Hail, King of the Jews!

Lesson #311

In the previous lesson we left Jesus with the soldiers, who had just forced a crown of thorns onto his head and put his robe back on. Then: “They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands” (John 19:3 ESV). Matthew gives more detail: “And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”” (Matthew 27:28 – 29 ESV). In sportive mockery these soldiers abused Jesus not realizing that he was the King over all and the Messiah and in their judgment they will have to bow before him when they see him for who he really is. What a time of horror that will be for them.

After the abusing of Jesus by the soldiers, “Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”” (John 19:4 ESV). I believe Pilate was impressed with the patience and meekness of Jesus through his questioning and physical abuse and was convinced that Jesus was innocent and he went out to the Jews to report that he found no guilt in him. Pilate was anxious to release him and be free of this pressure to sentence an innocent man.

“So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”” (John 19:5 ESV). To this point, John has not said that Jesus had been scourged, but only flogged. Other gospel writers seem to think that by this time Jesus had been scourged. My answer to why the differences is that we have four different witnesses writing what they seem to remember after the passing of a number of years. Should God have guided them more carefully? These kind of differences are seen today in our trials when different witnesses report on the same situation and so I am not overly concerned by this. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” Look at his suffering – is this not enough? Pilate wanted to release him, but the Jews had other plans: “When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.”” (John 19:6 ESV).

We will end the lesson at this point and start the next lesson with verse 6.

Prayer

Father, this is an interesting situation. We know from our past study that your plan was to send Jesus into the world and allow sinful men nail him to the cross to die for our sins. Here we see the tension between the innocence of Jesus and power of darkness to hang him on the cross. We see you allowing evil to do your will because if good had won and if Jesus was released, then your will would not have been carried out. Sometimes maybe you allow evil to impact our lives to accomplish your purpose. We should think about those in countries of persecution who are suffering and dying for their obedience to the Lord’s command to be witnesses. Lost sheep are being found through a powerful witness fueled by the fire of persecution. Father, I fear that we don’t understand this concept. Why should we sacrifice our comfort and instead suffer and maybe die to be obedient to your call on our lives? It appears that maybe the world has gotten into our lives.