Sermon: Sunday, 18th July, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: John 19:1-22
Who is your king? Perhaps some of you will answer, well, since Saturday the 6th of May 2023, Charles III is my king. But did the coronation really change much for us? Not spiritually speaking. What you think about Charles III isn’t going to have any bearing on what happens to you when you die and where you will spend eternity; however, your attitude to Jesus, the King of Kings, will determine that. With that in mind, let’s repeat the question, who is your king? In other words, who do you live for and who do you obey and who do you trust and who do you serve?
Bob Dylan’s 1979 album ‘Slow Train Coming’ has a song entitled ‘You’ve gotta serve somebody’. His point is that everyone in world has a choice of two; either we serve the Lord Jesus, or ultimately we are on the side of evil and serve the devil. Here’s what he says:
‘You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re going to have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re going to have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re going to have to serve somebody.’
Is Bob Dylan right? Why should we listen to him? Well, because this is straight from the Bible. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we are either slaves to Jesus or slaves to sin: ‘But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Romans 6:22-23)
Out of all the four gospels, John seems to stress the most that Jesus is the true king. : Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’ (John 1:49) We read that on Palm Sunday, They (the crowd) took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’ (John 12:13)
Before we dive into this passage, we need to understand that Jesus is the true king in two different ways. First of all, Jesus is descended from King David, and is the rightful heir to the throne of Israel. Secondly, Jesus is not only a perfect human being but he is also God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, and so that means he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus is the true and only King of Kings.
The letter to the Philippians tells us something vital for us to grasp: ‘… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ (Philippians 2:10-11) What does this mean? It means that every single human being will bow before Jesus one day. Either we do so willingly, receiving him as our king with joy, or we will do so when it is too late, and we’ll bow before him as our Judge, and be cast away. Who is your king?
1. Mocking the true king
In verse 1 we read that Jesus is flogged. This was a severe beating, with a whip laced with bone and metal, and in itself was enough to kill the victim. Pilate has Jesus flogged, even though he has repeatedly stated that Jesus has done nothing wrong. Perhaps he thinks this will satisfy the Jews, and they will stop demanding Jesus’ death. It does not work.
Next, Jesus is subjected to severe bullying at the hands of the Roman soldiers. In order to totally humiliate Jesus, they dress him up as a king. They want to make him look like a fool, rather than a king. The crown of thorns would have had huge spikes digging into Jesus’ head. It was a cruel and painful crown to wear. Perhaps a soldier’s coat was thrown over him to represent a royal robe. We read in other gospels that Jesus is also given a reed to act as a sceptre. Roman soldiers were used to saying to Caesar ‘Ave Caesar’ or ‘Hail Caesar’. Now they sarcastically direct this ‘respectful’ greeting to Jesus. They slap him in the face again and again. They are bullies. Jesus allows this to happen for us. This is part of the suffering Jesus had to experience in order to pay the price for our sins. As Christians read this, we think, he goes through this for me.
This passage is full of dramatic irony. What does that mean? It is when things are the opposite to the way they seem, but the characters in the story do not realise this. So here, in John 19, the soldiers mock the very idea that Jesus might be a king. And he looks nothing like a king with his swollen and bloodied body, cut open from the flogging. However, when they say ‘Hail king Jesus’ they speak better than they know. Ironically, in their sarcasm, they are telling the truth. It is a truth they are blind to see. They do not recognise that Jesus’ is their rightful king. He is the rightful king of all of us.
2. Rejecting the true king
In verses 4-15 we read of the religious leaders and the crowd baying for Jesus’ blood. They cry out ‘Crucify him’. Their behaviour is evil and shocking. We see their true colours particularly in verse 15: ‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked. ‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered. (John 19:15) For Jews, they ought to have known that the LORD is King and there is no other. ‘The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King for ever.’ (Pslam 29:10) Jesus is the LORD, the Maker of all, but they are blind to his identity. They reject the Maker of the world. They reject the only one who can save them. And what do they choose instead? They choose the rule of a godless pagan king.
Please notice that when people reject Jesus, the true king, they replace him with all kinds of distorted things to rule over them. It might be money, or pleasure or serving yourself as if you are the king and the centre of the world. Whatever you live for, whatever is most important to you; that is your king.
The religious leaders, more than anyone, should have cared about the truth of Jesus’ identity. But did they really care about who Jesus truly was or why he had come? Sadly, they do not. What do they care about? ‘If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.’ (John 11:48) They only care about themselves and clinging on to their power. They are driven by self-interest, not the truth and not what was best for the people. They will do anything to hold onto their power. So, it ought not to be a surprise when we find them blackmailing Pilate (verse 12) saying that if he releases Jesus then he is no friend to Caesar. This would have sent shivers down Pilate’s spine, knowing how fickle Caesar could be. Pilate, like the religious leaders, only cares about clinging on to his power. He cares more about his own skin that justice, or pleasing God. The religious leaders lie, falsely accusing Jesus of both blasphemy and sedition. They are filled with envy and hatred, and it is this which leads them to cry out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him.’
Like the soldiers, who spoke better than they knew, Pilate also speaks better than he knows. This passage is full of irony. In verse 5, Pilate says to the crowd ‘Here is the man.’ It might seem that the Jews were in control of the situation, and Pilate claims to be in control, saying that he has the power to kill or release Jesus. But who is really in control? By saying ‘Behold the man’ Pilate is actually fulfilling Scripture. In Zechariah, a Messianic prophecy, we read: ‘And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honour, and shall sit and rule on his throne.’ (Zechariah 6:12-13)
Also, Pilate is right in another sense. Jesus is ‘the’ man – the only perfect human to have ever lived. RC Sproul says he is a ‘portrait of perfect humanity. This is what man was created to be. This was the second Adam standing in front of this crowd.’ No wonder Pilate repeatedly says that he cannot find any fault with him. There is nothing to find. He is the God-man. He is perfect. And again, in verse 14 Pilate says to the Jews, ‘Here is your king.’ Pilate speaks better than he knows! Jesus is the long-promised messianic king the Jews were supposed to be waiting for, if they only had eyes to see it.
The soldiers and the crowd and the religious leaders are all grim warnings to us about how not to respond to King Jesus. Today, most people reject Jesus as their king, preferring to be the ones in charge, and acting as if they can live any way they choose, with no accountability to God. Many today mock Jesus. Many are blind to his identity and mission. The question for us is, who is my king? Do I recognise the rightful authority of Jesus to reign in my heart and life?
Here’s how we ought to respond. Queen Victoria was listening to a chaplain preaching on the second Coming of Jesus, and during the sermon was tearing up. After the service, the chaplain spoke with her, asking her what had affected her so much. She said: ‘Because of what you said about the coming of the world’s rightful King. I wish still to be here when he returns that I might lay my crown at his blessed feet.’ I hope that this is the attitude we will all have to King Jesus.
3. The calmness of the true King
When Pilate hears that Jesus might have claimed to be the Son of God he reacts with fear. As a superstitious Roman, for Pilate, this was a real possibility. So, he asks Jesus, ‘Where do you come from?’ I think Pilate is asking if Jesus has supernatural origins. But Jesus will not answer, which really riles Pilate: ‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’
Notice how calm Jesus is before this Roman leader. He knows he is about to be crucified, and yet there is no panic in his mind. Jesus is the one in control here, not Pilate. Jesus is voluntarily laying down his life for his people. His calm response to Pilate is awesome. Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ (John 19:11) Pilate, like all with political power, only has that power because God delegates it to him. God is ultimately in control. He raises up kings and leaders and brings them down again.
The amazing truth is this, even though Pilate is acting wickedly, ultimately God is using these evil actions to accomplish his purposes. That’s how powerful God is. That’s the sovereignty of God. And in the light of this, Jesus remains calm, trusting his heavenly Father.
4. The sign above the true King
Pilate has an inscription written and fastened upon the cross: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.’ I believe he does this out of spite, to get back at the Jews for blackmailing him and forcing his hand to have Jesus crucified. The chief priests and the rest of the Jews are raging about this. Such signs normally stated the crime which the one crucified had committed. But not on this occasion. They want the sign altered to say he ‘claimed’ to be the king of the Jews.
To continue our theme of irony, once again we can say that Pilate writes better than he knows. Jesus is indeed the rightful Jewish king, and indeed the king of the world. The Jews want the truth of this sign changed, but it cannot be changed. It is as if God is saying that Jesus exercises true kingship, and nothing can change that reality.
John Calvin: ‘The providence of God guided the pen of Pilate.’
The sign on the cross placards Jesus as king in the three main languages of the day, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. This trilingual sign reminds us that Jesus is not just the rightful king of the Jewish people but of all people in the world, including you. Nothing can alter this fact.
But the question remains, who is your king? Who do you serve? Don’t be like the soldiers who mock the true king. Do not be like the religious leaders, who care more about self-interest than about the allegiance the true king deserves. Remember the warning and promise in Psalm 2: ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.’ (Psalm 2:12)