The Jewish leaders were appalled at this. Write, they said, he said he was the king of the Jews.
Does it not strike you as wonderful, in the superintendence of God, that the sign declared him to be the King of the Jews, despite their hatred? There had been no king for 600 years; Zedekiah was the last. When Jerusalem fell in 586 BC that was the last king of Israel. After the seventy year captivity many were repatriated, but Israel had never had a king, only governors, until Herod. Was he the king of the Jews? No, he was an Edomite. He gained the title of king when the Romans made his father, Herod the Great, king and his son inherited the title. So what did it mean to have a king? They thought that prophecy said they would have a king over them again, to reign forever. The king of the Jews meant the Messiah. For Christ to accept he was the King of the Jews is the way he showed he was the Messiah, King not of this world, else would his disciples fight, but of heaven. So God’s providence has this sign put over him: JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS, God and Man, the long expected King of the Jews.
So great is his love, so great is his love, that he goes through all that in order to save us when we would have been there. We would have been against him. We have had similar attitudes. But he does it and he did it for us, so that we may be saved. The amazing mercy and love and compassion of Jesus Christ. Let’s think about that!
Let Christians not be ashamed when the world mocks the things they hold most precious. The truth is established in God’s mouth, not in the mouth of unbelievers.