Mark 15:26 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And the superscription of his accusation was written over: the King of the Jews.’ There is a little more to it than that, as the other Gospels tell us. Taking all the Gospels together, the full inscription was this: ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ There is no doubt that while Pilate, the Roman procurator or governor, tried to secure the release of Christ and appealed repeatedly to the chief priests and to the crowd to let him release to them Jesus of Nazareth; while he tried to do that, he still put this superscription over Christ with a measure of contempt – ‘The King of the Jews’. In Pilate’s estimation who were the Jews? A conquered people, crushed by the might of Rome, a subjugated people, and here was one who was said to be their Messiah, or the King of the Jews. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if we are required to put him to death, if you say that he would have been behind an insurrection – then reluctantly we will do what you Jewish leaders require; we will execute him, but we will also do it with Roman contempt. Look! Look who I am executing, with great ease: the king of your nation. Down you go!’ In Pilate’s estimation the superscription is a mark of contempt. Mere Jews! But isn't it extraordinary, at Calvary's cross, everything has another sense. Because while Pilate meant it in derision, and while the Jewish leaders protested – ‘No, no, no, don't put that’, the other Gospels tell us; ‘Put, he said I am the King of the Jews’ – what was actually written was ‘The King of the Jews.’ So the picture there on Calvary was right, even if they all intended it to be wrong. God overruled: ‘The King of the Jews.’ What is a king? A Lord and a Judge. It was written in Aramaic and in Latin and in Greek, so the other Gospels tell us. Behold, the Judge, the Lord, the ruler, not only of the Jews. They would be judged for their rejection of God. There would be thousands of believers among them who would be saved, but the nation as a whole would be judged. And within forty years Jerusalem would fall, and the temple would be destroyed by Titus, by Roman armies, and the city would be sacked. They executed the Judge of the Jews, the Lord, the Saviour. The title was right though it was meant as an insult, and though it was thought to be inadequate. Everything about Calvary has this double description.