“Is that your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” John 18:34
A friend once offered me a significant opportunity. I thought he was joking. I laughed it off. Later I realized that he had been serious, and I wondered, what would have happened if I had said, “Tell me more.” But the moment had passed and the opportunity never came again.
Long ago, one day in the spring of the year, Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of Judea, had such a moment. Jesus, arrested and accused, stood before him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked (John 18:33).
“Is that your own idea,” Jesus responded, “or did others talk to you about me?” In other words, “Pilate, do you really want to know who I am?” For a fleeting moment Pilate’s whole life hangs in the balance (John 18:34).
What would have happened if he had said, “Tell me more?” But then he shrugs away the question. “Am I a Jew?” he says, that is, “Do you think I care who you are?” With that response, Pilate’s life-changing moment passes. The opportunity, so far as we know, never comes to him again.
Some years later, Paul, a follower of Jesus, went to Athens in Greece to preach about Jesus. “When they heard of the resurrection of the dead,” we read, “some mocked, but others joined him and believed” (Acts 17:32-34).
Have you heard? Jesus is the savior of the world. So many shrug away the question. They do not really care.
But how about you? Would you like to know more?
Lord, this is a critical moment in my life. I want to know more about You. Help me to understand who You really are. Amen.
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Further reading: “This Sucks!” And Other Things Jesus Didn’t Say on the Cross.