Joel M Bradshaw

19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”–John 19

Pondering this morning why the religious leaders had an issue with Jesus being King. I mean, they just orchestrated him being crucified. Why the issue with what was on the sign?

1. There was the simple matter of ethnicity. The Romans were the Gentile overlords who had conquered the Jewish people.
2. With that was the realization that their King and hope was dead at the hands of evil Rome.
3. Maybe that very realization was convicting to them.
4. God once promised King David (2 Samuel 7) that he would have a son on the throne. And that God would be with him.
5. The people longed for the “anointed one” or Messiah and wondered if each new king in David’s line was indeed that promised one.
6. Throughout the Gospels, the people treated Jesus as if he fulfilled that promise. They even called Him, Son of David.
7. And they put that king, THE KING, on the cross!–JMB