John 19:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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John 19:19

Comments

The Jewish leaders were appalled at this. Write, they said, he said he was the king of the Jews. No, Pilate said, ‘What I have written I have written.’ ‘Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.’ What was Pilate doing there? Well I think in his mind he wanted the inscription to indicate that the Roman authority did not command this, it was the result of Jewish prejudice and instruction. He kind of washes his hands even in the inscription. This was a purely Jewish offence, allegedly. Pilate meant it to pass the blame to the Jewish leaders. They hated it, they wanted it altered. Write instead – ‘He said, I am the King of Jews.’ But God overruled and he was crucified under the truth – ‘JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS’, the king of all his people.But this was God’s overruling providence because the inscription of course was true. It marked the end of the Jewish church: ‘The King of the Jews’ – the one who, if we may say it, would have been a King of the Jews, gloriously, was executed there and the Jewish church came to an end. After that of course Jews are in the Jewish-Gentile church of Christ. ‘The King of the Jews’ – he is the King of the Jews and he is the King of the Gentiles, the Messiah – rejected, so cruelly treated, so unjustly treated, so ridiculed.

Application

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.

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John 19:19 Commentary and Bible Study