We’re nearing the end of our Wednesday night class on John. God willing, I’ll teach chapter 21 on around May 21st, giving me a week to spare before the quarter is over. Yesterday we started chapter 19, the first half of which focuses on the trial of our Lord in Pilate’s court. In the midst of their conversation, Pilate makes asks Jesus a question and receives no reply, leading to this remark:
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?”
(John 19:10)
You can understand why Pilate would say this. To him—to most people, in fact—a person’s life is their most valuable commodity. Most people operate under the assumption that we should do whatever is necessary to stay alive. Whatever we have say or do, if it keeps us breathing, it’s worth doing. For Jesus not to speak in His own defense at His trial seemed like insanity to Pilate, since the governor held the power of life and death over Jesus’ head.
In fact, Pilate was under the mistaken belief that a person’s life is what is most important, when in fact there is something more essential. Life is not all that matters, love is even greater. Specifically, sacrificial love is the greatest and most important thing we can do. Whatever it costs us, if it keeps us loving with agape love, it’s worth doing. That’s the Christian mantra, and it’s what we learned from Jesus. He could have spoken more vociferously in His own defense, but He didn’t come from Heaven to Earth in order to escape a death sentence. He came to die. He came to die as a loving sacrifice.
Pilate believed a person’s life was everything to a person. Jesus taught us that person’s love is everything, and in so doing, saved us from our sins and gave us a greater kind of (eternal) life than this world ever could.
~Matthew