Whose Question Is It?
John 18:33-35 - So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”
Socrates had a habit that made him famous and helped make him enemies. He would stop a confident conversation with a question that sounded almost childish. What is justice? What is courage? Somebody would answer, then he’d ask another question, then another, and before long a man who had sounded certain realized he had been using a word for years without knowing what he meant by it. Athens eventually tried him for impiety and executed him.
Here’s why the habit matters. Two people can argue an entire afternoon using the same word to mean two different things. Until somebody sorts the word out, they’re not even having the same argument. Which is why Jesus’ first answer to Pilate is so easy to misread. Pilate opens with the one charge Rome couldn’t ignore. A religious council calling somebody a blasphemer wasn’t Rome’s problem, but a man claiming to be a king was. Kings raise armies, armies threaten Caesar, and Rome put those men on crosses.
“Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus doesn’t answer. He asks a question back, and just like that the prisoner is examining the judge. “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Jesus wants to know where the word came from. Did Pilate arrive at it himself, out of Roman reports? Or was it handed to him at the door by the men standing outside? It matters, because king means different things in different mouths. To Pilate it means soldiers, taxes, and rebellion. So if Jesus simply says yes, Pilate hears the wrong kingdom, which means a man can be sentenced over a word nobody stopped to define.
Pilate may be repeating a charge somebody handed him, but the King is standing in front of him now, close enough to touch. Watch how far away he intends to stay. Pilate asks Jesus, “Am I a Jew?” Meaning: this is not my question and these are not my people. Your nation handed You over. Tell me what You did so I can close this and go back to bed. Pilate will gladly rule on whether Jesus is a threat to Rome. Whether Jesus has any claim on Pilate is a question he never opens.
That is the spectator’s move, and it’s one of the most common postures people take toward Jesus. A Danish writer named Soren Kierkegaard spent much of his life on that exact posture, and his point was simple. You can understand something true about God, explain it accurately, even win an argument about it, and still never let it touch the way you live. Knowing it in such a way isn’t really knowing it at all. You can learn a great deal about Jesus from the observation deck, but you can’t trust Him from up there.
So what we sometimes do is keep our distance in ways that look respectable. We discuss theology we’ve never obeyed. We can quote what Scripture says about worry and still check the account balance three times before bed. We believe God cares about the poor but haven’t been genuinely inconvenienced by one in years. We have strong convictions about marriage and haven’t asked our spouse a real question since last year. The information is all correct. But it doesn’t actually cost us anything.
And notice what Jesus doesn’t do with Pilate’s question. He doesn’t dismiss it. He doesn’t answer over his head. He doesn’t treat him like a clerk with paperwork to file. He’s that patient with your questions too. Bring Him the honest ones, the borrowed ones, the ones you’ve been carrying around for twenty years. He’s never once been threatened by a question. But look at how Jesus answers. He asks a question back. And that one nobody can answer for you.
Head: I can know true things about Jesus and still keep Him at a safe distance.
Heart: Ask God what you have been too busy to obey.
Hands: Cancel one thing on today’s list and spend that time on what He named.
Prayer: “Father, thank You that You are patient with people who keep their distance. I have been one of them. Show me one thing I believe and have never obeyed, and help me do it today, through Your power. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
-PK