Pilate’s hope of getting the people to release Jesus, who was innocent, for the criminal Barabas failed. Pilate has tortured and humiliated Jesus.

Now he’s was back with Jesus, still trying to find a way out of his predicament.

Maybe Jesus’s location or hometown could help him, something like a “change of venue” in our judicial system. So he asks, “Where are You from?”

“But Jesus gave him no answer.”

Can you hear the silence?

Pilate is trying to give Jesus a way out, but Jesus isn’t taking it. Remember when Paul appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen? Maybe Pilate was hoping there was some loophole that could get him out of the mess he was in, the mess Jesus was in. Pilate had tried everything else he knew.

But Jesus knew he would have to die for the sins of the world. No change of venue would help him. No appeals court.

There was nothing else to be said for his salvation or Pilates’s salvation.

There is another moment of silence in a person’s life after they have heard about Jesus. They may have recognized him as the truth, knowing that he was innocent and was the way to God. No more information was needed for them to take action.

But they still hesitate.

And God is silent, hoping that they will make the choice – choosing Him above the world.

Comment: Do you remember that moment of silence in your life? What was your decision?