John 18:33-37 (NRSV)
Read John 18:33-37 on biblegateway.com
Verse 33Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Verse 34Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Verse 35Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Verse 36Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Verse 37Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
Devotion
Do we get confused about the question of to whom we belong? We may look like our parents or know in other ways that we belong to our family. We also belong to the larger family of Jesus, but the world keeps calling us to give in to temptation. Try searching your conscience as Pilate seems to have done. Every day we see advertisements that entice us to buy more things that we need or haven’t even thought that we wanted. Hopefully we stop and think before we buy. Hopefully we stop and think before we do something that we later regret. All of this is remembering who we belong to, God or the devil. Jesus was in front of Pilate to make this point clear. He is still in front of us in the voice of the Holy Spirit to encourage us to listen to his voice and to remember to whom we belong.
Prayer
Dear Lord, open our hearts, minds, and our ears to hear your words. Even if we don’t fully understand them at the time, let us hold them in our memories, because you will make things clear when we most need to know that we belong to you. Amen.
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