Are You A King?

Introduction

Illustration: The Crown

Now someone claiming to be King is a big deal. Someone claiming to be YOUR king is an even bigger deal. What does it mean if someone claims to be your king? It means they are claiming complete authority over your life. Now we live in the post revolutionary world where even though we have a King he doesn’t have the same level of authority that Kings used to have, but we’ve all read books and seen movies, right? We know the kind of power and authority Kings exercised over their subjects.

So the fact that Jesus was being accused of claiming to be a King is a big deal, especially in a nation where there was already an emperor and a King in authority. This is what they call treason or sedition. Usually that sort of thing carries the death penalty. This is why the Jewish people are accusing Jesus of claiming to be King in the first place. So they bring Him to Pilate to accuse Him of treason so that the governor will have reason to execute Him. Let’s see how this goes as we read the last section of chapter 18 and the first 16 verses of chapter 19.

John 18:28–19:16 CSB

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They answered him, “If this man weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” Pilate told them, “You take him and judge him according to your law.” “It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death,” the Jews declared. They said this so that Jesus’s words might be fulfilled indicating what kind of death he was going to die. Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?” “I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” “You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” “What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him. You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face. Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.” “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer. So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?” “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!” When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!” They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered. Then he handed him over to be crucified. Then they took Jesus away.

Now a lot goes on in these passages, but in my study I came to the conclusion that this narrative really stood together. The question is, what does the Bible have to teach us in this moment? What do we learn by observing Jesus’ trial before Pilate? As usual I chose to focus on three particular lessons we can draw from this moment. First, we see that the crowds choosing Barabbas over Jesus illustrates a human tendency to choose anger and violence instead of the way of patience and trusting God’s plan. Secondly we see from Pilate the danger of giving in to peer pressure when we are afraid of the crowds. Finally we see from Jesus the nature of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom of truth ruled by the true King.

Barabbas vs Jesus

Illustration: Anyone who’s done any gardening knows the pain of dealing with weeds. Katie and I are frugal gardeners, so we’ve used horse manure a few years in a row now, which we get for free. The trouble is that a horse doesn’t digest as well as some other animals, so the seeds of weeds tend to make it in tact, thus meaning you end up with a lot of weeds in your garden. This year I didn’t get around to weeding right away and things got really out of control. At one point I was using the weedwhacker to clean between the rows and I decided to try and trim some of the weeds around the tamato plants. How well do you suppose that went? It didn’t work very well. I couldn’t get very close to the tomato plants to trim around them without damaging them, and even if I did the weeds would still be there and would regrow.

Often times in life we are tempted to try and do things the quick and messy way instead of doing things the slow and correct way. Whether that be from impatience, inexperience, or even anger, it usually just makes the situation worse, not better. When we observe these kinds of situations from the outside it can be easy to shake our head at people and say they should have been more patient, but that can be harder when you’re in the midst of it.

Take Israel for example. They were God’s chosen people, but the same covenant that made them God’s people also gave them requirements to live up to God’s standard, which they failed to keep. So they lost control of their Kingdom to other nations, eventually falling under Roman control by the time Jesus comes around. All along God promised that it wouldn’t be forever, that He had a plan involving a chosen one, the Messiah, who would save His people.

Then about 400 years passed with no word from God. It’s sort of understandable that by this point the people would be impatient. That doesn’t make acting out of this impatience right, but it does make it relatable. So many people tried to take things into their own hands.

One such person was named Barabbas. Now interestingly enough, some of the earliest copies of Matthew have his name as “Jesus Barabbas,” meaning that he had the same first name as, well, Jesus the Christ. This isn’t that surprising, given that Jesus’ Hebrew name, Yeshua, was actually very common at the time. Hence why they almost never just call Him Jesus, but always Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus Christ, etc.

But wait, there’s more. The name “Barabbas” is a compound name, from bar meaning “son of” and “abbas” meaning a father or the father. So this guy was quite posibbly named “Jesus, son of the father.” Isn’t that an interesting possible parallel?

So where does this Barabbas differ from Jesus Christ? When Pilate asked Jesus if He was King, what did He say about His kingdom? He said in verse 36

John 18:36 CSB

“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

His kingdom is not of this world, so His servants don’t fight. I don’t know if you know much about Kingdoms, but most of them fight. In fact most Kingdoms in the world were founded in acts of war. Including of course, Rome. And Barabbas was no stranger to this. John calls him a revolutionary, but the other gospels fill in a bit more of the picture, calling him an insurrectionist and a murderer. In other words this man Barabbas had attempted to violently overthrow the Roman government violently. So in some ways though they have similarities, Barabbas represents the opposite of what Jesus does. Revolution by violent force.

So given the choice between these two men who want to be King, who do you suppose the Jewish leaders would choose? Well we don’t have to wonder do we, because Pilate actually gave them that exact choice. Let’s read verses 39 to 40.

John 18:39–40 CSB

You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

SO in effect they were given a choice between violence and peaceful surrender to God’s plan and they chose violence. Now obviously this didn’t derail God’s plan. In fact despite their best efforts this actually fulfilled God’s plan, yet the point remains that they made it clear what their preference is. The same that many of us choose when we’re given the choice between the right way and the angry way.

It can be easy to get upset. Especially in an age where we are more than ever confronted with the opinions and actions of people who think differently than us. And our angry reactions to these things mean that it’s profitable to try and show us things that make us angry as much as possible, in this terrible feedback loop of rage and reactionary thinking.

What if Jesus’ way is more patient than that? What if He wants us to meet anger with forgiveness? What if when we don’t understand someone we should talk with them and pray for them instead of thinking of them as the enemy? What if we need to trust that even if the wheels of history don’t seem to be turning our way that God is in control and He has a plan?

Don’t believe me? What did Jesus say we should do when people hit us, make fun of us, and make themselves our enemies? Matthew 5:38-48

Matthew 5:38–48 CSB

“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus went first to the cross. He allowed them to strike Him over and over again without resistance. Remember, this is Jesus. He could have stopped any of this if He wanted to. But He didn’t. And He gave them His clothes, all of them. He walked miles with His cross. He gave His life to those who asked it of Him. And He loved His enemies by dying for their sins, and asking God to forgive them.

He asks us to do the same.

Caving to the Crowd

Illustration: Often in science they are doing experiments to prove things we already know. Like how susceptible we can be to peer pressure. There was a study called the Asch Conformity Line Experiment, where to make a long story short they would put a regular person with a group of seven actors and ask them to answer a really simple question about which two lines in two pictures had the same length. When the actors all intentionally gave the same wrong answer, can you guess what happened? Most of the time, the person who wasn’t the actor would also give the wrong answer.

But like I said, we already knew this, right? All the adults in this room have been teenagers, and some of you have parented teenagers. And it’s not like social pressure goes away after the teen years, it’s just especially obvious. It’s hard to go against the crowd.

What you probably can’t relate to, I hope, it a situation where going against the crowd might destroy your whole life. That’s the situation that Pilate found himself in when he was putting Jesus on trial. Why do I say that? Well let’s take a look at a few verses from our passage. After his first interview with Jesus we read this from Pilate, John 18:38

John 18:38 CSB

“What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him.

After this the Jewish leadership still insists on Jesus being punished so Pilate tries to offer to free Him as a part of celebrating a passover tradition they’ve held of freeing prisoners. This is actually clever, because it would be a way of pronouncing Jesus guilty to satisfy their accusation while also allowing Him to go free. But they choose Barabbas instead. So Pilate has Jesus beaten and says again in John 19:4

John 19:4 CSB

Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.”

and when they insist on having Him killed Pilate says in John 19:6

John 19:6 CSB

When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.”

Finally when the Jewish leaders tell Pilate that Jesus claims to be the Son of God and Jesus claims to have authority from heaven, we read this in verse 12, John 19:12

John 19:12a CSB

From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him.

So it seems pretty clear from John’s account that Pilate didn’t believe that Jesus was guilty of treason and deserved to die. Yet we know how this story ends, don’t we. Jesus was crucified after all, and the ancient creeds mention Pilate’s name from the earliest days of the church as the one who crucified Him.

So why did he do it? Why did Pilate act against his conscious and against Justice? Because of the repeated pressure from the crowds. Their constant demands for Jesus’ death, coming to a head in the second half of verse 12,

John 19:12b

John 19:12b CSB

But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”

Their threat to accuse Pilate of opposing Caesar was a serious one. It could cause him to be deposed at best, and at worst he might be put to death for treason. So in the face of danger and peer pressure Pilate did the same thing we’re all tempted to do. He caved.

Let’s be honest, we can’t say we don’t understand. But that doesn’t make what he did right. Jesus says that he has the lesser sin, but that still means he’s sinning. He’s putting the Son of God to death, and even if he doesn’t grasp that whole situation fully, he at least knows he’s putting an innocent man to death. In fact in Luke we even find out that his wife warned him about Jesus being a righteous man from prophetic dreams she had.

So Pilate is without excuse. It’s hard, but God calls us to stand up even when the crowd is against us. Even if everyone else around us is doing what is wrong, we are called to live in the light and follow God’s way.That’s what Jesus did, facing His death in the face of immense pressure to compromise. It’s what most of the disciples went on to do. Any time we are pressured to follow the crowd we have an opportunity to stand up for Jesus instead. Will we be like Pilate when that moment comes, or will we stand for what is right?

The King of Truth

Illustration: What makes you a citizen of a Kingdom? What makes you a subject of a King? The most obvious answer of course is being born in that particular Kingdom. As someone born in Canada I am a Canadian Citizen and technically a subject of King Charles. You can immigrate to a new Kingdom, but to do so you’d be moving to the territory of that Kingdom at the very least.

That’s how things work in an earthly Kingdom, anyway. Citizenship based on place and family of birth. You could also be made a citizen of a new Kingdom if a King took over the place you lived, or you could even help a King come to power over the place that you live.

But Jesus told Pilate, as we’ve already discussed, that His Kingdom is not of this world. So what makes someone a citizen of His Kingdom? What makes someone a subject to Jesus as King? Well let’s zoom in a little bit on what Jesus says in John 18:36-37

John 18:36–37 CSB

“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” “You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

So what is the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom, according to Jesus? Well it doesn’t come about the way that earthly Kingdoms do. He has no intention of overthrowing other Kings by force, and His subjects are not those born or living in a certain place. His Kingdom is the Kingdom of truth, and His subjects are those who are “of the truth.”

Now this isn’t to lessen Jesus’ claim to Kingship. I’m not sure if Pilate understood this, but this is actually a huge claim to power and authority. Jesus isn’t just the King of the Jews. He’s King of all those who are of the truth. That means that anyone from any nation, tribe, or language, can be a subject of Jesus as King. The one thing that connects them is to being of the truth.

What does it mean to be of the truth? This might sound kind of roundabout, but it means to be in Jesus. He called Himself the Truth afterall. To be ‘of the truth’ doesn’t mean just being honest or sincere. It means belonging to Jesus, who is the Truth. His Word is truth. His Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

That is because in a world full of lies, the Word of God is truth. He is our firm foundation, and if we believe in and follow Him than we are citizens of the Kingdom of Truth. And anyone else who comes to believe in Him can be a part of this Kingdom also.

So my friends, if we are to be Jesus’ followers we must live by the truth. The Best way to do that is to build our lives on God’s word. We need to know our Bible so well that we can confidently live according to its ways. Jesus used Scripture to defend against the attacks of the devil in the temptation, and we are called on to do the same. When confronted with other claims to truth we need to stay loyal to our King and His Kingdom.

That way if we live differently from the world around us, testing its claims against scripture, refusing to compromise how God calls us to live, and testifying to the gospel that we have received, people will see that we are citizens of a different Kingdom, and we can invite them to join us there.

Conclusion

It’s funny to think that from Pilate’s perspective, Jesus was the one on trial here. We see things a little differently on the other side of the cross and the empty tomb, don’t we? We see that really it was the rest of us on trial at the crucifixion of Jesus. In this trial with Pilate we can see the ways our fallen nature make us fail, and how Jesus’ divine nature makes Him the true savior of us all. Where the Israelites chose the revolutionary of force and violence over the true Messiah who taught submission and peace and trusting God’s will. We see in Pilate the man who caved to pressure even though he knew what the right thing to do was in that moment. And we see Jesus, who shows us what it means to fully submit to God’s Will. What it means to stand for the right thing even if it costs everything. And what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Truth.

So when we consider this Jesus, let us consider ourselves in comparison to Him. How are we like Him? In what ways do we fall short? That can help us set our goal for Christlikeness, and then the Spirit of God can help us actually become like Him. Because at the end of the day we can’t live up to God’s call on our lives without the Spirit’s help. So let us be people not only of God’s Word but of God’s Spirit, growing in our discipleship every day by the power of God.

Let’s pray.