Jesus Before His Accuser's

Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. John 19:10-11

THE REJECTION OF THE KING

Pilate’s pride was touched by that silence. In His reply our Lord refers to the relative responsibility of those who shared in His condemnation. It was as if He said, “Great as your sin is, in forfeiting your position, it is less than the sin of those who have put Me into your power.” Pilate then became aware of the coil of evil in which he was caught. He was dealing with a matter that touched the unseen and eternal, but the threat to report him to Caesar suddenly brought him back to the earthly and human aspects of the case. With ill-concealed irritation he adopted the phraseology of the priests and cried, Behold your King! The Jews touched the lowest depth of degradation when, trampling under foot their national pride, they cried, We have no king but Caesar! Pilate signed the necessary documents and retired to his palace as having been himself sentenced. F.B. Meyer

Offended Dignity

​1. Pilate had marveled greatly at his prisoner’s taciturnity when the mob first gnashed their teeth at Him (Mat_27:14); but was not he the embodiment of imperial authority, “To me dost Thou not speak?” putting ruffled pride and mortified vanity into his tones. Men whose causes and arguments are weak generally take shelter behind their self importance. Men commonly stand on their dignity when they have nothing else to stand on.
2. Mean intimidation. The vicegerent of Rome could not resist telling his prisoner that His life and death were in his hands! It was the speech of a small dignitary who was a great coward.
3. Mistaken assumption. Unjust judges and persecutors have often since supposed that they held the life of Christ’s followers and Christ’s cause: but they have erred as Pilate did.

The cowardice of guilt
Men who have lost their innocence cannot preserve their courage. (Lord Clarendon.)

All power from God

Men are inclined to think that they have power for good or power for evil because of their wealth, station, or influence. They fail to consider that all their power is a simple trust from God; and that not only are they responsible for the use they make of it, but the power itself is liable to be taken away from them, or held in check at the command of God at any instant. Men are free agents in the use of all their faculties and all their possessions; but their free agency is a gift of God; and God has not surrendered His watch or His control of every free agent in His service or among His opponents. No man has power for good or for evil except as God consents to that man’s temporary exercise of power. There is a warning in this thought to those who may have fancied that they could either serve or resist God of their own strength. There is comfort and cheer in this thought to those who are threatened, or who are imperiled, by the hostility of others. A man can, in a sense, help God’s cause by generous giving, or by earnest doing—if God permits man to give help in that way. A man can, in a sense, harm God’s cause by opposing the right, or by withholding the aid that he ought to render—if God permits the man to do harm in that way. But, in the truest sense, no man can render a service to the devil, or harm a hair of a believer’s head, unless God consents to this exercise of the man’s power. But in either case the man is responsible for what he would like to do. By God’s permission he is a free agent there.
​(H. C.Trumbull, D. D.)