Thursday, April 7

John 19:8-12
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

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.”

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”


The only power Pilate had ever known was the power of Rome. He knew all about power that came with the point of a spear and the edge of a sword. He knew about power that brutalized and enslaved. He had spent his whole life seeking to gain more and more of this kind of power. Now that he had it, and could condemn men to die or release them to freedom – he tries to use that power to coerce Jesus into either defending himself – or condemning himself.

“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Perhaps for the first time in his life, Pilate was face to face with a man who neither feared nor hated him. Here was a man who was only concerned about truth; and whose life was so clearly focused on what he believed to be true that he neither feared death nor was willing to compromise his beliefs in order to preserve his life. Here was a man who not only did not fear the power of Pilate; here was a man who possessed a kind of power Pilate had never before encountered. And in the presence of this power Pilate realized – again, for perhaps the first time – that he, himself – the 6th Prefect of Judea, servant of Tiberius Caesar, was, in fact, quite powerless.

Like Pilate, we all live with a kind of illusion of power. Most of the time we feel like we are in control of our own lives – and we like to feel like we are in control. But, the truth is that we are not really in control at all. At any moment the reminder that we are not in control can come in the form of an accident, a job termination, a diagnosis of illness – and we suddenly realize that we have little control at all.

The only power we have is that which was given to us – and that is the power to choose what to believe, who to follow, and how to live. Pilate’s choice was essentially the same as our choice – he could choose to believe and follow Jesus no matter the cost to his position and perceived power, or he could choose to kill him (or allow him to be killed) in an effort to preserve the imaginary power he thought he had.

It strikes me that, in a way, that’s a choice that I made once – when I decided to trust Jesus as Savior – but it’s also a choice I must make every day – to follow him as Lord. Have you made your decision today?

Brian Coffey