3123. “The King Of The Jews”

A Sermon Published On Thursday, December 17, 1908.

And Pilate wrote a title, and put in on the cross. And the writing was, “JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.” {Joh 19:19}

1. It was the usual custom of the Romans, when a man was put to death by crucifixion to affix to the cross, somewhere where it might be read, an account of his crime. His name and title would be given, and the accusation that had been brought against him, so that all who passed by might read the reason why he had been put to such an ignominious death. Our Saviour, therefore, being numbered with the transgressors, must be treated in all respects as they were. If their accusations were published, so must he have his accusation published among the sons of men. How amazing was the condescension that he, whom all heaven adored as the ever-blessed Son of the Highest, should be hung on a tree, and that he should have his accusation written up over his head just as if he had been a common malefactor.

2. I wish we could realize both the dignity of his person and the shame to which he was exposed. If we could realize this we should be filled with grief for him, and with thankfulness to him that he condescended to die the death of the cross. I wish it were possible for us now to stand at the foot of the cross with Mary, and John, and the other disciples, and to hear the ribaldry and scorn for a moment, and then to look up, and see that sorrowful face, and that tortured body, and to read, in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” It was a very remarkable thing that Pilate should have written, as Matthew and Luke say that he did, “This is the King of the Jews,” and we do not at all wonder that the chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that he said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” But Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” Divine providence always has its way. It does not matter who may be the people concerned, God knows how to work his own will with them. It was his purpose that his Son should not die on the cross without a public proclamation of his innocence, and an official recognition that he was what he had said he was, namely, the King of the Jews. Who was to put up such a notice over his head as he hung there? Peter might have been bold enough to attempt to do it; but he would certainly not have succeeded, for the Roman legionaries jealously guarded every place of execution. Even John, daring as he might have been in such a crisis, could not have achieved the task. It was best that it should be done by authority, done by the Roman governor, done with an official pen, and so secured that no envious chief priest dared to rip it down, and no hand of a scoffer could be uplifted to blot out its testimony. It was privileged writing because it was written by the pen of a Roman official, and there it must stay, under the authority of the Roman law, as long as the body of Jesus hung on the cross. See what God can do. He can make the vacillating Pilate to become stubborn, and he can make him resolve to do what one would have thought would have been the last thing he would have done. Though his motive probably was to ridicule the Saviour, yet the thing was done as God would have it, and Jesus on the cross hung there proclaimed by Roman authority as “the King of the Jews.”

3. It may appear to you, at first sight, that there is not much importance in this fact, but I think I shall be able to show you that there is if you will sit down now, at the foot of the cross, and look up to your crucified Lord, and read this writing again. I shall ask you to read it in two lights; first, in reference to man; and, secondly, in reference to Jesus Christ himself.

4. I. First, read Pilate’s proclamation IN REFERENCE TO MAN.

5. This is a picture of how the world rejects the Saviour. The Saviour had truly come into the world. So that he might be known to be a Saviour, he had taken the name of Jesus, that is, Saviour. That he might be known as one who was very humble and lowly, he had condescended to dwell among men of the very humblest kind, and, therefore, he had chosen to dwell at Nazareth, and to be called the Nazarene. So he was known as Jesus, the Saviour, and as Jesus of Nazareth, an approachable and lowly Saviour. Jesus had come into the world to save men, and he had begun his mission by saving many from diseases which had been regarded as incurable. He had opened blind eyes, unplugged deaf ears, given speech to the dumb, cleansing to lepers, and he had even raised the dead to life. There were many also whom he had healed of spiritual infirmities, for he had given faith to the faithless, and holiness and excellence of character to those who, until then, had lived in sin.

6. He was indeed Jesus the Saviour, but how did men receive him? Did they come and fall at his feet, and kiss the very dust he trod on? One might not have been surprised if they had done so, but they did not. Did they gather around him with joyful clamour, all sick ones eager to touch the hem of his garment so that they might be made well? There were a few who did so, “a remnant according to the election of grace” who received him, and to them, “he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those who believed in his name.” But it was not so with the majority of mankind; discerning in him something strange and exceptional, seeing in him no enmity, no sinful anger, no pride, no bitterness, seeing in him only superlative love, yet they needed to treat him most foully, for his life was spent in poverty and reproach, and at last he was condemned to die on the accursed tree. The world hung him up on the felon’s gibbet, and in doing so, men said, “This is the Saviour, the Nazarene, and this is how we treat him. We do not want to be saved from sin, for we love it. We do not want so be saved from rebellion, and to be brought into peace with God through Jesus Christ, so this is what we do with God’s Ambassador. This is how we serve him who comes with words of reconciliation and grace on his lips; we hang him up to die, for we do not want him.” This is only an example of what all sinful hearts do; until they are changed by grace, they will not have the Saviour to rule over them.

7. “Oh!” someone says, “you bring too harsh a charge against me!” Is it so? Have you received Jesus? Do you believe in him? Has he become your Saviour? If not, why not? Can you give any justifiable reason for your unbelief and rejection of him? It seems to me, and I leave your conscience to decide whether it is so, that, by remaining in unbelief, you practically say, “I prefer to be damned for ever rather than believe in Jesus Christ.” At any rate, that is your choice is this present moment; and if a man will show his objection to Christ to so great an extent that he himself would be cast into hell sooner than let Jesus save him, you may depend on it that there dwells in his heart sufficient enmity to Christ to hang him up again on the gibbet if he were here once more. Christ would be hung tomorrow if he came here around unregenerate hearts; indeed, by the very people who hang their ivory crosses about their necks, and put them on their Prayer-Books, and fix them on their walls. They would cry, as their predecessor did of old, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” To this day, when substitution is preached, and the blood of atonement, and salvation by simple faith in Jesus, and not by “sacraments” and priests and good works, men foam at the mouth with rage, for they still hate the Christ, the only Saviour of the sons of men.

8. Next, I see here that man slays the incarnated God: “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” Whether Pilate intended to indicate that he was the Messiah, at any rate the Jews saw that this would be the meaning attached to his inscription over Christ’s head; it would be said that their Messiah was crucified, consequently they desired that the writing might be altered, but Pilate would not alter it. Now, the Messiah of the Jews was none other than God in human flesh. Did not Isaiah speak of him as Emmanuel, God with us? He was that promised “Seed of the woman” who was to bruise the old serpent’s head. This was he of whom David said, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” He was David’s Son, yet he was also David’s Lord, and there he is: he has come among men, and as God he came to tabernacle in human flesh, and dwell among men. It is a wonderful story that tells us how he was found as a babe in Bethlehem’s manger, where the shepherds came to adore him, and how he grew up among men as a man like other men, working at the carpenter’s bench in the shop of his reputed father, yet all the while he was God veiled beneath the humble form of the Son of Mary. Even when the time came for his manifestation to Israel, he was still veiled, though his Godhead every now and then flashed through the veil of his humanity. He commanded the sea to be still when its wild uproar threatened to engulf the vessel in which he and his disciples were. He worked such wonders that it was clear that all things obeyed him. The fish came in swarms from the deep to the net which he had told his disciples to throw into the sea, and the loaves and fishes were multiplied in his hands and theirs, through his miraculous power. Men could not help seeing that he was more than man, and that he was indeed the Son of God, as he claimed to be. Yet the husbandmen, to whom he was sent by his Father, to ask for the rent of the vineyard that had been rented to them, said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance.” In other words, they said, “This is the God-man; let us do with him what we would do with God if we could”; so they hung him up like a felon, and put a label over his head, as much as to say to God himself, “This is what we have done to One who was more like you than any man we have ever heard of before, and One who says that he and you are one.” Oh sirs, this wicked world never went so far in wickedness as it displayed on that occasion. The essence of every sin is enmity against God; and when any sin is analyzed, it is always found that its essence is this, “No God.” Sin is a stab at the heart of God. Every time we sin, we practically say, “We do not want God’s government; we do not want God’s laws; we do not want God.” I once heard an eloquent divine, who had been accusing men of great sin, finish his indictment by using this remarkable expression, “this deicidal world.” There he reached the climax of truth, for this is a deicidal world. It cannot actually put God to death, but it would do so if it could; and in putting Christ to death it showed the enmity towards God that was really in its heart. The world would not put its own god to death, the god that men imagine, the god that their own intellects fabricate, the god like themselves, of whom I spoke this morning; {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1206, “Heart-Knowledge of God” 1197} but as for the God of the Bible, there are millions of men who would be glad to put that God out of his own universe if they could; yet he is Jehovah, the one living and true God.

9. Thirdly, I see here that man’s chief objection to Christ is his authority; for the pith of that inscription was, “Jesus the King.” Pilate did not write, “This is Jesus the Teacher,” or many might have said, “Let him teach what he pleases, it is no concern of ours. We do not care what the seers see, or what they say.” Pilate did not put up, “This is Jesus the Priest.” Many would be quite content to let him be the great High Priest if they also might be priests. But Pilate wrote, “This is Jesus the King,” and that is the target at which they shoot all their arrows. You remember that the writer of the second Psalm says, “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’” The resolve of human nature until it is renewed is always this, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” Men might be willing for Christ to save them, but not for him to reign over them. Such laws as these,—“You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” “You shall forgive until seventy times seven,” the law of love, the law of gentleness, the law of kindness,—man says that he admires them, but when these laws come home to him, and lay hold of the reins of his ambition, cramp his covetousness, and condemn his self-righteousness, immediately he is offended; and when Christ says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”; when he begins so teach the necessity of absolute purity, and to say that even a lascivious glance of the eye is a sin, then men reply, “His rule will never do for us,” and they hang him up to die because they will not submit to his authority.

10. Once more, we learn from this narrative that man ridicules Christ’s kingdom. Pilate did not hate Christ, he probably did not think enough of him to expend any of his hatred on him. I have no doubt that he thought that Jesus was a poor enthusiast, who had been living alone so long that he had addled his brains. He was well meaning, and perhaps clever but, at the same time, not the kind of man for a Roman governor to dispute with. He was very sorry to have to put him to death, for there were so many good points about the poor creature that he did not wish to let his enemies destroy him. When the question of Christ’s kingdom came up, I cannot imagine how scoffingly Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” How contemptuously he must have looked down on such a poor emaciated creature, who seemed to be despised by everyone, as Christ said, “My kingdom is not of this world”; and Pilate asked, “Are you a king then?” half laughing as he spoke. He must have felt as if he could fairly laugh him to scorn, and I have no doubt that it was in that spirit that he wrote, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews,” doing it in a vein of grim sardonic humour, first, towards the Jews, and secondly, towards Christ himself, as much as to say, “This is the great King that the Jews have been looking for. They are going to fight Caesar, and get free, and this is the ringleader who is to help them to defeat all the legions of haughty Rome.”

11. Among the ungodly, at the present day, the idea of a spiritual kingdom is quite beyond their comprehension; they cannot figure out what it is. The relationship between Church and State will not be settled by the statesmen of any political party. There is a very exceptional relationship between the two, though they are as dissimilar as materialism is from spirit. The realms of the two often overlap each other; you cannot draw a line, and say, “So far is the State, and so far is the Church.” The fact is, the true Church of God is never subordinate to the State; it moves in another sphere altogether, and rules in another way. A spiritual kingdom, according to some people, means certain laws and regulations that are drawn up by the bishops and synods and councils, but that kind of kingdom is no more spiritual than an Act passed by the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It is only another kingdom of the flesh, an ecclesiastical State of a similar kind to the secular State, but as for the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ, it is not a thing that you can see with your eyes or understand after the manner of men. “You must be born again” in order to get into it, or even to see it. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3121, “The Necessity of Regeneration” 3122} It is too ethereal to be checked by human legislation. It is a mighty power which Christ has set up in this world, a power mightier than all secular states combined, a kingdom like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which will break in pieces every other power, and fill the whole earth in God’s appointed time. Oh, that we saw its power more revealed nowadays, in the hearts of men, the power of that kingdom of which Christ is the King, and this blessed Book is the law, and the Holy Spirit is the great executive, and each of us is a servant in the courts of the great King living and acting according to his will.

12. “Oh!” you say, “that is ridiculous.” Yes, I thought you would say that; that is what the world always says of the kingdom of Christ, that it is ridiculous. They can understand a kingdom in which there is a head like the Pope, and in which there are cardinals, bishops, and priests; they can understand the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Archbishop of York, and all that pertains to Episcopalianism; but to know that we are one with Christ, that he has made us kings and priests to God and his Father, that his saints are to reign with him for ever, and that the weapons of our warfare, though not carnal, are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,”—they do not understand it, nor do they want to understand it. This is why they still hang up Christ the King, and say, “If this is his kingdom, we do not want to belong to it, and we do not believe in it. Away with it; it is not worthy of our consideration; it is only a few lowly-minded fellows who will ever be the subjects of such a kingdom as that.” This is “as it was in the beginning,” and “is now,” but not as it “ever shall be, world without end,” for the King is coming, a second time, in all the splendour of his glory, and he will let the world know that, although his kingdom is not like others, and is not to be kept up by gold, and pomp, and rank, and dignity, and physical force, yet it is a kingdom which shall last when earthly princes and thrones shall all have passed away, and everyone who belongs to that kingdom shall possess a crown and a glory before which all the pomp of this world shall pale for ever.

13. II. Now, secondly, I have to ask for your attention to the subject in quite another way, IN REFERENCE TO CHRIST. What did that inscription over his head mean?

14. It meant, first, that Christ’s honour was clear. Look at the inscription over the head of that thief who is hanging on the next cross. “Put to death for robbery in the mountains, where he was taken red-handed, having stabbed one of the guards who attempted to arrest him.” You quite understand that inscription, and you pass on to Jesus, and you want to know about the crime of which he has been guilty; you will be quite sure that they will put over his head an account of the worst thing he has ever done. There are the chief priests and scribes, and a multitude of the Jews watching to see what is written, and there is Pilate wanting to excuse his own conscience. If he can write anything that will exonerate him from the guilt of putting Christ to death, he will be sure to write it; so he takes his pen in his hand, and he writes, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” “Well,” you say, “is that all that can be brought against him, that he is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews?” Yes, that is his only offence; they cannot sum up his guilt in any other words. His crime is that he is what he is, that he was a Saviour, that he dwelt at Nazareth, and that he was the King of the Jews. Now, no exoneration of his character could be better than that of this official accusation against him; and if this accusation brings nothing against him, think how much may be said in his favour by his friends. When a man is brought before the judge, his accuser is quite sure to say all he can against him, and when Christ was about to be put to death, those who were responsible for that colossal crime had to make out as grave a charge against him as they could. But this was all they could do, they could not bring anything else against him except that he was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. See, then, how absolutely without blemish and without spot was the Lamb of our passover. See how he “knew no sin,” though he was made a sin offering for us “so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Exalt, Christians, in this public and official testimony to the spotless purity of his whole life and character.

15. Next, as far as Christ is concerned, we may view this inscription as the explanation of his death as well as the clearing of his character. Keep that superscription clearly in your mind’s eye, “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” That is the reason why he died. Jesus died, first because he was Jesus, because he was the Saviour. That is its meaning; not that he might be merely made an example, not that he might bear witness to the truth only; but that cruel death means atonement, and salvation by atonement. Let us all look up to him on the cross. If we have done so before, let us look up to him again, and say, “Yes, blessed Lord, we see that you did die, and that you did die to save us; and we magnify you because this was the cause of your death, that you were the Saviour.” The whole title that Pilate wrote signified that Christ was the Messiah, and he died because he was the Messiah. “Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.” This was the amazing language of the prophet Daniel, “cut off, but not for himself”; cut off because he was the Sent One of God, the Anointed of the Most High. The prophet Zachariah had also recorded the words of Jehovah, “‘Awake, oh sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is my fellow,’ says the Lord of hosts.” There, beloved, you have the whole reason for Christ’s death condensed into a sentence. Jesus dies because he is the Saviour, the anointed and prophesied Messiah, sent by God to be the King of the Jews and of the Gentles too.

16. But, thirdly, as far as Christ was concerned, this inscription over his head was a claim which was announced then and there. He is hanging on the cross, and there is no trumpeter to make a proclamation of his kingship, but he does not need any such herald, for the same soldiers who fasten his hands to the wood, fasten up an inscription which is the best proclamation possible, for it is in three different languages so that all mankind may read it, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews.” He claims to be King, so please stand at the foot of the cross, and acknowledge his claim. If you would have Jesus to be your Saviour, you must have him as your King; you must submit to his government, for he claims the right to rule over all who acknowledge him to be Jesus; yes, more than that, he claims to rule all mankind, for all power is given to him in heaven and on earth, and we are told to proclaim his kingdom throughout the whole world, and to say to all men, “Jesus of Nazareth is your King, bow down before him. You kings, bow before him, for he is King of kings; you lords and nobles, bow before him, for he is Lord of lords; and all you sons and daughters of men, bow at his feet, for he must reign; and even if you are his enemies, he must reign over you; in spite of all your enmity and opposition, you must be brought to lie at his feet.” The claims of Christ, therefore, were published even from the tree on which he died; so do not resist them, but willingly yield yourselves up to Jesus now, and let him be King to you henceforth and for ever.

17. And, then, not only was a claim of his sovereignty made by the affixing of this title, but his reign was proclaimed then and there. In an earthly monarchy, as soon as one king is gone, it is usual to proclaim his successor; and by that accusation written up over the head of Christ a proclamation was made throughout all the earth that Jesus had assumed the throne, and he has never ceased to reign. He went back to his Father, and returned again to the earth, and dwelt here for forty days, and then his feet left the Mount of Olives, and he ascended to his throne, and there he sits “waiting until his enemies are made his footstool.” His kingdom is established; do you all belong to it? It is a kingdom that, in a certain sense, was recognised on the cross by Pilate’s proclamation, though it had existed long before, for his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Do you belong to it, or are you outside of it, opposed to it, or indifferent to it? Remember that he who is not with Christ is against him. Those who are not on his side he considers to be on the other side. Are you, my brother or sister, in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, I know that you look with delight on that inscription, and as you trust in the blood of Christ to cleanse you, you cast your eye up to that dear head that was crowned with thorns, and rejoice to think that Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, is also your King and Lord and Saviour.

18. I want to make just this other remark about this inscription. Inasmuch as Pilate would not alter it, it seems to me that God showed to mankind that he would never have it altered. Pilate could have sent for that inscription, and, with a few strokes of his pen, could have inserted the words that the chief priests wanted, “He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” But Pilate would not do it, and the high priest could not do it, and the devil could not do it, and all the demons in hell, and all the wicked men on earth, with all their rage, cannot do it now. God has said it as well as Pilate, “What I have written I have written.” “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” He must reign, and no power can ever take away his kingdom from him! His Church still prays, “Your kingdom come,” and that kingdom is yet to come in all its fulness when all of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall accept him as their Lord and King. Yes, more than that, for “he shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust. Yes, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.”

19. Dearly beloved friends, this is the conclusion of the whole matter, let us cheerfully accept him as our King. Have we done so? Then, let us try to push his conquests on even further, and seek to extend the boundaries of his kingdom. Are you doing this? Then, do it even more earnestly; and do it with the right instrument, for the great weapon of conquest is the cross. It was on the cross that the proclamation was first lifted up, and it is by the cross that it must be carried to the ends of the earth;—not by human learning or eloquence, not by bribery, or the help of the State, and I do not know what else besides, but by the proclamation of Christ evidently crucified among the sons of men. The cross is its own battle-axe, and weapon of war. “In this sign you shall conquer.” Let the whole Church preach Christ more, and live Christ more, and then the proclamation of his kingdom, which was first fastened up on that cross, shall be emblazoned throughout the whole world, and the power of his kingdom shall be felt to the very ends of the earth.

20. I looked into the darkness, and I thought I saw a cross before me, and I saw him who once hung on it; but, as I looked at it that cross seemed to grow. It seemed to become a tree, and I saw it strike its roots down deep, until the lowest depths of human misery had been touched and blessed by them. Then I saw that tree tower on high, piercing the clouds, passing through the very firmament up above the stars, lifting believers up on it, and bearing them to the very throne of God by its majestic power. Then I saw that tree stretch out its mighty branches on every side. Their shadow fell across this highly-favoured land of ours; and also fell across the land on the other side of the sea. As I watched, the blessed branches stretched out to Europe, to Asia, to Africa, to America and to Australasia, also. I watched it grow until it became so vast a tree that its shadow seemed to cover the whole earth, and I blessed and adored the God of heaven that he had instituted so mighty a power for the blessing of the sons of men. Oh Jesus, once crucified but now exalted, so let be; and let us be your humble instruments in promoting the extension of your blessed reign; and we will always adore you, as we do now, not only as “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” but as “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.”

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 19:1-37}

1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

This was one of the most terrible punishments to which a man could be sentenced. The Roman scourge was no trifle. It tore off the quivering flesh of the agonized sufferer, for it was constructed on purpose to do so. It was generally made of the sinews of oxen, intertwined with the huckle-bones of sheep, and small slivers of bone. This torture our blessed Saviour endured. These are the stripes with which we are healed.

2. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,

Mockery was blended with cruelty. They might have made him a crown, yet surely it need not have been one of thorns unless they intended to put him to the utmost torment that they could conceive of. By this crown of thorns our blessed Lord was crowned King of the curse, for the earth was cursed through Adam’s sin, and part of the sentence pronounced by God in the garden of Eden was, “Thorns also and thistles shall it produce for you.” So Christ wore the mark of the curse which man’s sin had brought on the world.

3. And said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they struck him with their hands.

This was the homage which the Son of God received from men; harmless and gentle, he came here with no purpose but that of doing good, and this is how mankind treated him.

4, 5. Pilate therefore went out again, and says to them “Behold, I bring him out to you, so that you may know that I find no fault in him.” Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate says to them, “Behold the man!”

Was there ever such a sight of majesty in misery before or since? Yet he did not need to endure all that ignominy, he was no vanquished monarch unable to maintain his own rights. He was still “over all, God blessed for ever,” and he could have struck everyone there to death if he had been pleased to do so. But he was the Lamb of God’s passover, so he meekly suffered.

6, 7. When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify him, crucify him.” Pilate says to them, “Take him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

They no doubt understood that he claimed to be divine, and so he did. I have heard some say that he was a good man, but not God. If he was not God, he was certainly not a good man, for no good man, who was only a man, would claim to be God, or lead others to believe that he was divine. If he was not actually divine, he was a rank impostor; but he was divine, and therefore we worship and adore him equally with the Father and the Spirit.

8-10. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was all the more afraid; and went again into the judgment hall, and says to Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Then Pilate says to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you?”

Pilate talks like some great one, yet how contemptibly little he was, vacillating, cowardly, unable to do what he knew was right. His poor Victim who stood before him was infinitely greater in character than he was.

11. Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against me, unless it were given you from above: therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.”

Christ referred to Judas, and through him to the Jews who had conspired to put him to death; but what tenderness it was, on the part of Jesus, to make an excuse as it were even for Pilate! He was notable for making excuses for the guilty. That was a remarkable excuse that he pleaded for his murderers, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” There was never another whose heart was as tender as his; he was so gentle and so kind that all their cruelty only moved him to pity them, and pray for them.

12-14. And from then on Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you let this man go, you are not Caesar’s friend: whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he says to the Jews, “Behold your King!” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1353, “Ecce Rex” 1344}

What mockery there was in Pilate’s use of this title, and yet how true it was! They asked to have Christ put to death, yet he was their King. Their accusation was transparently false, and Pilate made them to see that it was so.

15-17. But they cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him.” Pilate says to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went out into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

The inspired writers seem to delight to give us the Hebrew names of these notable places that are linked with Christ’s last agonies, and they are still very precious to Christians, Gethsemane, Gabbatha, Golgotha,—three names never to be forgotten by those who were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.

18. Where they crucified him, and two others with him, one on either side, and Jesus in the midst.

As if to show that they thought him the worst of the three, and therefore gave him—shall I call it the place of chief dishonour?

19, 20. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then many of the Jews read this title: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

So that all who gathered around the cross might read it.

21, 22. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that he said, ‘I am king of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

He could be stubborn about some things, which shows that he had strength of mind if he had chosen to use it; yet he was beaten to and fro like a shuttlecock by these wicked men, and seemed to have no power to resist them.

23. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments,—

For they had stripped him. He must be naked, because sin makes us naked, and his garments must be a covering for us. They “took his garments,”—

23, 24. And made four parts, for every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be”: so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,—

They knew nothing about that ancient prophecy, yet God ordained that they should act like this “so that the Scripture might be fulfilled,”—

24. Which says, “They parted my clothing among them, and they cast lots for my vesture.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.

Doubtless, on the dice there fell the blood of Christ, yet they still gambled there. There is, perhaps, no sin which so effectively hardens the heart as that of gambling; it is a sin with which Christians should not have even the most remote connection.

25-30. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he says to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then he says to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, says, “I thirst.” Now a vessel full of vinegar was sitting there: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”; {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 421, “It Is Finished!” 412} {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2344, “Christ’s Dying Word for his Church” 2345}

Consummatum est. “The work is done, redemption is accomplished; the salvation of my people is secured for ever.”

30-37. And he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they did not break his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and immediately blood and water came out. And he who saw it bore record, and his record is true; and he knows what he says is true, so that you might believe. For these things were done, so that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “A bone of him shall not be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on him whom they pierced.”