PrintA funny thing happened to me under the shower this morning. For reasons I don't understand I found myself thinking about Pontius Pilate. (I don't think my ablutions were related to him washing his hands!) Anyway, I imagined him sitting in the seat of judgment as Jesus was brought before him.
He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer. "You won't talk to me?" Pilate demanded. "Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?" (John 19:9-10 NLT)
The power of life and death. It was an explosive moment. I then thought about how Jesus responded.
Then Jesus said, "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above."(v.11)
It's what happened next that gripped my attention. (What I now record is in the context of my ongoing exploration of the issues of my mortality and what it means to be prepared to "go home"). The characters in my scenario changed. Suddenly it wasn't Pontius Pilate in the seat of judgment. It was Parkinson's Disease. The person may have changed but the threat was the same.
"Don't you realize that I have the power to release you or to crucify you?" (John 19:9-10 NLT)
I sensed I was standing in the place of condemnation but I was able to respond to my accuser with confidence: "You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above."
As reported in a previous journal entry, I live each day with the subtle, but ever increasing symptoms of this disease. They are a constant reminder of my mortality as well as the predictable, irresistible and inevitable outcome of this disease.
Pilate thought he was the ultimate authority and therefore had the final word concerning what would happen to Jesus.
Wrong!
Jesus knew the reality of His circumstances. He knew that the ultimate, final authority was with His Father. Further, Jesus knew that the activities that were happening around Him would lead to His death. Despite the machinations of Priests, Pilate and people, Jesus was rock-solid in His conviction that He expressed to Pilate
"You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above."
I still have a lot of processing to do so far as this experience is concerned but I believe that this "scenario under the shower" will be a critical component in my journey forward and my personal preparation for "going home".
What is immediately obvious is that Jesus knew without doubt that no authority or power at work in His circumstances was outside His Father's sovereign authority, power and purpose. Just so with my own death and departure. I can confront this disease and say to it
"You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above."
