Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say so.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, March 31, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Jesus doesn’t say much in Luke’s account. The Jewish authorities say, “Are you the Son of God?” to which he responds, “You say so.” And they take that as a confession. Pilate asks, “Are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus says, “You say so.” Pilate doesn’t see it as a confession at all, and in fact says he has no evidence to convict Jesus of anything.
Jesus doesn’t say much, and yet he speaks volumes. The simple phrase “You say so” means a lot, as I see it. I think it means: “You have your preconceived ideas about who I am and who I claim to be, what I do and what I claim to do, and it doesn’t matter what I say, you’re not going to understand the truth, either because you can’t or because you won’t.” That’s why two different people/group interpreted the exact same statement in opposite ways. They had already decided about Jesus. And neither understood what it really meant to be either the Son of God or a king in the way Jesus was those things.
How often do we decide who a person is or what they stand for before they even open their mouths? We hear characterizations of them through other sources, some factual, some exaggerated, all delivered through the lens of the person carrying the message, and we decide without knowing them. Just look at the state of politics in the United States. We label people all over the place without actual personal knowledge of them, and we condemn or praise them accordingly. How much better to have actually known Jesus, to have seen and heard and followed, than to have arrived at conclusions based on hearsay. How much better if we did this in our everyday lives, so that no one should have to reply to us, “You say so.”
God of truth, open our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts to the beauty and humanity of all our neighbors, whether or not we think we agree with them. Amen.
