At our church, we are doing a series on Meet Jesus from the Gospel of John. Today I got to speak on the events leading up to Jesus' crucifixion.
I need to add a correction to what I said at the 10am service. I said near the start of the talk, off the cuff, that we have the writing of Cicero saying how much he hated Pilate. Someone afterwards, noticed and mentioned to me that Cicero died in 43 BC, so well before Pilate. What I meant to say was that Philo hated Pilate. For the sake of time, I cut a section where I would quote Philo. I have left that bit below for the sake of reference and correction. Normally the 10am audio is uploaded, so that mistake may be on the audio file. Also, I put up a slide of what the sign above Jesus' head on the cross might have looked like with the three languages on it. Another person afterwards told me that the image was backwards, and they had some working Latin and could tell.
Today we will see how this all came about, for Pilate was put in a tricky position. He was basically asked, what do you do with Jesus?
I remember once, I was talking to my neighbour and he said, Jesus spoke back to power too often and too much, which is why he got killed. If only Jesus didn’t say so much so often to the wrong people, He might have been able to avoid being killed. Do you think that? Is that what happened?
Pilate was forced into making a hard decision. How do you cope with tricky decisions? Can you think clearly on your feet? I am very risk-averse, which means sometimes it takes me ages to make important decisions. I finished my Bachelor of Theology in 2014, but it wasn’t till 2018 that I decided that I probably could work in a ministry position - and that was still only one day a week. I take ages to decide on something things, and I never like being pressured to decide on something too quickly. So, I must warn you that at the end of this talk, I am also going to ask you the same tricky question Pilate faced: What are you going to do with Jesus?
In the book Dune, there is a phrase that is repeated at various times that goes “plans within plans within plans”. It is said when there is a big goal, but within that one, there are smaller goals trying to be achieved. It’s sad when politics is afoot. In our passage the Jewish leaders have plans, Pilate has a plan, and Jesus has a plan.
Where there are a mix of plans and politics, things can get murky and complicated, and generally the most powerful or intelligent wins.
So, in our passage today we run into Pilate, who finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.
Under Pilate, there was a Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. It was presided over by the chief priest. It had religious authority. It had political authority. It had judicial authority all allowed under the Romans. (D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Death of an Alien King (John 18:28-19:22)))
But Pilate had the power to execute criminals, which the Jewish leaders are trying to leverage against Jesus.
Now Pilate is an interesting character.
[*this was cut for time*
Jesus was put in a tricky position in answering this question about His kingship because at the time there were different notions of kingship.
The Jews had a future king, from the line of David who God had made many promises about, who would come and free them. This king was sometimes called “Messiah” or “Christ”. But Pilate doesn’t have that grid of thinking. He is just thinking about the Empire and if there is someone else who is claiming to be king in Emperor Tiberius backyard. If that is the case then that pretender will have to go.
Jesus changes the topic and says “Is that your own idea or are you just doing what others want?”
This is a real affront to Pilate's power and he probably knows it. This ruler who has the power of life and death, is being a pawn in someone else’s game. Pilate deflects and pushes back saying, “Your own people don’t like you, what did you do?” and Jesus says,
I wonder what Pilate would have been thinking at this time about who Jesus is. He had seen Kings and Emperors, he has seen criminals and rebels who would have loved to put a sword through him, but this guy, He is saying His kingdom isn’t from around here. He might be thinking Jesus is possibly mad? Insane maybe, this lowlife thinks he is some kind of King.
Jesus says He is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). His truth, is the way to God and to life. To which Pilate ask, almost cynically, “What is truth?”.
Generally, those who ask “What is truth?” don’t really want an answer. They want to justify their own behaviour. Pilate probably thinks he is the one who has the power to say what truth is. At the time, there was no open media to investigate his actions, and no cameras to record what he had been up to. He had the power to kill people, legally. If he said someone was innocent then they were, if he said they were guilty then they were. The buck stopped with him. He could say what was true and if anyone objected they wouldn’t stand for very long - they would find themselves on the wrong side of Pilate's truth.
So this powerful leader goes back out to the Jewish leaders and says for the first time “I find no basis for a charge against him”. Jesus is innocent, there are no charges. But to meet them halfway, as sort of the negotiation point in this first round, Pilate offers to release Jesus. Let's say He is bad, but we can give him a pardon. Traditionally, around this festival, Pilate would release someone to boost morale. So he asked, probably a little sarcastically “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews?”
This is topsy-turvy justice. It is grace for Barabbas the convicted, but not for Jesus the innocent. For those who know, this is a small snapshot of the Gospel, which is Jesus’ plan. Jesus dies as a substitute, not just for Barabbas, but for everyone who has rebelled against His Kingdom, His Father and His rule. Jesus takes the punishment for the sins of the world so that all who look to him can be saved. We get grace while Jesus took our just punishment. We are all in darkness, but He has come as the light, to save those who hear his voice. To all of us who say we can make up our own truth up as we go along, Jesus says, no - He is the Truth. He is the one we need to know so that we can know who we are and how we are to live.
For the second time, Pilate says to the Jewish leaders “I find no basis for a charge against him” and Jesus is then brought out on display all beaten and bloodied, with a robe and crown of thorns. The mighty Jesus is humiliated in front of everyone as a loser king. He is harmless to the Romans.
This is Pilate's second attempt at letting Jesus go. Pilate says “Look at him”. Pilate may have through this spectacle may show everyone that Jesus has been punished for whatever he did, and now that we have had our fun, we can all go home. This is Pilate's second round of meeting the leaders halfway, but that fails too. The Jewish leaders are headstrong on their plan, they are not going to negotiate, they want Jesus crucified. They start a chant “Crucify! Crucify!” and Pilate is at his wit's end.
The Jewish leaders then say their own local law says Jesus has to die, for he is claiming to be the Son of God. To the Jewish leaders, Jesus is a liar. He is lying about himself and God, and so should be put to death. Pilate starts to get afraid, as he might be seeing how this is going to play out.
After getting the silent treatment from Jesus, Pilate says
In the next verse, this battle of power and plans comes to ahead right here. This is the crux of everything colliding
But the religious leaders pull out their trump card over Pilate. They point to the one who has power over him, not God but Caesar.
Jesus is a king. Delusional or a liar, but either way there can only be one king in the Roman Empire. To allow another king would be treason. Pilate has to squash this threat to keep order. The dominoes are starting to fall against Pilate. In this third round, Pilate loses to the religious leaders. Jesus is not set free, Jesus is sentenced to death.
In verse 13, Pilate sits down on the judgment seat over the one who will judge all people, and asks if he should kill their king, to which the chief priests say “We have no king but Caeser”.
And it is true. Jesus is a King. Throughout all the mockery and beatings and questioning and people jostling for power, this was part of God’s plan. Pilate might have felt trapped by the religious leaders' plans. But all of their power was only delegated to them. God’s plan was that Jesus would die.
Jesus knew about this from the very beginning. This was mentioned earlier in our passage, did you catch it? In John 18:31-32
John 3, when Jesus said:
Where there are a mix of plans and politics, things can get murky and complicated, and generally the most powerful or intelligent wins.
Pilate
Under Pilate, there was a Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. It was presided over by the chief priest. It had religious authority. It had political authority. It had judicial authority all allowed under the Romans. (D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Death of an Alien King (John 18:28-19:22)))
But Pilate had the power to execute criminals, which the Jewish leaders are trying to leverage against Jesus.
Now Pilate is an interesting character.
[*this was cut for time*
Philo was a contemporary of Pilate describes him as "a man of a very inflexible disposition, and very merciless as well as very obstinate" (The Works of Philo On the Embassy to Gaius)
He then list Pilates traits such as:
When Pilate first arrived in Jerusalem [around 26 AD], he put up Roman flags with Caesar's picture on them. This caused riots for 6 days, as the Jews said this image broke their religious laws. Pilate threatened to chop off the heads of all the rioters, to which they bent over and stuck their necks out, calling him on his threat. After seeing how many rioters there were Pilate relented. The Jewish leaders dobbed on Pilate to the Emperor about all this, which wasn’t good for Pilate as his main job was to keep the peace. Another time Pilate used temple funds to build a 40 km aqueduct for Jerusalem. This again caused much protest and many Jews were killed over this. (Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Pilate, Pontius. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1694). Baker Book House.)
Needless to say, Pilate’s relationship with the Jews was a little tense, and they knew on Pilate's back was Emperor Tiberius who wanted peace in the area at all costs. If Pilate couldn’t keep the peace, he would be removed (and possibly executed). Eventually, in 36 AD Pilate would be dismissed due to his harsh treatment of an uprising in Samaria. A few years after that Pilate would commit suicide.
So Pilate has some problems. Pilate is situationally stuck between the Jewish leaders and Jesus, but also physically between them.
Today we will step through this story, looking at how each of the plans of the Jewish leaders, Pilate and Jesus worked out. There are sort of 3 rounds to this story, where Pilate tries to negotiate with the Jewish leaders, and we will see, that the Chief Priests weren’t in a barging mood.
So at the start, we see in verse 28 that the leaders didn’t want to enter Pilate's place as they didn’t want to defile themselves.
his corruption, and his acts of insolence, ... his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity (The Works of Philo (On the Embassy to Gaius))Philo was a Greek Jew. I don’t think he liked Pilate. And as a general rule the Jews didn’t like Pilate.]
When Pilate first arrived in Jerusalem [around 26 AD], he put up Roman flags with Caesar's picture on them. This caused riots for 6 days, as the Jews said this image broke their religious laws. Pilate threatened to chop off the heads of all the rioters, to which they bent over and stuck their necks out, calling him on his threat. After seeing how many rioters there were Pilate relented. The Jewish leaders dobbed on Pilate to the Emperor about all this, which wasn’t good for Pilate as his main job was to keep the peace. Another time Pilate used temple funds to build a 40 km aqueduct for Jerusalem. This again caused much protest and many Jews were killed over this. (Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Pilate, Pontius. In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1694). Baker Book House.)
Needless to say, Pilate’s relationship with the Jews was a little tense, and they knew on Pilate's back was Emperor Tiberius who wanted peace in the area at all costs. If Pilate couldn’t keep the peace, he would be removed (and possibly executed). Eventually, in 36 AD Pilate would be dismissed due to his harsh treatment of an uprising in Samaria. A few years after that Pilate would commit suicide.
So Pilate has some problems. Pilate is situationally stuck between the Jewish leaders and Jesus, but also physically between them.
Today we will step through this story, looking at how each of the plans of the Jewish leaders, Pilate and Jesus worked out. There are sort of 3 rounds to this story, where Pilate tries to negotiate with the Jewish leaders, and we will see, that the Chief Priests weren’t in a barging mood.
So at the start, we see in verse 28 that the leaders didn’t want to enter Pilate's place as they didn’t want to defile themselves.
Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. (John 18:28 NIV)We see their moral compass is really pointing in the right place. These religious leaders who were scheming before daybreak to have an innocent person killed, didn’t want to be unclean as they wanted to celebrate their religious festival. They didn’t want to be contaminated by being in a Gentile unclean place, but they were more than happy to wait outside and negotiate how they could kill Jesus. Never mind the actual 10 commandments about giving false testimony, but their own made-up religious laws... well they couldn't break them. Their plan here is to stay clean while also trying to get Jesus killed by the Romans.
So in our story, the scene changes back and forth, with Pilate in between. The great ruler of this area is yo-yoed between the religious and Jesus. And at some point, Pilate is going to have to make a decision.
Round 1
Pilate is woken up and brought outside to hear that the religious rulers have found a criminal. Pilate asks what this criminal has done and all they say is “Trust us, he is a criminal, we swear”. Maybe at this point, the Jewish leaders thought Pilate would just go along with it and move on with his life, but for some reason, this morning Pilate isn’t in the mood to be that quick. Pilate takes Jesus inside and asks Jesus “Are you the king of the Jews”?
Jesus was put in a tricky position in answering this question about His kingship because at the time there were different notions of kingship.
The Jews had a future king, from the line of David who God had made many promises about, who would come and free them. This king was sometimes called “Messiah” or “Christ”. But Pilate doesn’t have that grid of thinking. He is just thinking about the Empire and if there is someone else who is claiming to be king in Emperor Tiberius backyard. If that is the case then that pretender will have to go.
Jesus changes the topic and says “Is that your own idea or are you just doing what others want?”
This is a real affront to Pilate's power and he probably knows it. This ruler who has the power of life and death, is being a pawn in someone else’s game. Pilate deflects and pushes back saying, “Your own people don’t like you, what did you do?” and Jesus says,
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36 NIV)Jesus puts his kingdom on another plain of existence than the Roman and Jewish world. He is an alien king (this concept was taken from D.A Carson). His subjects are unconcerned in this sphere of power. Jesus is clear, He actually isn’t an immediate threat to the empire, even though in 300 years Christianity would rule over it.
I wonder what Pilate would have been thinking at this time about who Jesus is. He had seen Kings and Emperors, he has seen criminals and rebels who would have loved to put a sword through him, but this guy, He is saying His kingdom isn’t from around here. He might be thinking Jesus is possibly mad? Insane maybe, this lowlife thinks he is some kind of King.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37 NIV)Jesus says his mission statement is to be a witness to the truth. That is Jesus' plan: he has come to show you the truth. Not just some abstract ideas that are correct, not just some facts about who He is historically, but who God is and the truth of salvation and judgement, and a way to integrate all that into life itself. So a good test case is if you are on the side of Jesus - do you listen to Him as the truth? Do you have a level of suspicion on who Jesus is and his words, that he is a phony or a liar, or: do you take Him at his words, that what he says is Gospel truth? How you answer that changes everything.
Jesus says He is the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). His truth, is the way to God and to life. To which Pilate ask, almost cynically, “What is truth?”.
Generally, those who ask “What is truth?” don’t really want an answer. They want to justify their own behaviour. Pilate probably thinks he is the one who has the power to say what truth is. At the time, there was no open media to investigate his actions, and no cameras to record what he had been up to. He had the power to kill people, legally. If he said someone was innocent then they were, if he said they were guilty then they were. The buck stopped with him. He could say what was true and if anyone objected they wouldn’t stand for very long - they would find themselves on the wrong side of Pilate's truth.
So this powerful leader goes back out to the Jewish leaders and says for the first time “I find no basis for a charge against him”. Jesus is innocent, there are no charges. But to meet them halfway, as sort of the negotiation point in this first round, Pilate offers to release Jesus. Let's say He is bad, but we can give him a pardon. Traditionally, around this festival, Pilate would release someone to boost morale. So he asked, probably a little sarcastically “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews?”
Jesus the Substitute
The leaders were having none of that, "no deal" they said. Instead, they call for Barabbas to be released. We are told Barabbas was a guy who had been involved in an uprising. This is crazy. Someone who has been convicted of actually rebelling against the empire is to be released in place of someone who is innocent. What is the truth here? The rebellious guilty is set free back into the kingdom he is fighting against, as a substitute for the one who says His kingdom is not even of this world.
This is topsy-turvy justice. It is grace for Barabbas the convicted, but not for Jesus the innocent. For those who know, this is a small snapshot of the Gospel, which is Jesus’ plan. Jesus dies as a substitute, not just for Barabbas, but for everyone who has rebelled against His Kingdom, His Father and His rule. Jesus takes the punishment for the sins of the world so that all who look to him can be saved. We get grace while Jesus took our just punishment. We are all in darkness, but He has come as the light, to save those who hear his voice. To all of us who say we can make up our own truth up as we go along, Jesus says, no - He is the Truth. He is the one we need to know so that we can know who we are and how we are to live.
Round 2
After Pilate sort of loses that first round and releases a terrorist back into the community. He then has Jesus flogged. And so the Roman guard has some fun with Jesus, praising him and dressing him up as a king. This was all done in brutal mockery.
For the second time, Pilate says to the Jewish leaders “I find no basis for a charge against him” and Jesus is then brought out on display all beaten and bloodied, with a robe and crown of thorns. The mighty Jesus is humiliated in front of everyone as a loser king. He is harmless to the Romans.
This is Pilate's second attempt at letting Jesus go. Pilate says “Look at him”. Pilate may have through this spectacle may show everyone that Jesus has been punished for whatever he did, and now that we have had our fun, we can all go home. This is Pilate's second round of meeting the leaders halfway, but that fails too. The Jewish leaders are headstrong on their plan, they are not going to negotiate, they want Jesus crucified. They start a chant “Crucify! Crucify!” and Pilate is at his wit's end.
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” (John 19:6 NIV)For the third time, Pilate says that Jesus is innocent. He is trying to avoid responsibility for Jesus, but the chants are growing stronger.
The Jewish leaders then say their own local law says Jesus has to die, for he is claiming to be the Son of God. To the Jewish leaders, Jesus is a liar. He is lying about himself and God, and so should be put to death. Pilate starts to get afraid, as he might be seeing how this is going to play out.
Round 3
The scene changes again back inside the palace. Pilate questions Jesus again, but this time Jesus is silent. He has been asked this before, so doesn't answer. Jesus is not defending Himself. He is probably the only peaceful one in all of this. The Jewish leaders are angry, Pilate is afraid and Jesus quiet, like a lamb about to be slaughtered.
After getting the silent treatment from Jesus, Pilate says
“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”Jesus doesn’t seem phased by this threat and points out the limit of power. Is Pilate's power his own making, or has it been given to him? The Emperor gave Pilate his power, but above them all is God - Jesus’s Father.
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. (John 19:10–11 NIV)
In the next verse, this battle of power and plans comes to ahead right here. This is the crux of everything colliding
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.” (John 19:12 NIV)Pilate after seeing Jesus, who was probably unlike any criminal he has met, for He was innocent, now wants to let Jesus go free. Pilate seemed to have been put off balance by Jesus, He was unlike anyone he had met. Jesus is facing his own death and is talking about truth and power and another kingdom, and not defending himself. And Pilate doesn’t want to touch this guy.
But the religious leaders pull out their trump card over Pilate. They point to the one who has power over him, not God but Caesar.
Jesus is a king. Delusional or a liar, but either way there can only be one king in the Roman Empire. To allow another king would be treason. Pilate has to squash this threat to keep order. The dominoes are starting to fall against Pilate. In this third round, Pilate loses to the religious leaders. Jesus is not set free, Jesus is sentenced to death.
In verse 13, Pilate sits down on the judgment seat over the one who will judge all people, and asks if he should kill their king, to which the chief priests say “We have no king but Caeser”.
“No king but Caeser”
This is an outlandish statement from these chief priests. The Jews before they had kings, considered God to be their king. And even after they had kings over them, they knew that God was the everlasting king. Throughout scripture this idea is repeated, here are just three:Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:10 NIV)
For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. (Psalm 47:7 NIV)
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. (Jeremiah 10:10 NIV)In the sentencing of Jesus as the King of the Jews, the chief priests put their alliance in Caeser. They force Pilate, who wanted to free this innocent man, to act in a way to support his own power base. So Pilate makes his decision. It is done, and so quickly Jesus is taken to be killed. But in one last quip Pilate puts a sign over Jesus, when He is lifted up, above Him it says in three different languages “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Jews.”
And it is true. Jesus is a King. Throughout all the mockery and beatings and questioning and people jostling for power, this was part of God’s plan. Pilate might have felt trapped by the religious leaders' plans. But all of their power was only delegated to them. God’s plan was that Jesus would die.
Jesus knew about this from the very beginning. This was mentioned earlier in our passage, did you catch it? In John 18:31-32
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. (John 18:31–32 NIV)At the start of this narrative, Jesus knew all along where the chips will fall. He had talked about this before. A few weeks ago, we looked way back at
John 3, when Jesus said:
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3:14–15 NIV)
and in chapter 8
Jesus knew He would be crucified and lifted up. This sentencing was no surprise. It was all part of the plan. The dominos started to fall long before the Roman Empire. 1,000 years before this, David writes in Ps 22 about being despised and rejected and scorned by all people. That people will gloat over him and divide his clothes by casting lots. All this happens, in this chapter of John.
God’s plan is bigger than these small-time local political players. All of this was so that when Jesus was lifted up people could see the King of the Jews. Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah to who the Chief Priests denied their alliance to. They could see Jesus, but they really couldn’t, this is because people prefer the darkness over the light and truth.
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. (John 8:28 NIV)and in chapter 12
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:32–33 NIV)
Jesus knew He would be crucified and lifted up. This sentencing was no surprise. It was all part of the plan. The dominos started to fall long before the Roman Empire. 1,000 years before this, David writes in Ps 22 about being despised and rejected and scorned by all people. That people will gloat over him and divide his clothes by casting lots. All this happens, in this chapter of John.
God’s plan is bigger than these small-time local political players. All of this was so that when Jesus was lifted up people could see the King of the Jews. Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah to who the Chief Priests denied their alliance to. They could see Jesus, but they really couldn’t, this is because people prefer the darkness over the light and truth.
Was He simply a moral teacher? For that to be true that means what He said was moral and truthful, if not He would be a liar and immoral. He said He was King and the only way to God.
Was Jesus just deluded? He didn’t know what He was doing, He didn’t have enough forethought to see things coming. Throughout this story, we see that Jesus is probably the only sane person. Pilate wanted to release Jesus but didn’t. The Chief Priests swear alliance to Caeser and not to their own God. In all of this, who is the one being consistent with their values?
C.S Lewis said in Mere Christianity (this is a long quote)
And people don’t want to think like this, to go against the crowd or to rethink their whole belief system. To follow an alien King means you will be alienated from the world, for your home and king will be from somewhere else.
But I hope you can see through all this, the truth is Jesus is Lord. He had all the power and allowed His own death, for He did not come to crush people who were in rebellion to Him, but to save them. He was the King who came to die for His subjects. He was crowned King on the cross to save the world. He was lifted up to save us from our sins. He died in our place so that we might have life.
So, behold, look to Jesus and you will be saved.
I’m now going to pray one of allegiance to Jesus as my king.
What are you going to do with Jesus?
So after all this, we are left in the same predicament as Pilate, what are you going to do with Jesus? What is the truth about Jesus?
Was He simply a moral teacher? For that to be true that means what He said was moral and truthful, if not He would be a liar and immoral. He said He was King and the only way to God.
Was Jesus just deluded? He didn’t know what He was doing, He didn’t have enough forethought to see things coming. Throughout this story, we see that Jesus is probably the only sane person. Pilate wanted to release Jesus but didn’t. The Chief Priests swear alliance to Caeser and not to their own God. In all of this, who is the one being consistent with their values?
C.S Lewis said in Mere Christianity (this is a long quote)
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.So what are you going to do with Jesus? Not just in some abstract way but in a real personal knowing way, and I must warn you, there is a cost. Pilate saw the cost, he would have had to have gone against the crowd if he had gone through with his convictions. The Jewish leaders had a cost. If they did see Jesus as the Son of God and not lying about it, that would have had to change their whole system of belief about life and God.
And people don’t want to think like this, to go against the crowd or to rethink their whole belief system. To follow an alien King means you will be alienated from the world, for your home and king will be from somewhere else.
But I hope you can see through all this, the truth is Jesus is Lord. He had all the power and allowed His own death, for He did not come to crush people who were in rebellion to Him, but to save them. He was the King who came to die for His subjects. He was crowned King on the cross to save the world. He was lifted up to save us from our sins. He died in our place so that we might have life.
So, behold, look to Jesus and you will be saved.
I’m now going to pray one of allegiance to Jesus as my king.
Lord God, we confess we have longed for our own way and our own supremacy, and we are ashamed. Forgive my disobedience, and for ruling my own life my own way. Help me to see that Jesus’ death was offered up to pay for my rebellion. Oh Lord God, I trust Jesus, and I want to bow before His lordship and know this alien King as mine. Receive me for Jesus’ sake, Amen. (Prayer adapted from D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Death of an Alien King (John 18:28-19:22)))
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