Context No. 2786 of 4322 · John
Context · Reflection
John 19:6-10: in context
6When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. 9He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?”
The chief priests and officers see Jesus and shout, Crucify! Crucify! Pilate, worn down, throws it back at them: take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge. They press their real reason: by our law he must die, because he made himself the Son of God. And at that, the text says, Pilate was more afraid.
He goes back inside and asks Jesus, where are you from? Jesus gives him no answer. Stung, Pilate bristles: do you not know I have power to release you and power to crucify you? That boast is the irony of the whole scene. Pilate thinks he holds Jesus' fate in his hands, but in the next breath Jesus will remind him that any authority he has was given from above. The man loudly claiming power stands before the source of all power and cannot see it. Fear has begun to leak in, but not enough to move him to do right.
When I feel firmly in control of a situation, do I remember that whatever authority I hold is given from above, and I will answer for how I use it?
Sources
- John 19:11: "You would have no power against me, unless it were given to you from above."
- Daniel 2:21: "He removes kings, and sets up kings."
- Proverbs 21:1: "The king's heart is in the LORD's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires."