“The King of the Jews”

"The King of the Jews"

(No. 3123)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY DECEMBER 17, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 6, 1874.

"And Pilate wrote a title, and put in on the Cross. And the writing
was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS." John 19:19.

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 Savior, 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 wondrous was the condescension that He, whom all Heaven adored
as the ever-blessed Son of the Highest, should be hanged upon a tree
and that He should have His accusation written up over His head just as
if He had been a common malefactor!

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 would 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 to now 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,
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, "Write not, 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 matters not who may be the persons concerned,
God knows how to work His own will with them. It was His purpose that
His Son should not die upon 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 pluck it down and no hand of a
scoffer could be lifted up 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 upon 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 Savior, 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."

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.

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

This is a picture of how the world rejects the Savior. The Savior had
truly come into the world. That He might be known to be a Savior, He
had taken the name of Jesus, that is, Savior. 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. Thus He was known as Jesus, the
Savior–and as Jesus of Nazareth, an approachable and lowly Savior.
Jesus had come into the world to save men and He had commenced His
mission by saving many from diseases which had been regarded as
incurable. He had opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, given speech
to the dumb, cleansing to lepers and He had even raised the dead to
life! There were also many 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.

He was indeed Jesus the Savior, but how did men receive Him? Did they
come and fall at His feet and kiss the very dust He trod upon? One
might not have been surprised if they had done so, but they did not.
Did they gather around Him with joyful clamor, all sick ones eager to
touch the hem of His garment that they might be made whole? 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 them that believed on His name." But it was not so with the
mass of mankind! Discerning in Him something strange and singular,
seeing in Him no enmity, no sinful anger, no pride, no bitterness–
seeing in Him only superlative love, yet they must 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 upon
the felon's gallows and, in doing so, men said, "This is the Savior,
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 to 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 upon His lips–we hang Him up to die,
for we do not want Him." This is only a specimen of what all sinful
hearts do till they are changed by Grace–they will not have the Savior
to rule over them!

"Oh," says someone, "you bring too harsh a charge against me!" Is it
so? Have you received Jesus? Do you believe in Him? Has He become your
Savior? 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 do practically say, "I prefer to be damned forever rather than
believe in Jesus Christ!" At any rate, that is your choice at this
present moment. And if a man will show his objection to Christ to so
great an extent that he would be cast into Hell sooner than let Jesus
save him, you may depend upon it that there dwells in his heart
sufficient enmity to Christ to hang Him up again upon the Cross if He
were here once more! Christ would be hanged tomorrow if He came here
among unregenerate hearts–yes, by the very people that 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–not by "sacraments" and priests and good
works–men foam at the mouth with rage, for they still hate the Christ,
the only Savior of the sons of men!

Next I see here that man slays the Incarnate 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 Immanuel, 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 unto my Lord, Sit You 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 unto Israel, He was still veiled, though His Godhead
every now and then flashed through the veil of His Humanity. He bade
the sea 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

bidden His disciples cast 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 let to them, said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill
Him and let us seize on 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 hanged Him up like a felon, and put a label above
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." O 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 the Truth of God,
for this isa 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 Sermon #1206, Volume 20–heart-

KNOWLEDGE OF GODj 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.

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 neighbor as yourself," "You shall forgive
till 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, straightway 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.

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 upon 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 sort 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 can imagine how scornfully Pilate asked Him, "Are
You the King of the Jews?" How contemptuously he must have looked down
upon such a poor emaciated Creature who seemed to be despised by
everybody, 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 humor, 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." Among the
ungodly, at the present day, the idea of a piritualkingdom is quite
beyond their comprehension–they cannot make out what it is. The
relation between Church and State will not be settled by the statesmen
of any political party. There is a very singular relation between the
two, though they are as dissimilar as materialism is from spirit. The
realms of the two often overlap one another–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 after another fashion! A
spiritualkingdom, 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 Sermon #3121, Volume 54–THE
NECESSITY OF REGENERATION.] 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 manifest nowadays in the hearts of
men–the power of that Kingdom of which Christ is the King, this
blessed Book is the Law, 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!

"Oh," you say, "this 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 appertains to Episcopalians, but to know that we are
one with Christ, that He has made us kings and priests unto God and His
Father, that His saints are to reign with Him forever and that the
weapons of our warfare, though not eternal, 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 low-minded fellows who will always 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 splendor 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, pomp, rank, 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 forever!

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

It meant, first, that Christ's honor 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. You want to
know about the crime of which He has been guilty–you are 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 offense–they cannot sum up
His guilt in any other words. His crime is that He is what He is, that
He was a Savior, 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 favor 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, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Exult,
Christians, in this public and official testimony to the spotless
purity of His whole life and Character!

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 Savior. That is the
meaning of it–not that He might merely be made an example–not only
that He might bear witness to the Truth. But that cruel death means
Atonement and salvation by Atonement. Let us all look up to Him upon
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 Savior." 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
wonderful 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, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that
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 Savior, the anointed and prophesied Messiah, sent of
God to be the King of the Jews and of the Gentles, too!

But, thirdly, as far as Christ was concerned, this inscription over His
head was a claim which was there and then announced. 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 that
all mankind may read it, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." He
claims to be King, so stand at the foot of the Cross, I pray you, and
acknowledge His claim! If you would have Jesus to be your Savior, 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! More
than that, He claims to rule all mankind, for all power is given unto
Him in Heaven and in earth, and we are bidden 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
forever!

And then, not only was a claim of His Sovereignty made by the affixing
of this title, but His reign was then and there proclaimed. 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 Mount Olive and He ascended to His Throne,
and there He sits "expecting till 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 recognized 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 that is not with
Christ is against Him! Those who are not on His side, He reckons to be
on the other side! Are you, my Brothers and Sisters, in the Kingdom of
the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, I know that you look with delight upon
that inscription and as you trust to the blood of Christ to cleanse
you, you cast your eyes 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 Savior!

I want to make just this other remark about this inscription. Inasmuch
as Pilate would not alter it, it seems to me that God set forth 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 devils in Hell and all
the wicked men upon 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 have I set My King upon 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
fullness when the whole 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 unto the ends of
the earth. They that 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."

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 yet further and seek to extend the boundaries
of His Kingdom. Are you doing this? Then, do it yet mare 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 know not what besides, but by the setting forth of
Christ evidently crucified among the sons of men. The Cross is its own
battle-axe and weapon of war. "In this sign shall you conquer." Let the
whole Church preach Christ more, 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!

I looked into the darkness and I thought I saw a Cross before me. And I
saw Him who did once hang upon 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 upon it and bearing them to the very Throne
of God by its majestic power! Then I saw that tree stretch forth its
mighty branches on every side. Their shadow fell across this
highly-favored 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 Australia, also. I
watched it grow till 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! O Jesus, once crucified but now exalted, so let it 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 honor and
power everlasting. Amen."

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN19:1-37.

Verse 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, intertwisted with the knuckle
bones of sheep and small slivers of bone. This torture our blessed
Savior endured. These are the stripes with which we are healed.

2. And the soldiers platted 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. 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 bring forth to you." So Christ
wore the mark of the curse which man's sin had brought upon the world.

3. And said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote 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 forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I
bring Him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.
Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple
robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the Man!Was there ever such a
sight of majesty in misery before or since? Yet He needed not to endure
all that ignominy–He was no vanquished monarch unable to maintain His
own rights. He was still "over all, God blessed forever," and He could
have smitten everyone there to death if He had 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 said unto them, You 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 the more afraid;
and went again into the judgment hall, and said unto Jesus, Where are
You from? But Jesus gave him no answer Then said Pilate unto Him, Speak
You not unto me? Know You not that Ihave 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, except
it were given you from above: therefore he that delivered Me unto 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 know not what they do." There was never another such a tender
heart 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 thenceforth 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 crying, he brought Jesus forth 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 said unto the Jews,

Behold your King! [See Sermon #1353, Volume 23–ECC REX.] 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 see that
it was so.

15-17. But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!
Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests
answered, We have no king but Caesar Then he delivered Him to them to
be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him away. And He bearing His
cross went forth 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, on either side
one, 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 dishonor?

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. This title then
read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was near
to 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 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. 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. Andmade four parts, to every soldier a part; andalso His coat:
now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said
therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it,
whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled.They knew
nothing about that ancient prophecy, yet God ordained that they should
act thus, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled."

24. Which says, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture
they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Doubtless,
on the dice there fell the blood of Christ, yet they still gambled
there. There is, perhaps, no sin which so effectually hardens the heart
as that of gambling–it is a sin with which Christians should not have
even the remotest 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 sa w His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He
loved, He said unto His mother, Woman, behold your son! Then said He to
the disciple, Behold your mother! And from that hour that disciple took
her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst
Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge
with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished! [See
Sermons #421,

Volume 7–IT IS FINISHED! and #2344, Volume 40–CHRIST'S DYING WORD FOR
HIS CHURCH.] Consummatum est. "The work is done, Redemption is
accomplished. The salvation of My people is forever secured."

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 upon the Cross on the Sabbath, (for that Sabbath was an high
day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they
might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the
first, and of the other which was crucified with Him. But when they
came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they broke not His
legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side and
forthwith came out bloodand water. Andhe that saw it bares record and
his record is true: andhe knows that what he says is true, that you
might believe. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be
fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another
scripture says, They shall look upon Him whom they pierced.