December 15: The King of the Jews
“And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’”
One of the greatest ironies of the life of Jesus is summed up in this verse. He was crucified under a sign reading: King of the Jews. This sign was clearly one of intended mockery. “We all know very well”, they were thinking, “that although this man Jesus claimed to be something of a king, he is clearly not”. In their minds, they were being cruelly ironic with the sign. “Of course this is no king! Look at him up on that cross! What kind of king ends his life in such disgrace?” But the greater irony at play is that they were actually right, Jesus was the King of the Jews. The man mocked as king, is in fact the king. And he’s not just king of the Jews but Lord over all. His kingship extends not just over the nation of Israel, but the universe. It extends over the soldiers who crucified him, the Pharisees who conspired against him, and the crowd who mocked him. And us – you and me.
But perhaps what is most poignant in this scene lies deeper. You see, it was precisely through his horrendous torture and death on the cross that this king was establishing his eternal kingdom. Isn’t that amazing? It was in his own death that Jesus was making the ultimately deathblow to Satan, sin and death. D. A. Carson writes: “Christians would speak, with profound irony, of Jesus reigning from the cross.” It is precisely through the weakness of the cross that God’s wisdom and power is most ultimately displayed. There is one final layer of irony in this scene. Matthew 27:41-42 writes: “So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” But again, in their mockery they spoke better than they knew, because Jesus, in refusing to save himself, was saving others. If he had saved himself, he couldn’t have saved others, and it was precisely by not saving himself that he saved us. Carson concludes: “It was not the nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will – and, within that framework, it was his love for sinners like me. He really could not save himself.” Praise God for the sacrifice of the King!