For this purpose.

John 18:37-38, Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

Jesus was there for a purpose, before Pilate to fulfill his own word about how he would die, for his kingdom is not of this world. Pilate represents power, the power of life and death, the kingdom of this world, yet he does not know the truth: the one standing before him holds all power in reserve, for his own purpose. Jesus, standing before him, is the way, the truth and the life; through him all things were made and are held together. Yet he is there to fulfill his purpose, not out of weakness but out of meekness: power held in reserve. His purpose is fulfilled not in power, but in the humiliation of the cross.

Lead us today in your truth to fulfill your purpose in all that we do and say.

ESV Lectionary