“But they cried out, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him.’ Pilate saith unto them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’” (John 19:15)
I have read the Crucifixion account many times. The Easter season draws us to that history, as expected, and yet we find ourselves moved in a new manner by the same eternal words.
This year was the first time that I read John 19:15 with a new insight, and I cried.
What a sad fate for the Jewish leaders to reject their king and to give in to the hostile secular authorities. “We have no king but Caesar.” Why would anyone settle for a pagan ruler with no regard for the customs and traditions of your fathers?
And some king, indeed! This same Caesar had taxed the whole world, requiring everyone to register in their home towns, the same Caesar had to commission one quarter of the Roman army to Judea, in order to suppress the rebellions of the inhabitants; the same Caesar who allowed the corrupt trials against Jesus of Nazareth; and the same Caesar who would destroy the Temple and disperse the Jews throughout the world 40 years later. Such is the fate for everyone who puts their faith in a fallen, deceptive, secular order, who calls any ordinary man a king.
More than the hollow betrayal of this Caesar, the chief priests’ bitter statement of rejection of Jesus was unbiblical in a general sense. After all, pious, patient, and persevering Jews (like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea) were waiting for the coming Messiah. They knew that He would come as their King, since Isaiah 9:6-7 clearly foretold this royal coming. How strange indeed, that a Roman governor, dismissive of the Hebrew customs and traditions, commanded more Biblical truth than the Pharisees!
Pilate had the last triumph against their impious blasphemy. Not for mockery did Pilate post an eternal truth when he placed a sign on the cross which read: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
The religious leaders protested with greater outrage:
“Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, ‘Write not, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that he said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” (John 19:21)
Notice how the chief priests could not bear to say the name “Jesus.” He is SAVIOR, not just king, and His standard as Savior is what makes him King of Kings. Why else did they demand that change to the sign? Certainly, they wanted to diminish the credibility of the statement, rendering it as the weak statement of a man. After all, anyone who claimed to be God, when he was not, would have faced execution according to Jewish law. Yet Jesus, in declaring His divinity and royalty, did not lie, even when He was unjustly coerced to testify against Himself before the Temple Court.
Yet there’s more. The priests protested the sign because, in the original Hebrew (remember, the sign was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, so that the whole world could know the truth), the first letter of the four words rendered a powerful acrostic.
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews
יֵשׁוּעַ הַנָּצְרִי וּמֶלֶךְ הַיְּהוּדִים
Reading from right to left, the first letter of each word spells out:
י הַ וּ הַ
That is the Covenant name of God, reported as LORD in all capitals in the King James Version of the Bible. I must give special thanks to Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore for this revelation. Acrostic revelations like this are commonplace throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, and Jewish scholars have recognized these patterns. The religious leaders saw that acrostic, and they feared all the more. Yes, Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is the King of the Jews, and when He comes again, He will judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
Yes, indeed, there is a King greater than all the temporal (and temporary) Caesars that the world could offer. Jesus is the King who serves (Mark 10:45), one who gave everything for us, so that mankind could be redeemed and brought back into proper fellowship with their Creator. Even when the world rejected Him, He still died for us. Even though those whom He had healed, delivered, fed, and ministered to did not stand with Him on that horrid yet holy Friday, Jesus still loved them.
The “No Kings” resonated with me for another reason: all the No Kings protests that have emerged throughout the country for the last two years. The irony has not been lost on anyone with common sense or even half an awareness. If the United States has turned into an irresolute monarchy, all of those protests would have been shut down, and the protesters arrested, if not outright executed.
But what have we witnessed in all of these protests? President Biden, Obama, and Clinton engaged in frequent military engagements around the world, and rarely, if ever, did these liberals protest? There was no outrage when Biden delivered billions of dollars to the Ukrainian effort, but today, they foment nothing but disdain and outrage as President Trump takes on the Ayatollah and the Islamic Fundamentalist regime in Iran.
President Trump is no king. He can’t get legislation passed without Congress, and that hasn’t changed. His executive orders all fall within the scope of prior legislation. He simply prioritizes certain goals ahead of others. He is the chief executive. He even joked that he is struggling to build a ballroom attachment to the White House, even though prior presidents faced no resistance when renovating the White House. A king wouldn’t face such constraints, and especially from the courts.
The truth is that the Left, like the religious leaders during Jesus’ earthly ministry, does want a king. They just want the kind of monarch who will fight their battles, who will make the world a safer place in their estimation, and most importantly, will glorify their moral failings.
Contrary to some commentators, I do believe that Caiaphas, the High Priest during Jesus’ earthly ministry and trial, knew that Jesus was the Messiah. Instead of welcoming the God-Man, he valued his place and his nation (i.e. his power) over the truth of God’s Word (John 11:48). His insistence on pre-eminence grew to such an extent, that when Jesus formally answered that He is the Messiah, Caiaphas ripped his priestly garments—which is unlawful for the priest to do (Leviticus 21:10).
His ripped garments signaled the end of the Levitical priesthood, and Jesus took over as our Great High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, a priest who lives after the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7:16-17).
Caiaphas, for all his machinations, couldn’t stop the Messiah from fulfilling His calling.
The King of Kings came, and though he was rejected then, and still faces rejection today, Jesus has outlasted every Caesar, every dictator, every lord and king whom man looks to for temporal help.
There is no King but Christ, and every knee will bow, every tongue confess (Philippians 2:10-11), even Caesar, even Caiaphas, and even every left-wing, anti-government protester who doesn’t like the law and order in our land today.