“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
Pilate uses the emphatic pronoun “me” and begins his sentence with it: “To me you do not speak?” He obviously did not like the fact that Jesus would not answer him. He knows how much power he possesses and he is incredulous that Jesus will not reply to him of all people! Men who are in power tend to get puffed up with their power. Sometimes God deals with this pride as He did with Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 5:18-21) but more often their hearts are too hard for anything to help.
Daniel 5:18-21 “O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendour. Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.
Pilate uses the word “authority” twice to emphasize it, and Jesus uses the same exact word in the next verse when He discloses the true source of authority.
Pilate has unconsciously pronounced judgment upon himself here. In the final analysis, it is Pilate and only Pilate who can give a sentence of crucifixion against Jesus. All of his efforts to shift the blame and to avoid making a decision are in vain. He cannot avoid the responsibilty of sentencing Jesus and deep down inside he knows this as these words declare.