JOHN 19:4-11 ABSOLUTE POWER
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Repeatedly Jesus had taught in public and in the face of opposition from the religious and community leaders who wanted to arrest him. Even on the return to his home town of Nazareth the crowd had taken him out to the cliff in order to throw him over, but he walked away right through them (Luke 4:28-30). Another time, when he was teaching in the temple courts the people tried to seize him and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him, “but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come” (John 7:30, 43). The balance of power was clearly in favor of Jesus’ side.
Pilate was not comfortable or accustomed to being out of control. In fact his job description could have been summarized by the phrase “keeping control of the Jews.” Yet, early on this morning he finds himself unable to exercise control over this unruly crowd of Jews. He is desperate to use his authority to overrule the crowd, but fears losing complete control over them and having a riot on his hands. In addition, he is faced with a defendant that is accused of proclaiming himself God and treats Pilate as if he were. When the governor plays the power card Jesus trumps it. What is more pathetic than the representative of the most powerful nation in the world standing stripped of his power before a beaten and bound prisoner?
How would our lives and our witness be different if we imitated Christ before the powers and principalities of this world? If our faith was strong enough to actually believe that no one in the created order could have power over us unless it was given to them by God we would be far less anxious to vindicate ourselves and to separate ourselves from the world and the worldliness of the churches. If we were to imitate Christ we would not be so prone to take matters into our own hands but willing to stand in testimony to God’s sovereign power. The greatest defeat for worldly powers is to stand before them in defiance of their power without succumbing to the exercise of worldly power ourselves.
Today, as I am confronted by the powers in this world, give me the strength of faith, O Lord, to deny those powers in the name of the power of God. May I live my life as a witness to the sovereignty of God and seek only that which is in his perfect will. Grow my trust in the Father and my willingness to let his power be unambiguously manifested to the world through my obedience. Amen.