You have no power

Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."  - John 19.11

Pilate was furious that Jesus would not answer his questions. ‘Don’t you know what I can do to you? Don’t you know who I am?’

Jesus’ reply was clear and to the point – ‘You wouldn’t have any power at all against Me if God didn’t give it to you.

Pilate was a government official who was given power by God to order the death of His son. We often find it easy to complain about our government officials and even advocate disobeying the law or even violent revolution. What Jesus tells Pilate here is totally consistent with the rest of scripture. ‘The Most High rules in the kingdom of men and He gives it to whoever He will.’ ‘The powers that be are ordained of God.’ ‘Honour the king.’

The problem is one of our perspective. It would make no sense, from a human perspective, that God would put a man in power who was going to kill His son. Without knowing what we now know it would be very difficult to believe that God would allow that to happen. Surely, God putting Pilate in power could not be possible.

It takes faith to believe that ‘the Most High rules in the kingdom of men’ and to believe ‘the heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord.’ Do we have the faith to accept it?