Mark Photos - 15:1-5 - The Train Has Left...

Jesus before Pilate As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

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There's the old cliche that says "the train has left the station." It essentially means that something has happened and there's no going back. No way of changing what has happened or where a path is heading. I feel that way about Jesus in this passage. Now that Jesus is where he is - having been betrayed, arrested, put on religious trial, denied by one of his closest followers, and now before the Roman ruler, the train has left the station. Jesus undoubtedly knows what is before him, there's no going back, and there's no different path that things might take. At this point, it feels that Jesus is living in full submission to the will of God and the plan that is taking place.

This is one of the hardest things, I believe, about the Christian faith. Submission. Submission to God and, when appropriate and necessary, to others. We want our own way, our own plan, our own direction. Yet there are times that we need to submit to what God lays before us or submit to those that God puts in our lives. Between others, Scripture speaks of mutual submission of course, but there is still a call to willingly submit. Hard to do.