The Revelation of Power
John 19: Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” 7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” 12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. 15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
How do you measure strength? Water has been tested and designated to a specific boiling point and freezing point. Metals also have a specific weight that they can support. But when it comes to measuring the strength of a man, it isn’t quite so easy. Back in the 70’s they used to have some really goofy contests to determine who was the strongest man in the world. Some men would have to take a huge tractor tire and flip it upside down across a finish line. In another contest the contestants would have to lift a car and move it a certain number of feet. These didn’t seem like very accurate tests to me to find out who was the most powerful.
Several years ago I attended a wrestling contest. One young man was very strong looking, where the other boy didn’t look as refined. So I figured the sculpted young man would win. But I was surprised to see the other young man take the muscular man to town. Strength isn’t always measured in the amount of muscle. When you look at this story from the Bible for today, it would appear that Jesus was the weaker of the two - getting whipped and beat up by Pilate’s guards and the Jews and finally crucified. However, in the midst of this beating, Jesus gets us to reevaluate our common views of what power really is. So tonight we’ll see -
The Revelation of Power
I. Where it comes from
When Mayor Giuliani had to deal with the attacks on the Twin Towers during the past year, many people were impressed with the composure that he had during the whole traumatic event. They wondered, “where does he get the strength to deal with it?” The same was asked of the victims and their spouses and children - “where do you get the strength?” Sometimes people gain strength from trials and experiences in life. Sometimes it comes naturally. Sometimes people have to work at it. Sometimes they inherit it.
Tonight’s story presents us with basically two different powerful groups. The chief priests and the Romans. Where did the chief priests get their power? The Sadducees had become an aristocratic, elite class based on their hereditary advantage. They were descendants of the ancient high priest, Zadok. They had been granted the privilege of serving as priests after the return from the Babylonian captivity. During Jesus’ day the Sadducees had a monopoly on the high-priestly line. Ananias, the high priest was a Sadducee. They also held the bulk of the seats in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. So they got their power by inheritance.
The other “power” was that of Pilate - who sat in the governor’s seat. He was given the authority under the Roman government to keep control of the region and issue verdicts. It was his job to give a ruling when people were brought to him for trial. I would imagine that he was elected to this position, perhaps by the Emperor himself. Wherever it came from, Pilate felt that he had the ultimate control and power over the situation. So when Jesus refused to answer his questions, he said to Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
An unbeliever is only able to look at things he can see and make determinations from visible proof. As Paul says, the things of God are “foolishness to him.” In Pilate’s mind, he had the power. From all that he could tell, he had the power to either free or crucify Jesus. It was ultimately HIS call. The chief priests felt that THEY had the power, that they could coerce Pilate into giving Jesus up to be crucified if they threatened him and caused a revolt. But who really had the power? Where did their power come from? Once again, Jesus tried to expand Pilate’s mind by saying, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” Since God had allowed Caiaphas to be the high priest, and the high priest should have KNOWN that Jesus was the Messiah, he was even more guilty. Jesus was in fact saying that God had the power to free him or convict him, because Pilate was under HIS power. What did this answer do for Pilate? From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.
Isn’t it interesting to see the progression of this story? From a human point of view, Pilate was the last person in this scenario who should have been afraid. He was the governor. He had the authority to put to death or set people free. He wasn’t even on trial. But if you were to examine the emotions of the two men standing in the court that day - Jesus and Pilate - who would you have guessed was on trial? What does John say of Pilate? It wasn’t the threats of not being loyal to Caesar that effected Pilate. What was it? It was when the Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. Here Jesus had been saying that he came from another world - was a king of the world. And now when Pilate heard that Jesus said He was the Son of GOD - it made him - the so called powerful one, even more scared. But Jesus - the one who was on trial - was standing there as if he had the situation under complete control.
God has an interesting way of flexing his muscle in this world. Similar things have happened throughout the history of the world. As King Nebuchadnezzar bragged about the kingdom he said that HE had built, God showed him how much power he had, as the king turned crazy. His hair grew out, his fingernails grew, and he ate grass like a cow. When his son Belshazzar mocked God by drinking from the goblets taken from the temple, God had a hand write a few words on a wall. Here this king was with a palace and guards all around him, and his knees started knocking from sheer fright. In his own way God was saying, “now, WHO has the power here?”
I would imagine that all of those Enron employees were pretty confident a year or two ago. They thought the future was in their hands. But when their powerful company sank, what happened to their power? Do you really think the future is in YOUR hands? You think that you have the power to get rich? To be successful? The only power you have is from God. The same God who knocked Pilate down to size could do the same to you. How strong would your seemingly strong faith be, if you came down with cancer? How confident would you be in the Lord if you lost your job today? Are you really as powerful as you think you are? Does God need to give you a reality check?
Remember where your power comes from. Remember where your health comes from. You didn’t land your job because of your great abilities. You didn’t buy your house because of your great money management. Think again. Your power is given to you by God. You see, God’s power works behind the scenes, in ways that we don’t always see or understand. Somehow, God wanted the line of Zadok to be in the Sanhedrin. Somehow, God wanted Pilate to be the governor when Jesus would be on trial. He guided the decisions, even though it wasn’t evident. And in the same way today, God’s power comes in behind the scene ways. When you take the Lord’s Supper, it just looks like an innocent meal of bread and wine taking place. But through that eating and drinking God builds your faith. He washes your sins away. He gives you power to live a more godly life. When you listen to the Word - it doesn’t seem like any more than words going out of my mouth and in your ears. But in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit is filling your heart with love and faith and a better understanding of God’s grace for you in Christ. The power for godly living comes from the Word and promise of God. This is the only source of true power in the world - through Word and sacrament. Everything else is full of change and decay. God’s Word is the only constant.
II. What it does
Mayor Giuliani has been a virtual poster boy since 9-11. He did a wonderful job with the situation he had to deal with. But overall, I am not very impressed with the mayor. If he was really so strong, why didn’t he stay faithful to his wife? You see - you can measure strength in a variety of ways. Samson, for instance, may have been very strong physically. But he was very weak spiritually. He had no control over his urges and passions. It was that weakness that led to his downfall. Therefore, there are different ways to measure strength. As Paul said, He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. So let’s put aside the names and the honors that Pilate and the chief priests had. Let’s look beyond the robes and the Stone Pavement. Instead, let’s look at what they did to determine how strong they REALLY were.
When President Clinton was accused of sexual immorality and lying under oath with Monica Lewinsky, he was caught dead to rights. He had no defense when all of the evidence was laid out. So what did he do at that point? He called a new conference, gritted his teeth, pounded on the pulpit and said, “I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman!” He thought that a firm denial - a raised voice - and a clenched jaw would scare off his opponents. It didn’t work. All it did was show his weaknesses all the more. The Jews tried the same thing in today’s text. They had no real case against Jesus. All they had was the fact that he had supposedly broken a JEWISH law - that he claimed to be the Christ. They had no reason to put Jesus to death. So all they could do was gather a mob and try to coerce Pilate into handing Jesus over to death. The Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” Their “power” seemed to come from their ability to rouse up a crowd - to work up a frenzy. Their power came from a “mob rules” mentality. And their power also came from the threat of blackmail. If Pilate would let Jesus go, they would go to Caesar and tell him Pilate was allowing an insurrection by a pretend king. They claimed loyalty to Caesar - that HE was their only king. In doing this, they really revealed what their strengths were. Their strengths were in lying. Their power was in trying to bully their way around. Their power was in rebellion. They showed actually NO spiritual strength at all. They were willing to throw away all of their convictions as HATERS of the Roman government - to try and act like LOVERS of Caesar to get what they wanted. Their power was in lies and deception. In God’s eyes, this is not power. It is weakness, sickness and death.
Pilate, the one claiming to have all of this “power” to free Jesus or put him to death - showed what kind of power he had. He was afraid of the Jews. He was afraid of Jesus. He tried to gently convince the Jews to let Jesus go by having him whipped, instead of just standing his ground. His words sounded good. “This man is innocent.” His actions looked good, “I wash my hands of his blood.” But when the rubber hit the road, instead of strongly standing by his principles, and sticking up for an innocent man - even if it did cause an insurrection - he had Jesus not only whipped, but condemned to death. He allowed Jesus to be mocked and beaten up by HIS guards. Like a spineless puppet he allowed the Jews to whip him around and do what they wanted him to do. The only guts he had were to keep “the King of the Jews” above Jesus head as he was crucified. In reality, Pilate showed himself to be a man of no strength. A real God pleasing governor would have freed Jesus in spite of the implications for a revolt or a lost re-election.
When the Jews and Pilate failed to see the SOURCE of their power, they felt that they had no one to answer to. And when they felt that their power was because of THEIR gifts, they abused the power that they had. They ended up being weak. How much power and strength did it take for the chief priests to go with the crowd and yell, “crucify, crucify?” How much power did it take for Pilate to say, “take him and crucify him.” Any puppet could have done those things.
How do you measure real power? Real power and real strength are displayed in the courage to do what is right - according to God - in the face of pressure to do what is wrong - by the world. Real power is shown in someone who is willing to stand by his principles even when it might cost him or her his position of power or his reputation. That, my friends, is strength. Real powerful faith is the courage to say, “this I believe,” even when my reason can’t understand it. Real power is shown in someone who says, “I’m going to do what is right no matter what the circumstances or what the crowd thinks.”
Want an example? Look at Jesus. In the midst of the chief priests shouting for his crucifixion, Jesus remained silent. While Pilate was urging Jesus to speak some defense, he didn’t say a thing. While the women were sobbing over HIS destiny, he told them, “don’t cry for me.” Never once did he worry as if things were out of control. He had no reason to. He Himself had seen to it that Pilate would be governor and the chief priests would get their positions. In the face of a horrible suffering and death, in the midst of accusations, and just minutes from going through hell - Jesus stood his ground. He stayed the course. He did what his love convicted him to do - to go to cross and die for the sins of the world. He showed his strength in his willingness to forgive the very people who were nailing him to the cross. This was no fickle love. This was a powerful love. Imagine if you knew that on the way home from the service you would get in a car accident, die a slow and painful death, and then end up in heaven. How many of you would get in your car without complaint or hesitation? If you were given a different way home - to live longer - how many of you would take it? It would take great strength to walk into such a situation that you knew would end in death, but give life. That, my friends, is power.
Jesus once said, “blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the humble.” Paul once said, “when I am weak, then I am strong.” God doesn’t measure strength in how many tires you can pick up - or how much money you can make. He measures it in humility. Jesus measures power in weakness. Paul measures power in faith.
When the United States went to war against Afghanistan, it took great courage for many of our warriors to go and fight the battle. But many of them went to battle, and they did so confidently. America has won the battle so far, even though Afghanistan probably has more men over there and good in the hills. Why? Because we have the TECHNOLOGY. We have greater weapons. In worldly terms, your power to win is heavily dependant on the EQUIPMENT you have to work with.
My friends, some of you may not be very strong Christians. You may not manage your households very well at this point. You may not be very strong. The devil is stronger than you. He has more people on his side. But you have the best spiritual equipment in the world. You have the word of God. You have the Savior on your side. You have the power of knowing that Jesus lived and died for YOU. You have the comfort of knowing that Jesus will not back down on his principle that you are saved by FAITH in him. That is power. Jesus has revealed it to you, and even more importantly, He has GIVEN it to YOU. Amen.
