John 19:9

PILATE’S QUESTION

‘Whence art Thou?’

John 19:9

I do not know of anything of more vital importance than that we should discover truly the source from which Jesus came, and why it is that from that source He should come to bear grief and agony, and for what purpose it is that He should have left His former position to come among men.

I. We stand before Christ ourselves; looking aside, we say: ‘Whence art Thou?’ Instantly we have our own answer; and there is not one believer present here but does not say, ‘I believe Jesus came from God.’ We are quoting His own words in John 8:42, ‘I proceeded forth and came from God.’ In John 8:23 we have it again: ‘I am from above.’ We, of course, choose to believe that He is that Man ‘come from God.’ Though the eye seeks a revelation, the conscience compels us to believe that Jesus is absolutely one with the Almighty God; and that leads us to look back through eternity to the time before the foundation of the world, when our Blessed Saviour was in the glory of the Father in the deepest possible sense of the word when He was with God and was God, as the opening in John’s Gospel expresses it, signifying equality with God.

II. If that be the true source of Jesus, I ask you to think of the infinite majesty of this Peasant, though He stands before Pilate; He stands, in reality, one in power, majesty, and dignity with the Father. We turn to think of the words He used Himself: ‘I and My Father are one’; and ‘Glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’ We begin to think this Being was indeed a marvellous man when we have realised something of what His position means; and the moment the inquiry comes, we have the answer that He comes from that glory, from that position in which he shared the dignity of the Godhead, was indeed one with the Father in the glory of the unapproachable throne.

III. Never, till we stand face to face with our Creator God shall we be able to measure the full beauty of holiness, or to realise all it means in Christ and to ourselves in all its aspects. I would humbly say one thing, however, and that is that it has no limits. As we look on Christ with all His attributes of holiness and beauty, and say: ‘Whence art Thou?’ we get the reply, ‘From God, to take you to God!’ That is the answer of this question; ‘Whence art Thou?’ from the point of view of Christ’s first Advent. Look at it again from the point of view of the second. Our Lord said to His disciples, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you’; and again, ‘I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’

Rev. Prebendary Webb-Peploe.

Illustration

‘ “Whence art Thou?” Of course from the lips of the judge this simply meant: “What is this man?” “Where has He come from?” “Who can He be?” The greatest commentators have written in various ways upon this question. Some have said that Pilate was seeking to know the province from which Jesus came; but we know from other narratives of Christ’s trial that this had already been settled, because Pilate sent Him to Herod, as He understood Him to be of Galilee, and therefore in Herod’s jurisdiction. Others think the question concerns Christ’s birth; while yet others say that Pilate, as a heathen, was inquiring as to the heroes which the people honoured in Christ’s country. None of these explanations suffice. We have to look deeper, and when we acknowledge that Pilate simply recognised in Christ a peasant of Galilee, and when we further remember that he liberated a man who was undergoing imprisonment for insurrection, we shall be able to see something of the contempt which Pilate had for Christ and for righteousness. Moreover, the way in which he turned from one subject to another in his questions shows either contempt or cowardice.’