The Schemes of Man and The Sovereignty of God

The Schemes of Man and the Sovereignty of God.
John 18:28-32

The trial of Jesus is filled with manipulation, distortion, indifference, and intrigue. The two men, responsible for upholding the law, twist and manipulate the law for their self-serving end. You have the one who just wanted to disassociate himself from the events and, in so doing, gave rise to a saying that characterizes the person who desires to absolve themselves of any responsibility.  
In verse 28, we see the irony of the self-righteous. The Jews brought Jesus to Pilate to orchestrate his death. After his arrest in the Garden, Jesus was taken to Annas and Caiaphas for trial. Both Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas were regarded as the spiritual and political leaders of the Jewish people. Annas served as the high priest from AD 6 to AD 15 until Pilate’s predecessor, Valerius Gratus, disposed of him. In his place, Caiaphas was then appointed as the High Priest. Together these two individuals were seen as the leaders of the Jews, and it was their responsibility to uphold the Old Testament law and ensure that the people obeyed it. But therein lies the irony. The Mishnah (the Jewish interpretation of the Law) stipulated that anyone who entered the home of a Gentile became ceremonially unclean.
Consequently, when they brought Jesus to Pilate, they refused to enter his house lest they become unclean. For them, the trivial replaced the central. They would manipulate and violate the law regarding false witness and murder, yet they refused to enter a Jewish home because of tradition. When confronted with the need to prove their case, all they could do was resort to name-calling. Such are the schemes of humanity. We minimize the important while emphasizing the trivial. We uphold and make sacrosanct the laws of man but reject the law of God. When confronted with our inconsistency, we resort to labels to silence the opposition rather than the truth.  
Pilate, on the other hand, wanted to wash his hands of the whole affair. His actions of symbolically washing his hands (see Matthew 27:24) became the metaphor of indifference and refusal to take responsibility of something. Pilot just wanted to maintain his position and standing in the Roman government. He was a ladder climber who just wanted to avoid anything that would cast a cloud upon his political ambitions. So he would order Christ’s death, not because it was the just thing to do, but because it was politically expedient.  
Yet, amid all this scheming, we see the plan of God unfolding. In verse 32, John sees the hand of God was working behind the scenes orchestrating his redemptive plan. The schemes of man are never a threat to God’s plans. Instead, his unseen activity is guiding the events. Even though humanity acts in sin and rebellion, God’s purpose is still achieved. When the sentence was carried out, instead of being stoned to death (which was the Jewish method of execution) Jesus would be crucified according to Roman law. This would fulfill the word of Jesus that he was to be “Lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32-33).
As we look at our world, we see a society marked by conflicting political ideologies resulting in political scheming and manipulation. We see people rejecting God’s law to devise their own law. The more “enlightened” our society becomes, the morally confused and darkened we become. Yet, amid all this, God is still at work accomplishing his purpose and moving history and the affairs of man according to his designs established before he created the world. This becomes our hope and confidence. While man may scheme, God, ordains and determines the outcome.