Pilate could not find a good reason to crucify Jesus. He knew the religious leaders of the Jews had brought Jesus to him out of jealousy. Pilate had Jesus beaten in hopes that this would suffice the crowds. As Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd he told them, “Here is the man!” The crowds shouted all the more loudly crucify Him! At this point, the Jews told Pilate that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. This made Pilate afraid. He asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” Once again Pilate is faced with a decision and it had become crunch time. He tried to wiggle his way out of making the final decision to crucify Jesus.

What complicated matters was Pilate had heard that Jesus was not only King, but He was the Son of God! The Romans were surrounded with a long list of gods/ idols they worshipped. They feared offending or angering any of their long list of gods. The possibility of Jesus being God made Pilate shutter. He wanted nothing to do with Jesus being crucified. Wanting to verify what he had heard from the Jews he asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?”

We often live our lives as Pilate did. We want to live in conformity of the world around us, but we also have Jesus- the man standing in front of us. We understand where Jesus came from. We know Jesus is the Son of God, yet we don’t want to fully live in that reality. It would mean an upset of our lives, our control, our power over ourselves. Pilate knew where Jesus came from, but in order to preserve his power, his way, his “self”, he handed Jesus over to be crucified.

Jesus is before us today. We ask the same question Pilate asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” May we decide to give ourselves in response to what we already know is true, Jesus is the Son of God our Heavenly King!