The King of the Cross

The King of the Cross: An Exposition of Luke 23:33-43 We live today in a world mostly without monarchs. And the ones we have, like Queen Elizabeth II, have mostly ceremonial roles. Yet in the deep recesses of the mind we have the image of them in our historical consciousness. Many children dream of being a prince or princess, and many adults desire the power of being king or queen. So the term “king” here is still relevant. We can all think of the power and privilege of the king, whether we agree with monarchies or not. We imagine great palaces, fine clothes, courtesans, sycophants fawning for power, jesters and the like. But it is very hard to imagine a king on a cross. This is an ultimate oxymoron. But this is the picture that is painted of the crucifixion of Jesus. The Romans would not have crucified Jesus for some infraction of the Jewish Law. But treason was another thing. The Jewish authorities knew that they had to fasten this charge to Jesus in order to get Jesus crucified. Pilate may have been told about this beforehand, but when he actually saw Jesus, he did not perceive him as being a threat to him or to Rome. But the uprising of the crowd shouting for the crucifixion of Jesus was a threat. He was there to keep the peace as a representative of Rome. To allow things to get out of control would put him in severe jeopardy before the Emperor. Reposts of Pilate’s previous issues with the Jewish people already made his grip on power shaky. When the Jews finally confessed that Caesar was their only king and that Pilate would be an enemy of Caesar by letting Jesus live, he relented and condemned Jesus to be crucified. See Jesus given mock homage as a king, beaten and scourged, and led out to crucifixion, a king so weak that Simon has to finish carrying the cross to Calvary. Observe the sight of The daughters of Jerusalem celebrating Jesus the king’s coronation with loud wails as he goes by wearing the glorious crown especially made for Him out of thorns. Come see Him fastened to His throne where Jesus is crucified between two robbers, who were probably the accomplices of Barabbas, who would have been the occupant of the cross in the center, the cross of honor, as the ringleader of the attempted overthrow of Rome. He would have had the honors of being a king that day were it not for the fact the crowd rejected Barabbas of such an honor and instead asked for King Jesus. O what glorious mockery! All of the Gospels record the title which Pilate put over the cross. Luke records it: “This is the King of the Jews.” The Jews did not like this, for they knew that it was as much a mockery of them as it was Jesus. They tried to get it changed, but they could not. Whether they knew it or not, this was the King of the Jews hanging on the cross, and much more. See how they pay homage to their king! They sneer at Him and mock Him by telling Him to come down from the cross. The soldiers also Him. Little do they know that in 300 years, Rome would at least in appearance bow the knee before Jesus Christ. But now they mocked this miserable king on a cross. And even before the day was spent, one of them, a Centurion, would acknowledge Jesus as truly being the Son of God and not Caesar. Jesus was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and not Caesar. As if the physical pain of the cross was not enough, and neither was the hateful scorn of the Jews and Romans, the robbers on the cross mocked Him. What a macabre spectacle! It was not unusual for crucified victims to cry out curses from their pain. They would curse anybody and everybody. The people would curse back and spit at them. The very fact the victims acted as animals was proof that they were malefactors who deserved such punishment. In the case of a conspiracy, they would especially curse their leader who led them to such torture. Did they think they were cursing Barabbas? Strangely enough, one of them saw something amiss. Why did the King of the Cross not curse those who were cursing Him back like they were? This was indeed odd behavior. Not only this, but He forgave them for what they did. Outlandish! Jesus was not following the devilish script. Even though He was in the same awful pain as they were, as only someone who is being crucified can understand. By the grace of God, one of them put two and two together. Surely this King of the Jews must be innocent as He was not acting the part of a wounded beast. Perhaps he looked at the King of the Cross and realized it wasn’t Barabbas. Even in His ordeal, He maintained His composure. He was ruling from the cross as much as He is now ruling in Heaven. When the other robber mocked Him by saying that if Jesus was truly the Messiah that He would save himself and them, the other responded by rebuking him. “Don’t you know we stand condemned with Him.” He then added that the two had indeed committed the crime for which they were being executed. But this man was innocent. He knew that it was not Barabbas hanging there. Someone had taken his place. He then calls out to Jesus in faith to properly save Him. He makes the well-known statement: “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom!” He knew there was a kingdom beyond the cross. This man was truly the Messiah! And Jesus affirms the faith of the thief on the cross. “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Three o’clock came. The reign of the King of the Cross was coming to an end. He was ,in this aspect of kingship, only king for a day. But what a day it was! A king who reigns on a cross for just a few hours has changed history more than the longest reigns of human monarchs. Some of these kings and queens were noted for their many accomplishments. But this pales in comparison to Jesus’ reign on a cross. “It is finished!” Jesus cries as He commends His spirit to the Father bows His head and dies. His reign on the cross was over. What a difference three days would make! On the third day, Jesus would rise from the dead. He would ascend on the 40th day back to the Father. He is now the Eternal King of Glory! He had returned to His rightful place in Heaven. It was His place before, and now it was His place again evermore. The sad dirge of the King of the Cross, “To Mock Thy Reign, O Dearest Lord” I replaced by the joyous hymn “Crown Him With Many Crowns, the Lamb Upon his throne!” The throne He had been nailed to had been replaced by the most glorious throne fit for out King. On the day that the King was hung on the cross, he started to amass a new group of subjects. Simon was called the father of Alexander and Rufus in Mark’s account which seems to indicate that they were Christians. Did Simon of Cyrene become a Christian that day? We talked about the Roman Centurion. Did He become a subject in Christ’s Kingdom? Finally, Nicodemus joins with Joseph of Arimathea to beg for the body of a cursed man, washing the blood from His broken body and then wrapped and placed in a tomb. Was Nicodemus a member of the Sanhedrin who had so recently condemned Jesus. The action speaks that Nicodemus had now become a disciple of Jesus. The memory of his prior conversation with Jesus had now been so graphically illustrated from the throne of the cross. Soon, the small band of subjects who joined Him on His one-day reign as King of the Cross would be joined by many others, first 120, then 3,000, then countless millions who have been touched by the sacrifice of The King of the Cross. Here, His subjects on earth await His glorious return. As we remember Him this Christ the King Sunday, we remember that Advent and the beginning of a new Christian Year begins. This is a season we observe to remind us that our glorious King is coming back to receive us into His Kingdom. We have already passed the Feast of All Saints where we remember that those who have finished their earthly service here now serve Him in glory. The crosses these subjects had to bear after Jesus have been replaced by a better throne. They, as followers of Jesus, felt the bitterness of the thorns. The thorns are now a throne. They are a kingdom of priests under Jesus who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We can have confidence that we, like they, will obtain our crown through our patient suffering and endurance in the faith. We now await the Kingdom which we shall obtain by what Jesus did for us as King of the Cross. We may go by death as the saints before us or we may be here at the time He returns. Because He was raised from the dead, so shall we. While we wait to reign with Him in glory, we still reign with Him in following Jesus in the time before and up to the cross which He shared with us when He became flesh. WE still reign with Him even though for a little while we are fastened to the throne of our own crosses. But this will soon change. So let us wait just a little longer. Let us bear our crosses a little longer. It is but a short time in the perspective of eternity. Jesus calls us to send out the invitation to others to become His loving subjects. Let us start this by being those who serve out of love and not just duty. Indeed, it shall be worth it all. On this Christ the King Sunday, let us remember what sort of King we have. He was just as much King on that painful cross as He was King before and is King now and forever more.