“So Pilate said to him, ‘You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.’” – John 19:10-11
If we’re honest with ourselves, can we truly know how we would handle standing in the presence of the man who could release us with a simple word or sentence us to immediate and excruciating death? The response of Jesus is unique and remarkable: He knows that God, not Pilate is in control of the situation and that He is right where He was always meant to be.
Jesus goes through the experience of illegal hearings, humiliation, torture, unjust sentencing, and brutal death without struggle or resistance. As Scripture foretold, Jesus stood silent in the face of death, because He understood it was the will of God. This moment in which Pilate is so taken with his personal authority was really a moment ordained by God from before time began.
Jesus stood there so that He would be sent to the cross to suffer, die, be buried, and rise from death. He stood there so He could go to the cross and take our sins with Him, so that through God’s grace we who believe in Him would be forgiven for those sins. He stood there so that He could defeat Satan and evil permanently. We praise God that Pilate was not in control that day, but God the Father and Jesus the Son!