He Has The Power

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

HE HAS THE POWER

John 19:7-11

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." 

NIV

Although we could focus on the insistence of the Jews to the law instead of the truth of the law, which showed them their need for Jesus, the Son of God, there appears to be a singular truth in this dialog and of course it resides within the words Jesus spoke to Pilate. Somehow Pilate is under the assumption that his great power of life and death is due to his own abilities. Somehow he believes his skill, his talent as a soldier, or as a Politician advanced him to this rank of having the power of life and death over men. Jesus was plain in his words to Pilate explaining to him that the only reason he had such power was because God gave it to him. Although it may be true that Pilate was an intelligent man, and that he had served well in the army of Rome, and that he may have been from an influential family, friends of Caesar, and he was advanced due to his abilities, yet he was a not in Rome, he was stuck in some far off land, overseeing a bunch of Jews. He may have not been so popular of a Governor in the empire as he thought he was. But the truth here is that God was one who gives him his power. Once again would we say that Pilate had no free will, that he is but a puppet with God pulling the strings? We would be right in saying that God knew Pilate and that God did in fact pull a few strings to insure that Pilate was where he was when he was. There is the providence of God which we cannot deny. God moves people to places they need to be in order to accomplish his will. This is why we refer to the call of God upon individuals as God moving people to places he needs them to be. Jesus was simply telling Pilate that his power, his position in life, not because of himself, but because of God. Jesus always directs people to God. Of course we do have the free will to choice to not listen, but we also have to know God does give each of us the power we have in life. What we have is not because of our great abilities, other than the abilities God has bestowed upon us. If we start thinking we are so great, so smart, so intelligent, so able to accomplished whatever we set our minds to do, we have forgotten that God is our source. When we become like that, we might be more like those who handed Jesus over to Pilate then we want to admit. When we look to the law, instead of God we have forgotten who has the power. Jesus reminds us that it is God who empowers us all to be who desires us to be. He has the power.