All day I think about it,
then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea. Rumi
Photo: Bethany Legg, unsplash.com
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." ...The Jewish leaders insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. John 18:36, 19: 7- 9
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.
VIDEO: Who says words with my mouth? (click to listen and watch)
The origins of Jesus
The charged words 'Son of God' and 'King (of the Jews)' fizz throughout this passage. They are wide-eye and expansive terms and in part explain the build up of pressure that Pilate feels. Wave after wave of determined and contrived rejection of this Son of God, this King, presses against him: Crucify him! Crucify him!
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. Rumi
The question of Jesus’s origins is needling Pilate. Otherness and otherworldliness is freaking him out. We sense a growing sense of awe. On hearing Jesus’s words in our day I suppose we’d think of other planets and aliens. I don’t know what Pilate is thinking but he’s in a jam. Where does this self-possessed and purposeful Jesus come from?
Where do you come from? Where am I from?
Son of God? Yes. King? Yes. Finally, Jesus is returning to his Father, the hearts longing, our true continent and destination. "Where I go you too will come", Jesus had said. He bowed his head and was taken home.
Andrew Hook