is that I think it's unfortunate when people think they can solve the negative effects of globalization and technology through policy. If the two things are unstoppable forces, no policy is going to prevent them from doing their damage. The policies that need to be created need to focus on containing the damage and prepping for the new reality so that the pain endured during the transition is minimal and everyone is ready to party rock when the transition is complete. That would probably involve a lot of education and training programs, but hopefully not for skills that will become obsolete quickly.


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Hang down your phone with style
Ever on the look-out for a better way to carry my cellphone, I've fallen in like with Bandolier's new cross-body case; people stopped me on the street while testing to ask where I got it.
Available so far only for the iPhone 4/4s or 5/5s, the very sleek, lightweight neck case hangs from a slim 52-inch-long strap or chain, (depending on the model), that clips onto two metal loops at the bottom of the case, and can hang across your chest or hip. Notice I said the strap clips onto the bottom of the case, not the top. That is a great plus, because to use the phone, you just reach down and tilt the phone up to operate. (Most other phone neck cases hang from straps at the top of the case, requiring you to twist and rotate the phone to use while wearing).
The back of the case has two horizontal slots for ID's or credit cards. Nothing obscures phone functions. You'll need to supply your own screen shield. Available in leather or faux snakeskin in a variety of colors and strap styles. I would have liked the option of a shorter neck strap/chain, and the card slots are a tight fit that can sometimes make withdrawing a credit card a challenge. Still, thumbs way up.
Bandolier Cross-Body iPhone Case is $80 to $125 at www.bandolierstyle.com.


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Events for May 19, 2019
Events Search and Views Navigation
Worship Service and Children's Church
Worship in the Sanctuary for Adults and Children every Sunday morning at 9:00am At 9:15am Children are dismissed from the sanctuary to meet their teachers in the gathering area and go to their own bible classes. Currently using www.thinkorange.com curriculum for preschoolers and elementary plus ages.Find out more »
Adult Sunday School Classes & Kid's Rec. Time
Adult Sunday School classes to choose from every Sunday morning Kid's Educational Rec. TimeFind out more »


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The Central Connecticut women's track & field team stands in seventh place posting 10 points on day one of the Northeast Conference Championships. The final day will be held on Sunday, May 6th.
Sacred Heart leads the 11 team field with 70 points while Monmouth (47) is second, Robert Morris (28) third, Mount St. Mary's (22) fourth, and St. Francis (PA) (19) along with LIU Brooklyn (19) round out the top-five. The Blue Devils lead eighth place Wagner (8), ninth place Quinnipiac (7), and Fairleigh Dickinson (2) and St. Francis (NY) (2) who are tied for 10th place.
Leading the Blue Devils on the first day of championship competition was sophomore Krisztina Dearborn who placed fourth in the 10,000m crossing the line at 38:06.86.
Senior Amanda Asaro ran the second fastest time in the 800m preliminary round posting a time of 2:16.34. The senior will advance to the event's final round.
Sophomore Meghan Burns qualified for the 400m finals with her 58.71 time in the preliminary heat. Senior Alasia Griebel will run in the 1500m finals after her 4:44.40 qualifying time in the preliminary round.
In the field, sophomore Jess Davis placed fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 2.75m (9'00.25"). The jumper was just 6" away from her own CCSU school record.


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Track History
Few who saw Atlanta Motor Speedway in its infancy would recognize the track today. A majestic structure situated on 887 acres in Hampton, Ga., just 25 miles south of Atlanta, today's Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of the country's top sports, corporate, family and entertainment facilities.
But it's a far cry from the structure planned in 1958 by Walker Jackson, Lloyd Smith, Garland Bagley, Ralph Sceiano and Ike Supporter. Before construction of the proposed superspeedway had been completed, insufficient funds forced four of the founders to abandon ship. Dr. Warren Gremmel, Bill Boyd, Jack Black and Art Lester joined Bagley in the venture and spent $1.8 million to get the facility ready.
Ready, in this case, was a relative term.
"The track wasn't ready to be used," recalled Furman Bisher, then sports editor of The Atlanta Journal and a long-time sports columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Some of the lower seats were so low fans couldn't see over the retaining wall. The only bathroom facility in the infield was a three-hole outhouse. There was mud all over. You talk about Mudville. Casey would have been right at home."
When the 1.5-mile track, then called Atlanta International Raceway, finally made its debut on July 31, 1960, it became the seventh superspeedway,a paved facility of one mile or more, to play host to a Cup race. Only three of the original seven; Darlington Raceway, Daytona International Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway are still in operation.
But the Atlanta track's future was hazy in the 1960s and '70s, when it suffered several financial setbacks. The track was reorganized under Chapter Ten bankruptcy proceedings in the 1970s and went through several general managers before settling down with Walt Nix, who served as general manager for much of the next two decades except for a brief period when NASCAR president Mike Helton was in charge.
Even through the financial difficulties, Atlanta had attracted the attention of key local figures and celebrities. While running for governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, an avid race fan and former ticket vendor at the track in the '60s, promised a barbecue dinner at the governor's mansion if he won. He kept that promise, then improved on it by inviting the racing community to another cookout in 1978; this time at the White House.
Despite the great racing and national attention, Atlanta International Raceway was still a meager facility struggling to get by.
"It was just the Weaver Grandstand and wooden bleachers on the backstretch," Former Atlanta Motor Speedway ticket manager Frances Goss recalled. "Fans would bring blankets and sit on the dirt bank."
Bruton Smith changed all that when he purchased Atlanta International Raceway on October 23, 1990, and renamed the facility Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Under Smith's stewardship, Atlanta Motor Speedway not only has undergone massive expansion, but it has dramatically increased its menu, hosting everything from XFINITY and Gander Outdoors Truck Series, ARCA, Drag Racing and IndyCar racing to dog shows, the Georgia State Fair, concerts and business conventions.
In 1994, Tara Place, the nine-story building that houses 46 luxury condominiums, Tara Ballroom, the speedway office complex and more luxury suites opened, as did the adjacent Tara Clubhouse and its accompanying swimming pool and tennis courts. A year later, the Earnhardt Grandstand opened, and in 1997, the great transformation was completed. The Champions Grandstand was added, and the total of luxury suites was increased to 137. When the Champions Grandstand was built, the start/finish line was moved from the west to the east side of the track, and two doglegs were added to the frontstretch to form a 1.54-mile quad-oval, which replaced the original oval. New media facilities, garages and countless fan support buildings were added to what has become a modern motorsports palace.
In October, 2006 Atlanta Motor Speedway added another Grandstand, the Winners Grandstand, offering fans a great view of the frontstretch and pit road. A Trackside Terrace Luxury RV Camping area replaced the aged Weaver Grandstands as well.
Sitting atop the Winners Grandstand is a public suite called Club One. Limited to just 1,000 occupants, the exclusive club offers a climate controlled view of the entire track as well as a rooftop sight and sound observation deck.
"Bruton told me before he ever bought the track, 'I'd like to see what could be done with this place,'" Goss recalled. "He's made it. I never would have believed Atlanta Motor Speedway would look like it does today."


text: As adults age, they often lose some mental acuity while also facing more physical limitations. These health conditions put senior citizens at greater risk of exploitation and abuse. At the same time, the elderly need to think about their long-term medical and financial needs, and make estate plans to ensure their legacy after they pass away. An elder law attorney can work with seniors and their families to address issues such as advanced directives, powers of attorney, living wills and last wills and testaments. Elder law lawyers can also help families intervene if a guardianship or conservatorship is necessary. And personal injury law firms with experience in elder issues can help victims of elder abuse and nursing abuse take civil and criminal legal actions against their abusers.


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Used 2012 FordFocus SE Sedan
- Stock: C6865A
- Odometer
- 117,324 miles
- Fuel Economy
- 26.0/36.0 mpg City/Hwy
- Exterior Color
- Red
- Interior Color
- Charcoal Black
- Body/Seating
- Sedan/5 seats
- Drivetrain
- front-wheel
- Engine
- 2.0L I-4 cyl
Ford Focus
Highlighted Features
- Perimeter/approach lights
- Remote keyless entry
- Steering wheel mounted audio controls
- Fully automatic headlights
Detailed Specifications
Dealer Notes
28/38 City/Highway MPG2012 Ford Focus now available at Rudig Jensen! This amazing offer comes with traction control, cloth seats, and much more! Stop in today for more information!NOBODY beats the Rudig Jensen DEAL! Bring us their DEAL....it won't beat our DEAL. All DEALS receive a PLATINUM level membership in the Mark Rudig's Owner Loyalty Rewards Program. If we don't have it we will do our best to find it for you! But, NOBODY beats our Customer Service!Awards: * Car and Driver 10 Best Cars * 2012 IIHS Top Safety Pick * 2012 KBB.com Top 10 Coolest New Cars Under $18,000 * 2012 KBB.com Top 10 Road Trip Cars * 2012 KBB.com Brand Image AwardsCar and Driver, January 2017.
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 5.0
Best vehicle Ive ever owned!
By Sam on Wednesday, January 24, 2018If youre looking for a super efficient and reliable car, youve found it! Ive had this car for almost a year. I keep up on all general maintenance and its never given me a single problem. I have all-season tires on it and its still a champ in the snow too! I love the bluetooth capabilities, great gas mileage, great interior and exterior, great vehicle! Would buy again in a heartbeat.
- 1.0
2nd Worst Car I Have Ever Owned
By Mike on Monday, July 01, 2019Loved this car when I first got it. Great ride, handling (at least until the factory tires hit snow for the first time), large enough trunk to put almost everything I have ever needed it to do. Liked it so much that I convinced my wife to buy a Ford Escape a year later (also a mistake). Only problem at the beginning was that the transmission seemed off and it hesitated a lot when trying to get started from a red light. Ford denied it was a problem for about 2 years, then did a "recall" for the problem (which essentially was just a new program for the transmission) and VIOLA!!! it was fixed and the car was great. Well, it was great... if you ignore that the Sync system never really worked and really wouldn't play audio from my iPhone or Android over Bluetooth, other than actual phone calls (which would still randomly go into "privacy" mode after you answered the call, which translate to the handset while you were driving after you used the car to answer it)... and it would only pick up music from the USB connection on a random basis that sometimes involved shutting off the car, then opening and closing the doors, then restarting the car with the phone/mp3 player plugged into the jack already playing the music... but, sometimes it only worked if the phone wasn't playing music already... but, sometimes...etc.. etc.. All of that was frustrating but like most things, you just accept it and move on because the car itself was good and fun to drive. But of course, there was also the plastic cover under the car that either never seemed to stay up or the dealer just kept forgetting to put it back on properly... and the time when the check engine light came on and I took it into the dealer about 2000 miles after parts of the warranty expired just for them to say my catalytic converter was having a problem, the warranty covering it had just expired and it would eventually be a $1500 repair if/when it finally went (I decided to drive with the light on)... then at only 115,000 miles the transmission blew out while driving on cruise control on a straight highway at 70mph (meaning it wasn't shifting or doing anything at that point). Y'know, the kind of thing that everyone who does car repairs tells you, in the most maddening way, "shouldn't happen with that little wear on it". This is a $6000 repair on a car that had a trade in value of $2000 - $2500 at that point (to put it in another perspective, the equivalent 2013 Toyota... a Camry... is valued at around $6000 as a trade-in at the same time with the same mileage by KBB). I have driven a Ford since 1997 (when I had a Geo Tracker... which is actually the worst car I ever owned) and have never driven anything that was not sold by an American car company, but this is definitely my last one. Maybe Ford has gotten better again in the last couple of years (looking at recalls and complaints between 2010 & 2016... they definitely had some terrible years), but I won't chance it.
- 1.0
Don't buy this car!
By shakayla1406 on Monday, June 17, 2019My husband and I bought two new 2018 Ford Focus within a week (one had 18 miles and the other had 25 miles). The transmission in one of them has been worked on three times so far. Ford is no help at all. Just Google Ford transmission issues and you will see we are not the only one to have this problem . It is an issue that Ford is aware of and they have done nothing to fix it. I shouldn't have to pay $18,000 for a car that started having problems two months after it was purchased. Until there is a permanent solution for the transmission, this car is not worth the trouble! The only thing Ford has offered is to let us purchase the extended warranty (we purchased the 36,000 mile warranty), but eventually no matter what warranty I have it will eventually not be covered and then I will be responsible for the $900 + bill the have the transmission fixed every couple months.
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2015 Ford F-150 Truck SuperCre…
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Hot Tamales - 4.5 lbs.
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