Ecce Rex

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"He said unto the Jews, Behold your King." John 19:14.

PILATE said much more than he meant and, therefore, we shall not
restrict our consideration of his words to what he intended. John tells
us considering Caiaphas, "and this spoke he not of himself," and we may
say the same of Pilate. Everything said or done in connection with the
Savior during the day of His Crucifixion was full of meaning, far
fuller of meaning than the speakers or actors were aware. Transformed
by the Cross, even the commonplace becomes solemn and weighty!

When Caiaphas said that it was expedient that one man should die for
the people, that the whole nation perish not, he little thought that he
was enunciating the great Gospel principle of Substitution! When the
Jewish people cried out before Pilate, "His blood be on us and on our
children," they little knew the judgment which they were bringing upon
themselves which would commence to be fulfilled at the siege of
Jerusalem and follow them, hanging like a heavy cloud over their race,
for centuries! When the soldier with a spear pierced His side he had no
idea that he was bringing forth before all eyes that blood and water
which are, to the whole Church, the emblems of the double cleansing
which we find in Jesus, cleansing by atoning blood and sanctifying
Grace.

The fullness of time had come and all things were full. Each movement
on that awful day was brimming with mystery. Neither could the Master
or those around Him stir or speak without teaching some Gospel, or
enforcing some lesson. Whereas on certain days frivolity seems to rule
the hour and little is to be gathered from much that is spoken–on the
day of the Passion even the most careless spoke as men inspired!
Pilate, the undecided spirit, with no mind of his own, uttered language
as weighty as if he, too, had been among the Prophets. His acquittal of
our Lord, his mention of Barabbas, his writing of the inscription to be
fixed over the head of Jesus and many other matters were all fraught
with instruction.

It was to the Jews that Pilate brought forth Jesus, arrayed in garments
of derision, and to them He said, "Ecce Rex"–"Behold your King!" It
was by the seed of Abraham that He was rejected as their King. But we
shall not think of them in order to blame that unhappy nation, but to
remind ourselves that we, also, may fall into the same sin. As a nation
favored with the Gospel, we stand, in many respects, in the same
privileged condition as the Jews did. To us is the Word of God made
known! To our keeping, the oracles of God are committed in these last
days and we, though by Nature, shoots of the wild olive, are engrafted
into that favored stock from which Israel has, for a while, been cut
off. Shall we prove equally unworthy? Shall any of us be found guilty
of the blood of Jesus?

We hear of Jesus this day–are we rejecting Him? The suffering Messiah
will be brought forth, again, this morning, not by Pilate, but by one
who longs to do Him honor. And when He stands before you and is
proclaimed, again, in the words, "Behold your King!" will you, also,
cry, "Away with Him! Away with Him!"? Let us hope that there will not
be found, here, hearts so evil as to imitate the rebellious nation and
cry, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." Oh that each one of
us may acknowledge the Lord Jesus to be his King, for beneath His
scepter there is rest and joy! He is worthy to be crowned by every
heart! Let us all unite in beholding Him with reverence and receiving
Him with delight!

Give me your ears and hearts while Jesus is evidently set forth as
standing among you. And for the next few minutes let it be your only
business to, "Behold your King."

I. Come with me, then, to the place which is called The Pavement, but
in the Hebrew, Gabbatha, and there, "behold your King." I shall first
ask you to BEHOLD YOUR KING PREPARING HIS THRONE, yes, and making
Himself ready to sit upon it. When you look, in answer to the summons,
"Behold your King," what do you see? You see the "Man of Sorrows and
acquainted with grief wearing a crown of thorns and covered with an old
purple cloak which had been

thrown about Him in mockery. You can see, if you look closely, the
traces of His streaming blood, for He has just been scourged and you
may, also, discover that His face is blackened with bruises and stained
with shameful spit from the soldiers' mouths–

"Thus trimmed forth they bring Him to the rout, Who, 'Crucify Him,' cry
with one strong shout, God holds His peace at man, and man cries out."
It is a terrible spectacle, but I ask you to gaze upon it steadily and
see the establishment of the Redeemer's Throne. See how He becomes your
mediatorial King. He was setting up a new Throne on Gabbatha, where He
would reign as the King of pardoned sinners and the Prince of Peace! He
was King before all worlds as Lord of all by right of His eternal power
and Godhead. He had a Throne when worlds were made, as King of all
kings by creation. He had, also, always filled the Throne of
Providence, upholding all things by the Word of His power. On His head
were many crowns and to Pilate's question, "Are You a king, then?" He
did fitly answer, "You say that I am a king."

But here before Pilate and the Jews, in His condition of shame and
misery, He was about to ascend and, first of all, to prepare the Throne
of the heavenly Grace which now is set up among the sons of men that
they may flee to it and find eternal salvation! Mark how He is
preparing this Throne of Grace–it is by pain and shame endured in our
place. Sin was in the way of man's happiness–and a broken Law and
justice required a penalty–and all this must be arranged before a
Throne of Grace could be erected among men.

If you look at our suffering Lord you see at once the ensigns of His
pain, for He wears a crown of thorns which pierce His brow. Pain was a
great part of the penalty due for sin and the great Substitute was,
therefore, sorely pained. When Pilate brought forth our martyr Prince,
He was the very mirror of agony. He was majesty in misery–misery
worked up to its full height and stature. The cruel furrows of the
scourge and the trickling rivulets of His blood down His face were but
the tokens that He was about to die in cruel pangs upon the Cross! And
these, together, were incumbent upon Him because there could be no
Throne of Grace till first there had been a substitutionary sacrifice.
It behooved Him to suffer that He might be a Prince and a Savior.
Behold your King in His pains! He is laying the deep foundations of His
Kingdom of mercy!

Many a crown has been secured by blood and so is this–but it is His
own blood! Many a throne has been established by suffering and so is
this–but He Himself bears the pain! By His great sacrificial griefs
our Lord has prepared a Throne upon which He shall sit till all the
chosen race have been made kings and priests to reign with Him. It is
by His agony that He obtains the royal power to pardon–by His stripes
and bruises He wins the right to absolve poor sinners! We shall have no
cause to wonder at the greatness of His mediatorial power if we
consider the depth of His sacrificial sufferings! As His misery is the
source of His majesty, so the greatness of His pains has secured to Him
the fullness of power to save. Had He not gone to the end of the Law
and honored Justice to the highest degree, He had not, now, been so
gloriously able to dispense mercy from His glorious high Throne of
mediatorial Grace. Behold your King, then, as He lays deep in His own
pain and death the basis of His Throne of Grace.

Nor is it only pain, for He wears, also, the tokens of scorn. That
crown of thorns meant mainly mockery–the soldiers made Him a mimic
monarch, a carnival king–and that scarlet robe, too, was cast upon His
shoulders in bitter scorn–and thus did this world deride its God! The
Evangelists give you the description in brief sentences, as if they
stopped between each line to cover their faces with their hands and
weep. So there He stands before the crowd, helpless, friendless, with
none to declare His generation or give Him a good word. He is deserted
by all who formerly called Him, Master, and He has become the center of
a scene of rioting and ridicule. The soldiers have done their worst and
now the chief men of the nation look at Him with contempt and are only
kept back from the most ribald scorn by a hate too furiously eager for
death to afford them leisure for their scoffs.

His enemies had done everything in their power to clothe Him with scorn
and they were asking for permission to do more, for they cried, "Let
Him be crucified." Behold how He has left all the honor of His Father's
house and His own Glory among the angels–and here He stands with a
mock robe, a mimic scepter and a thorny crown–the butt of ridicule,
scoffed at by all! Yet this must be, because sin is a shameful thing
and a part of the penalty of sin is shame, as they will know who shall
wake up in the Day of Judgment to everlasting contempt! Shame fell on
Adam when he sinned

and then and there he knew that he was naked. And now shame has come
down in a tremendous hail upon the head of the Second Adam, the
Substitute for shameful man, and He is covered with contempt.

"All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn." It is hard to say whether
cruelty or mockery had most to do with the Person of our Lord at
Gabbatha, but by enduring these two things together He laid on an
immovable Foundation the cornerstone of His dominion of love and Grace.
How could He have been the King of a redeemed people if He had not thus
redeemed them? He might have been Lord over a people doomed to die–the
stern Ruler of a people who continued in sin and would so continue till
they perished forever from His Presence. But He not seek such a
kingdom. He sought a kingdom over hearts that should eternally be under
obligation to Him. Hearts that, being redeemed from the lowest Hell by
His atoning death, would forever love Him with the utmost fervency. His
sorrow secured His power to save! His shame endowed Him with the right
to bless! "Behold your King."

Look at Him with steady eyes and see what a King He now is by right of
benefit conferred. Behold, He has put away sin, forever, by the
sacrifice of Himself and, therefore, all the ransomed ones agree that
He should be king who smote the great dragon which devoured the
nations. Behold, by His stooping to shame, He has dethroned Satan who
was the prince of this world! And who should occupy the Throne but He
who has won it and cast out the strong one who ruled before? Christ has
done more for men than the Prince of Darkness could or would, for He
has died for them and so He has earned a just supremacy over all
grateful hearts.

As for death, Jesus, by yielding to death, has conquered it. Let Him be
crowned with the victor's wreath who has destroyed the world's
destroyer! In His shame you also see the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling
the Law and making it honorable. He who could honor that Law which
otherwise would have cursed us, deserves to have all honor and homage
paid to Him by the sons of men whom He has rescued from the curse! You
see, then, our Lord, when He put on the old red cloak and submitted His
brow to be pierced with thorns, was really establishing for Himself an
empire–the foundations of which shall never be shaken! He was
performing that saving work which has made Him King among sinners whom
He saves and Lord of the Kingdom of Grace which through His death is
bestowed upon men!

Note this, too, that men are kings among their fellows when they can
show deep sympathy and give substantial succor. He who can sympathize
wins power of the best sort, not coarse force, but refined spiritual
influence. For this cause our Lord was afflicted, as you see Him
afflicted, that He might have sympathy with you in your direst grief
and in your most grievous dishonor. As the children were partakers of
flesh and blood, He, Himself, also took part of the same. And as they
must suffer, so the Captain of their salvation was made perfect by
suffering. This gives Him His glorious power over us. He is a faithful
High Priest, for He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
And this ability to enter into our infirmities and sorrows makes Him
supreme over our hearts. Look at your King in pain and mockery– and
see how royal He is to your heart! How sovereignly He commands your
heart to rejoice! With what regal power He commands your fears to lie
still and how obediently your despondency yields to His Word!

Now, as it is with you, so is it on a larger scale in the world. The
suffering nations will yet see their true Deliverer in their suffering
Lord. That scepter of a reed will secure Him power far greater than a
rod of iron. His love to man is proved by His suffering to the death on
their behalf and this, when the Holy Spirit has made men wise, shall be
to the myriads of our race the reason for proclaiming Him Lord of all!
The kings and princes who rule mankind by reason of their descent or by
the force of arms, have but the names of kings. The true kings are the
great benefactors. The heroes are our kings, after all. We look upon
those as royal who can risk their lives for their fellow men to win
them liberty, or to teach them truth. The race forgets its masters but
it remembers its friends.

Earth, but for Jesus, had been a vast prison and men a race of
condemned criminals. But He who stands before us in Gabbatha, in all
His shame and grief, has delivered us from our lost estate and,
therefore, He must be King! Who shall say no to Him? If love must
ultimately triumph–if disinterested self-sacrifice must obtain
homage–then Jesus is and shall be King! If eventually, when the
morning breaks and man's heart is purged from the prejudice and
injustice occasioned by sin, the might shall be with the right and
truth must prevail! Then Jesus must reign! The eternal fitness of
things demands that the best should be highest, that he who does men
most service should be most honored among them! In a word, that He who
was made nothing of for man's sake should become everything to him.
See, then, how the crown of thorns is mother to the crown which Jesus
wears in His Church! The scarlet robe is the purchase price of the
vesture of

universal sovereignty and the mock scepter of reed is the precursor of
the rod of nations with which the whole earth will yet be ruled!
"Behold your King," and see the sources of His mediatorial power!

II. O you who see in your bleeding and rejected Lord, "the King in His
beauty," come here, yet again, and BEHOLD HIM CLAIMING YOUR HOMAGE. See
in what way He comes to win your hearts. What is His right to be King
over you? There are many rights, for on His head are many crowns–but
the most commanding right which Jesus has over any of us is signified
by that crown of thorns–it is the right of supreme love! He loved us
as none other could have loved us. If we put all the loves of parents
and of wives and children all together, we can never rival, even for a
moment, the love of Christ to us! And whenever that love touches us, so
that we feel its power, we crown Him King at once.

Who can resist His charms? One look of His eyes overpowers us! See with
your heart those eyes when they are full of tears for perishing sinners
and you are a willing subject. One look at His blessed Person subjected
to scourging and spitting for our sakes will give us more idea of His
crown rights than anything besides. Look into His pierced heart as it
pours out its life flood for us and all disputes about His Sovereignty
are ended in our hearts. We acknowledge Him Lord because we see how He
loved! How could we do otherwise? Love in action, or rather love in
suffering, carries an Omnipotence about it! Behold what His love
endured and so, "Behold your King."

Jesus, in the garb of mockery, marred with traces of His pain, also
reminds us of His complete purchase of us by His deeds and death. "You
are not your own, you are bought with a price." Behold your King and
see the price! It is the price of immense suffering, of most cruel
shame! It is an incalculable price, for the Lord of All is set at
nothing! It is an awful price, for He who only has immortality yields
Himself to die! It is the price of blood. It is the scourging and
bleeding and woe of Jesus–no, it is Himself! If you would see the
price of your redemption, "Behold your King." 'Tis He that has redeemed
us unto God by His blood! It is He that "made Himself of no reputation
and took upon Him the form of a Servant; and being found in fashion as
a Man, humbled Himself; and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the Cross."

You acknowledge that claim–the love of Christ demands it–you feel
that from now on you live for Him, alone, and count it joy that in all
respects He should reign over you with unlimited sway. Jesus, because
He suffered, has acquired a power over us which is far superior to any
which could be urged in courts of law, or enforced by mere power, for
our hearts have voluntarily surrendered to Him and given Him the right
of our free submission, charmed to give allegiance to such imperial
love! Is it possible for a Believer to look at the Lord Jesus Christ
without feeling that he longs to be more and more His servant and
disciple? Do you not thirst to serve Him? Can yon behold Him in the
depth of shame without pining to lift Him up to the heights of glory?
Can you see Him stooping thus for you without pleading with God that a
glorious high Throne may be His and that He may sit upon it and rule
all the hearts of men?

There is no need to argue out the right of King Jesus, for you feel
it–His love has carried you by storm and it holds fast its capture.
You cannot have a Savior without His being your King. And seeing such a
Savior in such a condition, you cannot even think of Him without
delighting to ascribe to Him all power and dominion! Could we escape
His sway it would be bondage to us–and when we, at any time fail to
admit it, it is our worst affliction! "Behold your King," then, for He
Himself is His own claim to your obedience! See what He suffered for
you, my Brothers and Sisters, and from now on never draw back from any
labor, shame, or suffering for His dear sake.

"Behold your King," and reckon to be treated like He. Do you expect to
be crowned with gold when He was crowned with thorns? Shall lilies grow
for you and briars for Him? Never again be ashamed to carry His
glorious name, unless, indeed, you can be so vile as to prove a traitor
to such a Lord! See to what shame He was put and learn from Him to
despise all shame for His Truth's sake! Shall the disciple be above his
Master, or the servant above his Lord? If they have thus maltreated the
Master of the house, what shall they do to the household? Let us reckon
upon our share of this treatment and, by accepting it, prove to all men
that the despised and rejected of men is really the King over us and
that the subjects blush not to be like their Monarch!

Even though the cost is all the shame the world can possibly pour upon
us, or all the suffering that flesh and blood can, in any condition,
endure, let us be faithful in our loyalty and cry, "Who shall separate
us? Shall persecution, or distress, or tribulation divide us from our
King? No! In all these things we are more than conquerors! King of
Griefs, you are King of my soul! O King of Shame, you are absolute
Monarch of my heart! You are King by Divine right and King by my own
voluntary choice! Other lords have had dominion over us, but now, since
You have revealed Yourself

after this fashion, Your name, only, shall govern our spirit!" Do you
not see, then, that Jesus, before Pilate, reveals His claim in the
appearance which He wears? "Behold your King."

III. "Behold your King," for a third time, that you may see Him
SUBDUING HIS DOMINIONS. Dressed in robes

of scorn and with a visage marred with pain, He comes forth conquering
and to conquer! This is not very apparent at a superficial glance, for
He is not arrayed like a man of war. You see no sword upon His thigh,
nor bow in His hand. No fiery threats fall from His lips, nor does He
speak with eloquent persuasion. He is unarmed, yet victorious! He is
silent, but yet conquering!

In this garb He goes forth to war. His shame is His armor and His
sufferings are His battle-axe. What do you think? How can it be so? I
speak no fiction, but sober fact–and it shall be proven. Missionaries
have gone forth to win the heathen for Christ and they have commenced
with the uncivilized sons of sin by telling them that there is a God
and that He is great and just. The people have listened unmoved, or
have only answered, "Do you think we don't know this?" Then they have
spoken of sin and its punishment and have foretold the coming of the
Lord to judgment, but still the people stirred not, but coolly said,
"'Tis true," and then went on their way to live in sin as before.

At last these earnest men have let fall the blessed secret and spoken
of the love of God in giving His only-begotten Son and they have begun
to tell the story of the matchless griefs of Immanuel! Then have the
dry bones stirred! Then have the deaf begun to hear! They tell us that
they had not long told the story before they noticed that eyes were
fastened on them and that countenances were beaming with interest which
had been listless before. And they have said to themselves, "Why did we
not begin with this?" Yes, why, indeed? For this it is that touches
men's hearts–Christ Crucified is the Conqueror!

Not in His robes of Glory does He subdue the heart, but in His
vestments of shame! Not as sitting upon the Throne does He, at first,
gain the faith and the affections of sinners, but as bleeding,
suffering and dying in their place! "God forbid that I should glory,"
said the Apostle, "save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And
though every theme that is connected with the Savior ought to play its
part in our ministry, yet this is the master theme. The atoning work of
Jesus is the great gun of our battery! The Cross is the mighty
battering-ram to break in pieces the bronze gates of human prejudices
and the iron bars of obstinacy! Christ coming to be our Judge alarms,
but Christ, the Man of Sorrows, subdues! The crown of thorns has a
royal power in it to compel a willing allegiance! The scepter of reed
breaks hearts better than a rod of iron and the robe of mockery
commands more love than Caesar's imperial purple! There is nothing like
it under Heaven!

Victories 10,000 times 10,000 have been achieved by Him whom Pilate led
forth to the multitude– victories distinctly to be ascribed to the
crown of thorns and vesture of mockery! Are they not written in the
book of the wars of the Lord? There will be more such as He is more
frequently set forth in His own fashion and men are bid, in the Man of
Sorrows to behold their King. Has it not been so at home as well as
among the far-off heathen? What wins men's hearts to Christ today? What
but Christ in shame and Christ in suffering? I appeal to you who have
been newly converted– what has bound you as captives to Jesus'
chariot? What has made you, from now on, vow to be His followers,
rejoicing in His name? What but this–that He bowed His head to the
death for your sake and has redeemed you unto God by His blood? You
know it is so!

And oh, dear children of God, if ever you feel the power of Christ upon
you to the fullest–till it utterly overcomes you–is it not the memory
of redeeming grief which does it? When you become like harps and Jesus
is the minstrel and lays His finger among your heartstrings and brings
out nothing but praise for His dear name–what is it that charms you
into the music of grateful love but the fact of His condescension on
your behalf? Is not this your song, that He was slain and has redeemed
you unto God by His blood? I confess I could sit down at the foot of
His Cross and do nothing else but weep until I wept myself away, for
His suffering makes my soul to melt within me. Then, if the call of
duty is heard, I feel intensely eager to plead with others. At that
time I am ready to make any sacrifice to bring others under my Lord's
dominion! Then, by His Grace, I am full of a holy passion that even
death could not quench–all this, I say, if I have but just come from
gazing on the Redeemer's passion and drinking of His cup and being
baptized with His Baptism!

The scepter of reed rules as nothing else ever did, for it awakens
enthusiasm. The crown of thorns commands homage as no other diadem ever
did, for it braces men into heroes and martyrs. No royalty is so
all-commanding as that which has for its insignia the crown of thorns,
the reed, the red cloak and the five wounds! Other sovereignties are
forced and

feigned. They are hollow compared with the Sovereignty of "the despised
of men!" Fear, or custom, or self-interest make men courtiers
elsewhere, but fervent love crowds the courts of King Jesus! We do not
merely say that the marred Countenance is the most majestic ever seen,
but we have felt it to be so on many an occasions. Yes, and feel it to
be so now.

Do you want to make our hard hearts soft? Tell us of Jesus' grief!
Would you make us, strong men, into children? Set the Man of Sorrows in
our midst! There is no resisting Him. Look, also, at backsliders if you
would see the power of the despised Nazarene. If they have gone away
from Christ. If they have become lukewarm. If their hearts have become
obdurate to Him who once could charm them–what can bring them back? I
know but one magnet which, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, will
attract these sadly fallen ones–it is Jesus in His shame and pains! We
tell them that they crucified the Son of God afresh and put Him to an
open shame–and they look on Him whom they have pierced and mourn for

Him!

O you, who, after having sipped of the communion cup, have gone to
drink at the table of Bacchus! You, who, after having talked of love to
Christ, have followed after the lusts of the flesh! You, who, after
singing His praises, have blasphemed the sacred name with which you are
named–may His Omnipotence of love be proven in you, also! What can
ever bring you back but this sad reflection, that you, also, have
twisted for Him a crown of thorns and caused Him to be blasphemed among
His enemies? Still the merit of His death is available for you! The
power and efficacy of His precious blood have not ceased, even for you!
And if you come back to Him–and oh, may a sight of Him draw you–He
will receive you graciously as at the first. I say to you, "Behold your
King," and may the Sovereignty of His humiliation and suffering be
proven, this morning, in some of you as you shall come bending at His
feet, conquered by His great love and restored to repentance and faith
by His marvelous compassion! A sight of His wounds and bruises heals
us, so that we grieve at our rebellions and long to be brought home to
God, never to wander more.

Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters, we shall always find, as long as the
world stands, that among saints, sinners, backsliders and all classes
of men, Jesus Christ's power is most surely felt when His humiliation
is most faithfully declared and most believingly known! It is by this
that He will subdue all things to Himself. If we will but preach Jesus
Christ to the Hindu, it will not be necessary to answer all his
metaphysical subtleties–the sorrows of Jesus are as a sharp sword to
cut the Gordian knot. If we will go down among the degraded inhabitants
of Africa, we shall not need, first, to civilize them–the Cross is the
great lever which lifts up fallen men–it conquers evil and establishes
truth and righteousness.

The most depraved and hardened learn of His great love and hearts of
stone begin to beat–they see Jesus suffering to the death out of
nothing else but love to them–and they are touched by it! And they
eagerly enquire what they must do to be saved by such a Savior. The
Holy Spirit works in the minds of many by setting forth the great love
and grief of Jesus. May we who are His ministers have great faith in
His Cross and from now on say, as we preach the suffering Jesus,
"Behold your King."

IV. In the fourth place I beg you to "Behold your King" SETTING FORTH
THE PATTERN OF HIS KINGDOM. When you look at Him, you are struck, at
once, with the thought that if He is a king He is like no other
monarch, for other kings are covered with rich apparel and surrounded
with pomp, but He has none of these. Their glories usually consist in
wars by which they have made others suffer. But His Glory is His own
suffering! No blood but His own has flowed to make Him illustrious!

He is a King but He cannot be put in the list of sovereigns such as the
nations of the earth are compelled to serve. When Antoninus Pius set up
the statue of Jesus in the Pantheon as one of a circle of gods and
heroes, it must have seemed strangely out of place to those who gazed
upon its visage if the sculptor was at all true to life. It must have
stood apart as one that could not be numbered with the rest! Neither
can you set Him among the masters of the human race who have crushed
mankind beneath their iron heels! He was no Caesar–you cannot make Him
appear like one! Call Him not autocrat, emperor, or czar–He has an
authority greater than all these–yet not after their kind. His purple
is different from theirs and His crown, also. But His face differs more
and His heart most of all. "My kingdom," He says, "is not of this
world."

For troops, He has a host of sorrows. For pomp, a surrounding of scorn.
For lofty bearing, humility. For adulation, mockery. For homage, spit.
For glory, shame. For a Throne, a Cross. Yet there was never a truer
King! Indeed, all kings are but a name, save this King, who is a real
Ruler in Himself and of Himself–and not by extraneous force. Right
royal,

indeed, is the Nazarene! But He cannot be likened unto the princes of
earth, nor can His Kingdom be reckoned with theirs. I pray that the day
may soon come when none may dream of looking upon the Church as a
worldly organization capable of alliance with temporal sovereignties so
as to be patronized, directed, or reformed by them. Christ's Kingdom
shines as a lone star with a brightness all its own! It stands apart
like a hill of light, sacred and sublime–the high hills may leap with
envy because of it–but it is not of them nor like unto them. Is not
this manifest even in the appearance of our Lord as Pilate brings Him
forth and cries, "Behold your King!"?

Now, as He sets before us in His own Person, the pattern of His
Kingdom, we may expect that we shall see some likeness to Him in His
subjects. And if you will gaze upon the Church, which is His Kingdom,
from the first day of her history until now, you will see that it, too,
is wearing its purple robe. The martyrs' blood is the purple vesture of
the Church of Christ. The trials and persecutions of Believers are her
crown of thorns. Think of the rage of persecution under Pagan Rome–and
the equally inhuman proceedings of Papal Rome–and you will see how the
ensign of Christ's Kingdom is a crown of thorns–a crown and yet
thorns–thorns but still a crown! The bush is burning, but it is not
consumed!

If you, Beloved, are truly followers of Jesus, you must expect to take
your measure of shame and dishonor. And you may reckon upon your
allotment of griefs and sorrows. The "Man of Sorrows" attracts a
sorrowful following. The Lamb of God's Passover is still eaten with
bitter herbs. The child of God cannot escape the rod, for the elder
Brother did not and to Him we are to be conformed. We must "fill up
that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body's sake,
which is the Church" (Col. 1:24).

Remember, however, that Christ's sufferings, as a pattern, were not for
His own sins, nor brought upon Him as a chastisement for His own
faults. The sufferings which belong to His Kingdom are those which are
endured for His name and for His Glory's sake, and for the good of
others. If men lie in prison for their own crimes, that has nothing to
do with His Kingdom. If we suffer for our sins, that is no part of His
Kingdom. But when a man loses of his substance for Christ's cause, lays
out himself to toil even unto death, bears contempt and suffers
hardness as a Christian–this is after the type of Christ's Kingdom.
When the missionary goes forth with his life in his hand among the
heathen, or when a Believer in any way divests himself of comfort for
the good of others, it is then that he truly copies the pattern set him
in Pilate's Hall by our great King.

I say to you Christians who court ease, to you who are hoarding up your
gold, to you who will do nothing that would bring you under the
criticism of your fellow men, to you who live unto yourselves–would it
not be irony of the severest kind if I were to point to Jesus before
Pilate and say, "Behold your King"? Living in undue luxury, amassing
wealth, rolling in ease, living to enjoy yourselves! Is that your King?
Poor subjects, you–and very unlike your Lord! But if there are among
us those who, for His sake, can make sacrifices, we may look upon our
King without fear. You who are undaunted by contempt and who would give
all that you have, yes, and give yourselves to know Jesus–and are
doing so–to such I say, "Behold your King," for you are of His Kingdom
and you shall reign with Him! In your conquest of yourselves you have
already become kings! In reigning over your own desires and carnal
inclinations for the sake of His dear love, you are already kings and
priests unto God and you shall reign forever and ever!

He who is ruled by his passions in any degree is still a slave. But he
who lives for God and his fellow men has a royal soul. The insignia of
a prince unto God are still shame and suffering–which adornments are
readily worn when the Lord calls him to do so. In Christ's Kingdom
those are peers of the highest rank who are most like their Lord and
are the lowest and humblest in mind–and most truly the servants of
all. The secondary princes of His Kingdom approximate less closely to
Him and the lower you descend in the scale the less you are like He is
in those respects. The Christian surrounded with every comfort who
never endured hardness for Christ, who never knew what it was to be
sneered at for Jesus' sake, who never made a sacrifice which went so
far as to pinch him in the least–if, indeed, he is a Christian–is
least in the kingdom of Heaven.

Proud, rich men who give but trifles to Christ's cause are pariahs in
His Kingdom! They who are who are willing to be least of all, are the
chief–they are princes who make themselves the offscouring of all
things for His name's sake, such as were the Apostles and first martyrs
and others whom His love has greatly constrained.

V. Our concluding remark shall be, "Behold your King"–PROVING THE
CERTAINTY OF HIS EMPIRE–for if, Beloved, Christ was King when He was
in Pilate's hands, after being scourged and spit upon, and while He was

wearing the robe and crown of mockery, when will He not be King? If He
were King at His worst, when is it that His Throne can ever be shaken?
They have brought Him very low. They have brought Him lower than the
sons of men, for they have made Him a worm and not a man, despised of
the people, and yet He is King!

Marks of royalty were present on the day of His death. He dispensed
crowns when He was on the Cross–He gave the dying thief a promise of
an entrance into Paradise. In His death He shook the earth, He opened
graves, He split the rocks, He darkened the sun and He made men smite
on their breasts in dismay! One voice after another, even from the
ranks of His foes, proclaimed Him to be King, even when dying like a
malefactor! Was He a King then? When will He not be King? And who is
there that can, in any way, shake His Throne?

In the days of His flesh, "the kings of the earth stood up and the
rulers took counsel together, saying, Let us break His bonds asunder,
and cast His cords from us," but He that sat in the heavens did
laugh–the Lord did have them in derision and Christ on the Cross was
acknowledged, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, to be, still, the King of the
Jews. When will He not be King? If He was King before He died and was
laid in the grave, what is He, now, that He has risen from the dead?
What is He, now, now that He has vanquished the destroyer of our race
and lives no more to die? What is He now?

You angels, tell what glories surround Him now! If He were King when He
stood at Pilate's bar, what will He be when Pilate shall stand at His
bar, when He shall come on the Great White Throne and summon all
mankind before Him to judgment? What will be His acknowledged
sovereignty and His dreaded majesty in the day of the Lord? Come, let
us adore Him! Let us pay our humble homage in the courts of the Lord's
house this day! And then let us go forth to our daily service in His
name and make this our strong resolve, His Spirit helping us, that we
will live to crown Him in our hearts and in our lives–in every place
where our lot may be cast–till the day breaks and the shadows flee
away and we behold the King in His beauty and the land that is very far
off.

None can overturn a kingdom which is founded on the death of its King!
None can abolish a dominion whose deep foundations are laid in the
tears and blood of the Prince, Himself. Napoleon said that he founded
his empire by force and, therefore, it had passed away. "But," he said,
"Jesus founded His Kingdom upon love and it will last forever." So it
must be, for whatever may or may not be, it is written–"He must
reign." As for us, if we wish to extend the Redeemer's Kingdom we must
be prepared to deny ourselves for Christ. We must be prepared for
weariness, slander and self-denial.

In this sign we conquer! The Cross will have to be borne by us as well
as by Him if we are to reign with Jesus. We must both teach the Cross
and bear the Cross. We must participate in the shame if we would
participate in the Glory! No thorn, no Throne! When again shall be
heard the voice, "Behold your King," and Jew and Gentile shall see Him
enthroned and surrounded with all His Father's angels–with the whole
earth subdued to His power happy shall he be who shall then, in the
exalted Savior, behold his King! The Lord grant us this day to be loyal
subjects of the Crucified that we may be favored to share His glory.
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