Behold, Your King

Opening

There’s a mini-series streaming on Hulu called Shogun - it’s based on a book written by James Clavell in 1975, there was another mini-series that aired in 1980 based on the book as well). The story is set in feudal Japan, in the early 1600’s. It’s a clash of cultures, as one of the main characters, John Blackthorne, and a few of his crew are the first men from Britain to find their way to Japan - some time after the Portuguese and Spaniards.

The central conflict in the story has to do with who will rule in Japan - the Shogun, the main leader has passed away and his son is too young to rule. The five regional lords are vying for power. What’s striking about the story is to watch how clash in cultures between the Europeans and the Japanese, each considering the other to be savages.

The Japanese are very orderly and hierarchical, honor is a high value for them. In a scene in the first episode, one of the five lord’s followers feels his lord has been dishonored by the other four, falsely accused. He bursts out in anger at this grave offense, drawing his sword, anticipating his lord and others to join him in defending the honor of his lord. But he has made a tragic mistake, his lord recognizes that this is not the time for outbursts. However, the brash follower has now dishonored the other lords, and for that, he must be punished.

The punishment is severe and brutal - he is forced to put to death his very own son, a mere infant. That is the price for his sin - the son unwittingly and unwillingly gives his life for the sin of the father. The whole thing is terribly twisted - the punishment seems far too egregious for a brash act of dishonoring a lord. What kind of master would demand innocent blood be shed to pay for the sins of another?

The story serves as a stark contrast to what we want to remember tonight - the sacrificial death of Jesus.

On Sunday, we looked at Jesus’ trial before Pilate, tonight I want to pick up where we left off, just to recap a bit - John 3:13-16 (ESV)

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic, Gabbatha.  Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”  They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”  So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

The political struggle plays out and Pilate finally relents and hands Jesus over to be crucified. I want to call your attention to how Pilate brings Jesus before the Jews. Previously, after he had had Jesus flogged, and they had draped the purple robe over him and placed the crown of thorns on his head, mocking him as the so-called King of the Jews, he presented him before the crowd by declaring, “Here is the man!” Behold, the man.

This time, however, Pilate is seeking to mock the Jews. He does not appreciate that the Jewish leaders have put him in this spot where he feels forced to condemn an innocent man to be executed in order to stave off a potential revolt. So he presents Jesus to them as their king. “Here is your king”, he says - or Behold, your king.

Of course Pilate does not believe he is a king, at least not in any sense that he would understand it. And the Jews make clear their rejection of him as their king.

But one of the things that makes the gospels ring so true for me is seeing these unexpected ways that God reveals his truth to us. Pilate unwittingly declares what God wants us to see - This is your king. Behold him. This is the Lord you are to honor and embrace and hold full allegiance to. As foolish as the Japanese follower may have been, he knew what it meant to give himself over completely to his lord. Tonight I want us to take some time to look at Jesus, to do what God, through Pilate, instructs us to - Behold, your king.

Behold, Your King

John 19:16-30...So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So the soldiers carry out the sentence. Jesus must carry the crossbeam to which he will be nailed as he makes his way through the city of Jerusalem, down the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows, until they reach the outskirts of the city. There Jesus, along with two others, are crucified.

We see another instance of God’s truth revealed in the sign that Pilate has affixed above Jesus’ head, proclaiming that this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, much to the chagrin of the chief priests. It’s written in three different languages - Aramaic, Latin and Greek. So no matter who you were at that time, you would know, this is Jesus, this is the King.

The soldiers divide Jesus’ remaining possessions - his clothing, that’s literally all he has, the clothes on his back - and now, not even that. So divide the clothing amongst themselves, casting lots for the undergarment, just as it was prophesied in Psalm 22. Jesus honors his mother by directing John, his disciple, to care for her.

Everything was now taken care of, the moment had come. Jesus, the one who offers the gift of living water declares his thirst. The soldiers provide him with a sponge full of wine vinegar. After taking the drink Jesus declares his final words, “It is finished.” With that, he bows his head and gives up his spirit.

The Greek word for “It is finished” is tetelestai. When Jesus declares this, he is proclaiming that the Scriptures have now been fulfilled. Everything that God has promised in regards to our salvation has been made complete. All the way back to Genesis, when Adam and Eve first turned away from God and the curse of sin came upon us, and death entered in. But now - Behold your king. The king who has taken this death upon himself.

I hope in this moment you see what how incredibly different our King is. Now it was definitely an extreme example, but the Japanese follower - he sinned, having dishonored those lords - and as a result he had to pay a terrible price, he had to give up the life of his son. But the gospel, the good news, is that God flips that script.

Here, we are ones who sinned. We dishonored God. But instead of us having to bear the terrible price (or worse, our children), our Lord, our King, willingly offers his life on our behalf. He does the unimaginable. He bears the cost of sin. Of all sin, for all time. It is finished, tetelestai - all is fulfilled.

Honestly, it’s hard to even begin to imagine what that means to say, that Jesus bore all of our sins on the cross. The collective sin of humanity, put all at once, on Jesus. All the ways we rejected God, all the evil we’ve committed - all the evil we’re still committing. Isaiah 53:6 - We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

It started in the very beginning, first two humans, Adam & Eve. Last year we spent a lot of time going through the first five books of the Bible, no shortage of evil committed - Cain & Abel, world so full of wickedness God chose to destroy it with a flood, Sodom & Gomorrah, Israelites’ own continual rebellion against God. And that common connection between humans - sin, continues today.

Sins of the Islamic terrorists in Russia who went into the concert hall in Moscow with the full intent of just killing as many people as they could. And they did - by setting off explosions, setting the building on fire, and then shooting the people inside with machine guns.

Sins of two young Americans who decided to become squatters, moving into a New York City apartment whose occupant had recently died. Her daughter came to check on the apartment, which led to a confrontation and the two squatters bludgeoning her do death. They stuffed her body in a duffel bag and left it in the apartment while they stole her car and drove off - only getting caught when they crashed the vehicle.

Sins of Mexican cartels - besides engaging in sex trafficking and fentanyl smuggling, apparently that wasn’t enough - now they are engaged in scamming the elderly - through fake timeshare investments. Those are just a few isolated stories from the last few weeks highlighting some of the atrocities that happen every single day, all over the world. Atrocities that Jesus bore on the cross. All of it, tetelestai, it is finished.

Easy to look at those terrible, evil acts - but we would missing that to embrace this man on the cross is to be embrace him as our king, and the sins he paid the price for are our sins.

I think about my pride, my impatience, my pettiness that arose this week when another substitute teacher this week felt the need to explain to me everything she thought I needed to know for the day. Who does she think she is?!

I was listening to a sermon recently and the minister was describing how often, particularly in dealing with people with whom we disagree or are uncomfortable around, we act more out of fear than love. One of those moments where that immediate sense of conviction hits - yep, that’s me. I often act more out of fear than love.

Behold, your king - as he hangs upon the cross, bearing the sins of Adam & Eve, Cain, the Israelites, those four Russian terrorists, those two teen squatters, and you and me. All of them.

We’ve been talking a lot about the Magnificent Kingdom, and how it displays God’s truth, his beauty, his goodness. Tonight I want you to see goodness of our King. His victory over sin and evil comes not by force or destruction, but by love, by sacrificial love. The King of the Jews, hanging on a cross - this is for us. That our debt might be paid, in full. That we would not have to suffer the punishment ourselves, but rather, might experience the life, the goodness, our King longs for us to know.

Behold, your king.