King on the cross

John 19:16-30

Good morning friends! It is wonderful to be with you all this morning, and continue our time of fellowship and focus on the passion week of our Lord Jesus.

We’ve had a beautiful time reflecting on the triumphal entry of Jesus as he comes into Jerusalem for the last time before being lifted up on the cross. John true to form in his gospel account skips over some of the details that has been covered by the synoptic gospels rather focusing more intentionally on the prophetic fulfillment taking place in Jesus words and actions, pointing all to see that this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah King, who will save all who believe and trust in him from the stranglehold of sin and death.

In chapter 12:15 we are directed to the prophet’s words in Zechariah 9:9 where we read “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Much like Solomon, son of king David ceremoniously rode into a city as an act of kingship to be crowned the successor of the kingdom; here the ultimate promised son of David enters the holy city to receive his crown and kingdom...Jesus, the true king, come at last to set his people free! Yet as we shift our attention forward to another procession, it might seem that this was a king and a kingdom that was trampled down before it even began...was this how it was supposed to go? This is the focus of our study this morning, indeed the focus of the Easter week. I’m going to invite brother Matt to read to us the passage.

John 19:16-30

2,000 years ago the procession of a king took place through the city of Jerusalem. History had witnessed many a king and many a procession through the ages, whether it be in conquest, in coronation, or celebration. Power, prosperity and peace were the hallmarks of a great ruler who led his people forward with strength and authority. Etched in the pillar-stones of the nations were stories of great successes, or dreadful disasters...most often accredited to the one sitting on the throne of that kingdom.

And here was yet another one of those processions on this fateful day. But there was something markedly different about this scene. The previous procession on Palm Sunday had set the stage for this event. ‘Behold, your king is coming’ the words still echoing from Jesus triumphal entry, and now Pilate’s verdict has just triggered this procession back out of the city with the words: ‘Behold, here is your king.’ Jesus was indeed a king...a notice authorized by Pilate himself made that clear. A crown was planted on his head, and only moments before he had worn the robes of royalty.

Yet in a cruel and shameful twist this king is being paraded not to a throne, but to a cross. The crown he wears is no crown of honour, no this crown is an object of great suffering, and draws mockery from the mob. This king has been stripped of his robes, revealing the aftermath of a flogging that has rendered him unrecognizable. And as this king is lifted up, he is not surrounded on each side by his most trusted subjects...no, his closest companions are instead thieves and murderers.

Is this truly the king promised to save his people from bondage? Is this truly the Messiah prophesied by the ancient writers and prophets, who would establish his kingdom forever on earth? John invites us to the foot of the cross to consider these very questions...in fact the whole focus of his message throughout his Gospel is to bring us to this scene here, the climax of human history, to consider and reconcile how this king impacts the destination of each and every one of our lives.

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked this critical question of his disciples as he instructed them in the ways of the kingdom of God. This question has been asked of countless generations since and is the single most important question one must answer. The irony of Pilate’s answer to this question, fixed above the head of the Lord on the cross, cannot be missed. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Oh the truth of such a statement. Yet we have no reason to think he actually believed that any more than the chief priests and his accusers did. No, Pilate had been insulted and blackmailed by the religious elite and he was going to get his vengeance on them by this proclamation. You have no king but Caesar you say? Let me show you what that looks like. Oh he was going to drive that dagger deep into their hearts!

Yet despite his own potential reasons for the statement above the cross, Pilate’s inscription was a divine proclamation that served God’s ends. The Lord Jesus is indeed Israel’s Messiah King; And despite the scourges and humiliation on the cross, this was the very means of his exaltation and establishing his kingdom. The fact that the notice was written in multiple languages so all could read it also served as a symbol of the kingship of Jesus to the whole world. This wasn’t just the redeemer of Israel, but all creation. As John takes us through this scene he calls the readers and listeners to see this truth...Jesus is the King of the Jews, the promised Messiah.

We then come back to the foot of the cross.

John speaks few words describing the horror taking place in this hour, nor does he need to...but he calls us to consider what is happening at Jesus feet in the midst of his suffering. Stripped of all his garments, the soldiers divide them up with each other and seeing his tunic woven as one piece, they gamble to find out who gets the trophy of the man they have just nailed to a tree.

Oh the weight of this scene. I wrestled with this image so much. It speaks of humanity’s insatiable tendency to seek one’s own gain, at the expense of others. It speaks of the triviality in which we so easily go about life...seeking the next pleasure, the next entertainment that can distract us from reality. It speaks of what humanity through the ages has done to the Creator of the world whenever given the chance, that is, turn our backs on him.

It also caused me to consider another scene. The other time when human nakedness and shame was present with a tree was with Adam and Eve’s failure in the garden of Eden all the way back in Genesis. Perhaps that is part of the picture we can reflect on here. In the incredible paradox of God’s kingdom the very scene that brought shame and death into the world is now being played out in reverse to bring about salvation and new creation. While humanity clutched for autonomy and wisdom apart from God that ultimately exposed the nakedness and shame of our own souls, here is God incarnate, hanging naked on a cursed tree, enduring unspeakable suffering and shame for us, that we might have restoration in Him.

John is quick to point out again the prophetic nature of what he witnessed and casts us back to Psalm 22,

(Psalm 22:16–18 “Because dogs have surrounded me; a gang of evildoers has encircled me. Like the lion they are at my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; they gaze, they look at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”)

A powerful and moving Psalm speaking of a suffering servant; containing not only the verses of having his garments stripped from him and gambled away, but of Jesus own cry on the cross that we see in the other gospels… ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

This scene gives us much reason to pause and ask ourselves this question: Am I gambling at the foot of the cross?

Are we pursuing things of the world, gambling away our time and focus at the foot of the cross? Are we leaving our eyes unprotected, are we allowing temptation and entertainment to consume our minds and hearts in such a way that we are found gambling at the foot of the cross? Are we yet to believe and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, clinging to our self as god, and gambling our very life at the foot of the cross?

Boy did that convict my heart...perhaps it convicts you in different ways. I want to encourage and urge you to a new reality though. Rather than gamble at the foot of the cross of Jesus let us humble OURSELVES and lay these burdens, these temptations, our own lives at the foot of the cross instead...allowing the saving work of Jesus on that cross to flip the script in our lives, that we might be washed clean by the blood of Jesus sacrifice, and ushered in to the kingdom of God, to be a part and to play a part in his new creation!

So Jesus has given up every last thread of possessions for the sake of the world, and we are then drawn to a few faithful witnesses observing no doubt with despair the suffering and death of their Lord most dear to them. And it is here we see the tenderness of Jesus even in this moment of horror and darkness. His care for his mother and the beloved disciple who we believe is John, still a very young man at this time, is a timeless reminder of the care and compassion of our Lord in our lives; how even in the darkest of days he draws near, provides a peace and refuge in the midst of the storm, and calls us to do that for one another just as he has commanded these two followers here. We cast our minds back to Jesus words back in John 13:34 ““A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another—just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” This commandment right on the heels of the words he spoke in John 13:33 “Children, yet a little time I am with you. You will seek me and just as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ now I say also to you.””

Here indeed was that moment of departure, and just as he has given up all he possesses, he now releases his closest human relationships, in preparation to hand over one final thing, that being life itself.

Today a similar call goes out to us. As Christ’s disciples we are called to love one another sacrificially, in the same way that Christ loves us. Just as it was for Mary and John so for us it is both a great responsibility and blessing to express who we are in Christ as we care for, sacrifice and serve one another for the building up of his kingdom, and the glory of his name.

As the curtain is about to be drawn on Jesus earthly life it feels almost as if John is reaching far and wide to bring all these threads, prophecies and signs together to these final moments on the cross. At this final stanza of agony we see shafts of light shining through as John testifies of Jesus declaration that all is completed, and on the cusp of death he could cry out a cry of victory, not of despair. Jesus statement of ‘I am thirsty’ is both profound and yet totally expected. The irony of these words is evident. Here is the one who quenches all thirst and yet he cries ‘I am thirsty’. Yet similar to the crown of thorns and royal robe John is pointing us to the suffering king and saying, ‘This is what must happen, this is how Jesus must do what only he could do.’ He must come to the place where we all are, the place of thirst, of shame, of death. This is fulfillment of scripture, and yes this is the glory of God revealed to a lost world.

We are reminded of the first sign in chapter 2 where Jesus turned water into the best of wine. Here he is offered the poor sour wine of the soldiers. That they lift the sponge to him with a hyssop branch itself draws ones mind to the first Passover where the blood of the lamb was spread on the door posts of a home with a hyssop branch so that death would pass over that household. Here the Perfect Lamb was giving up his own life, that his blood might cover the doorposts of our hearts if we believe, that the power of death would ultimately pass over and we find life eternal in God’s kingdom.

Throughout the Gospel John has carefully woven signs by which Jesus revealed his glory and displayed glimpses of what the kingdom of God would look like. Six signs have taken place leading up to this moment, just like the six days of creation in Genesis, and now John is inviting us to see the completion of the new creation here on the cross as the seventh sign, where Jesus, the Word who became flesh, the one through whom all things were made, the very glory of God who tabernacled among his people... can now say it is finished...all that the Father had given him to do was complete.

When on holidays earlier in the year I listened to an audio-book of a favorite story I read in my younger years. The book is called the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel.’ Set in the depths of the French Revolution when thousands of men, women and children were being executed at the guillotine in the middle of Paris, France. The main character in this story is a mysterious Englishman who along with a select few companions goes into the heart of this destruction and death and plucks people almost from the mouth of the guillotine itself and delivers them to a new life across the channel to England. And on each daring escapade he would leave a note for his opponents, bragging of who he had stolen from their clutches. It was sealed with the sign of a Scarlet Pimpernel, a small red flower of his native country. For those he rescued, he was the greatest of heroes...to his enemies, he was the vilest of criminals.

Friends, there was a king who left his throne, left his kingdom to come to earth, a kingdom cursed with oppression and death, a kingdom ruled by the evil one and all loyal to him. This king shined light into the dark chaos of a fallen creation, and revealed life and hope for all who would turn and follow him. In a seemingly cruel twist of the story this king is arrested, condemned and nailed to a cross for the world to see. Yet this king willingly took on the powers of darkness and bore the weight of the sins of the world on that cross...and the very thing that seemed a most crushing defeat, was in fact the greatest victory. This king’s name is Jesus. And he has conquered sin, death and the power of evil...he has ushered in a new kingdom, a new creation. And whenever a man, woman or child declares loyalty to this king...the evil one sees a note, stamped with the blood of Jesus Christ, declaring this child is mine and has chosen life in my kingdom.

The thieves on either side of Jesus on the cross are a strong message to all of us. You have a choice. You have a choice. Chose life, or chose death...who do you say Jesus is? Please, please don’t gamble at the foot of the cross...choose life...choose Jesus!