John 19:18-22 The King is Crucified!!! 21/3/08
(John 18:36-39) Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." {37} "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." {38} "What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. {39} But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"
(John 19:7-8) The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." {8} When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,
John 19:18-22) Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. {19} Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. {20} Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. {21} The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." {22} Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
Jesus the King has been crucified. Think about that THE KING has been put to death. More than that Pilate had come to the conclusion that this probably was the SON OF GOD who he has crucified [and we now know that he was the Son of God]. This surely then is an event that is truly remarkable. In fact this event overshadows every other event in history. This is the cornerstone of life itself. This event, unlike any other, has turned life upside down for us all. Here we have the one and only thing that gives us a sure and certain hope for the future.
However this seems like utter foolishness to the world around us. The Scriptures themselves tell us that the true Good Friday message is not a good and easy one for humanity. It says; Jews [and many around us today] demand miraculous signs and Greeks [and many scholarly people today] look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Cor 1:22-25)
The message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for the sins of humanity is that which is central to the Christian faith. Yet sadly even within the churches, there is only lip-service to the greatness of this event, but we steer away from a focus on it. There seems to be a desire to have a ‘nice,’ loving Jesus, but don’t mention sin and that being the cause of Jesus’ death. We want a positive, appealing message that is easy on the ego.
A number of times in these last couple of weeks leading up to Easter heard and read messages that speak of Jesus, in the context of an Easter message, as an example of service toward others; of the power of God that is a result of the resurrection; and even the removal of the Good Friday message from Sunday School. Here let me read what the publisher of this material said and a commentators response.
"Easter is a special time in churches." "It's a time of celebration and thankfulness. But because of the graphic nature of the Easter story and the crucifixion specifically, we need to be careful as we choose what we tell preschoolers about Easter."
"In order to be sensitive to the physical, intellectual, and emotional development of preschoolers, we have chosen not to include the Easter story in our curriculum. Instead, we are focusing on the Last Supper, when Jesus shared a meal and spent time with the people He loved. We have made this choice because the crucifixion is simply too violent for preschoolers. And if we were to skip the crucifixion and go straight to the resurrection, then preschoolers would be confused."
The curriculum marketers must know how bad this sounds, so they reassure the church they believe that the Gospel is for all people. Leaving out the cross and the resurrection is actually to help children come to Christ. They write, "We're using these formative preschool years to build a foundation for that eventual decision by focusing on God's love and telling preschoolers that 'Jesus wants to be my friend forever.'"
Jesus wants to my friend forever? Who is this Jesus? And where is He? Apparently, He's a Christ without a cross, without an empty tomb. He spends time with His friends, and loves us. Does knowing this, apart from the Gospel, actually prepare preschoolers to see themselves as sinners in need of a Mediator before a Holy God?
No, a Jesus who is not crucified, buried, and resurrected, does not save, and doesn't help ease the way to salvation. Jesus as moral teacher, inspirational rabbi, or "forever friend" apart from the Gospel only prepares one for old-fashioned Protestant liberalism, the notion that what matters is that I'm civilized, ethical, and enculturated as a Christian. That's not Christianity.
At Pentecost, the apostle Peter delivered a Gospel proclamation that cut the heart of his hearers to the quick of repentance by preaching that the dead body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but had been raised by the power of the Spirit. Peter thundered: "Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36 ESV, emphasis mine). When the people cried out for direction as to how to be saved, Peter continued: "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:39, emphasis mine).
The apostolic preaching included raising up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, a nurture and admonition that is nowhere in the Scripture abstracted from the Gospel. Indeed, the very idea of an ethical system, or a love of Jesus, that is not rooted and founded in Christ crucified and resurrected is something far different than the message of Christianity... no matter to whom, and for how long, it is given.
If this were just a Sunday school publisher, we could ignore it. If this were one isolated incident, it would not be worth mentioning. But it is not. The temptation that comes to all of us, in every era of the church, is to have Jesus, without seeing ourselves in the gore of his bloody cross and the glory of his empty grave. In the way that we speak of Him to our children, or to skeptics, or to seekers, we sometimes believe we'll gain more of a hearing if we present Him as teacher but not as a former corpse. It is too disturbing, we think to ourselves, too weird.
Peter thought that way too. Not the bold preacher of Pentecost, mind you, but the Peter of just a short time before that, the Peter of Caesarea Philippi. Peter certainly knew Jesus as friend, and he had just confessed that He was Messiah and Son of the living God. But when Jesus began to teach that He must "suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised," Peter was outraged (Matt 16:21).
Peter was no preschooler, but he was disturbed. Matthew tells us that he began to rebuke Jesus. His cognitive development was not yet to the point where he could understand such things. This will never happen, Peter said. He loved Jesus. He wanted to be with Jesus. He wanted to stand with Jesus. He just didn't want the Jesus of the cross or the empty tomb. Jesus didn't call this shallow theology. He didn't call it inadequate teaching. He called it Satan (Matt 16:23).
Our children need to hear the Gospel. They need to see Jesus. That's graphic, sure. It's confusing, of course. And not just for kids. But it is the only message that saves. It's the only message that prepares one for salvation. It is, as Paul says, that which is "of first importance," the message he received from Jesus Himself (1 Cor 15:3-4).
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the Gospel. That's the first word. If we cannot speak of that, we would be better off not speaking of Jesus at all, rather than presenting another Christ, one who meditates but does not mediate, who counsels but is not crucified, who is accessible but not triumphant over sin and death.
The apostle Paul told us the word of the cross would be folly to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18). He didn't warn us that it would sometimes also be folly to those who are publishing. No matter. It is still the power of God
This Easter, preach the Gospel... to the senior citizens, to the middle-aged, to the young adults, to the teenagers, to the seekers, to the hardened unbelievers, to the whole world. And, yes, preach the Gospel to the preschoolers.
I'm not saying it won't be scary. The Gospel will disturb the children. And, if you understand it, it will disturb you too.
God did not send his Son to die such a cruel and miserable death for nothing more than just as a good example. He dies so that we do not suffer an eternity in Hell, which is what we deserve because of our rebellion and sin against God. He dies that we might be forgiven and have life and salvation. God dies so that we might not die. As a result he is King of all Kings and Lord of all lords.
For us as Christians, Christ is King as he hangs there on his throne the cross. There we have our God who is truly important to us. There is our Saviour and our Lord. And here as we focus on our King on the cross, we find what is truly important for us and for our Christian life. There we understand what it means for us as we live our lives as his people. As we continue to live in a sinful world we too will have to carry our crosses as we die to the sinful way of life that our world lives.
All the while, now for us, Christ and the cross is supreme. No matter how terrible and negative the cross may seem, now the cross and the man who dies on it, is the only means of life and salvation for us all. To him then be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN
Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba
(John 18:36-39) Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." {37} "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." {38} "What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. {39} But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?"
(John 19:7-8) The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." {8} When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,
John 19:18-22) Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. {19} Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. {20} Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. {21} The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." {22} Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
Jesus the King has been crucified. Think about that THE KING has been put to death. More than that Pilate had come to the conclusion that this probably was the SON OF GOD who he has crucified [and we now know that he was the Son of God]. This surely then is an event that is truly remarkable. In fact this event overshadows every other event in history. This is the cornerstone of life itself. This event, unlike any other, has turned life upside down for us all. Here we have the one and only thing that gives us a sure and certain hope for the future.
However this seems like utter foolishness to the world around us. The Scriptures themselves tell us that the true Good Friday message is not a good and easy one for humanity. It says; Jews [and many around us today] demand miraculous signs and Greeks [and many scholarly people today] look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Cor 1:22-25)
The message of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for the sins of humanity is that which is central to the Christian faith. Yet sadly even within the churches, there is only lip-service to the greatness of this event, but we steer away from a focus on it. There seems to be a desire to have a ‘nice,’ loving Jesus, but don’t mention sin and that being the cause of Jesus’ death. We want a positive, appealing message that is easy on the ego.
A number of times in these last couple of weeks leading up to Easter heard and read messages that speak of Jesus, in the context of an Easter message, as an example of service toward others; of the power of God that is a result of the resurrection; and even the removal of the Good Friday message from Sunday School. Here let me read what the publisher of this material said and a commentators response.
"Easter is a special time in churches." "It's a time of celebration and thankfulness. But because of the graphic nature of the Easter story and the crucifixion specifically, we need to be careful as we choose what we tell preschoolers about Easter."
"In order to be sensitive to the physical, intellectual, and emotional development of preschoolers, we have chosen not to include the Easter story in our curriculum. Instead, we are focusing on the Last Supper, when Jesus shared a meal and spent time with the people He loved. We have made this choice because the crucifixion is simply too violent for preschoolers. And if we were to skip the crucifixion and go straight to the resurrection, then preschoolers would be confused."
The curriculum marketers must know how bad this sounds, so they reassure the church they believe that the Gospel is for all people. Leaving out the cross and the resurrection is actually to help children come to Christ. They write, "We're using these formative preschool years to build a foundation for that eventual decision by focusing on God's love and telling preschoolers that 'Jesus wants to be my friend forever.'"
Jesus wants to my friend forever? Who is this Jesus? And where is He? Apparently, He's a Christ without a cross, without an empty tomb. He spends time with His friends, and loves us. Does knowing this, apart from the Gospel, actually prepare preschoolers to see themselves as sinners in need of a Mediator before a Holy God?
No, a Jesus who is not crucified, buried, and resurrected, does not save, and doesn't help ease the way to salvation. Jesus as moral teacher, inspirational rabbi, or "forever friend" apart from the Gospel only prepares one for old-fashioned Protestant liberalism, the notion that what matters is that I'm civilized, ethical, and enculturated as a Christian. That's not Christianity.
At Pentecost, the apostle Peter delivered a Gospel proclamation that cut the heart of his hearers to the quick of repentance by preaching that the dead body of Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but had been raised by the power of the Spirit. Peter thundered: "Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36 ESV, emphasis mine). When the people cried out for direction as to how to be saved, Peter continued: "For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself" (Acts 2:39, emphasis mine).
The apostolic preaching included raising up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, a nurture and admonition that is nowhere in the Scripture abstracted from the Gospel. Indeed, the very idea of an ethical system, or a love of Jesus, that is not rooted and founded in Christ crucified and resurrected is something far different than the message of Christianity... no matter to whom, and for how long, it is given.
If this were just a Sunday school publisher, we could ignore it. If this were one isolated incident, it would not be worth mentioning. But it is not. The temptation that comes to all of us, in every era of the church, is to have Jesus, without seeing ourselves in the gore of his bloody cross and the glory of his empty grave. In the way that we speak of Him to our children, or to skeptics, or to seekers, we sometimes believe we'll gain more of a hearing if we present Him as teacher but not as a former corpse. It is too disturbing, we think to ourselves, too weird.
Peter thought that way too. Not the bold preacher of Pentecost, mind you, but the Peter of just a short time before that, the Peter of Caesarea Philippi. Peter certainly knew Jesus as friend, and he had just confessed that He was Messiah and Son of the living God. But when Jesus began to teach that He must "suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised," Peter was outraged (Matt 16:21).
Peter was no preschooler, but he was disturbed. Matthew tells us that he began to rebuke Jesus. His cognitive development was not yet to the point where he could understand such things. This will never happen, Peter said. He loved Jesus. He wanted to be with Jesus. He wanted to stand with Jesus. He just didn't want the Jesus of the cross or the empty tomb. Jesus didn't call this shallow theology. He didn't call it inadequate teaching. He called it Satan (Matt 16:23).
Our children need to hear the Gospel. They need to see Jesus. That's graphic, sure. It's confusing, of course. And not just for kids. But it is the only message that saves. It's the only message that prepares one for salvation. It is, as Paul says, that which is "of first importance," the message he received from Jesus Himself (1 Cor 15:3-4).
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the Gospel. That's the first word. If we cannot speak of that, we would be better off not speaking of Jesus at all, rather than presenting another Christ, one who meditates but does not mediate, who counsels but is not crucified, who is accessible but not triumphant over sin and death.
The apostle Paul told us the word of the cross would be folly to those who are perishing (1 Cor 1:18). He didn't warn us that it would sometimes also be folly to those who are publishing. No matter. It is still the power of God
This Easter, preach the Gospel... to the senior citizens, to the middle-aged, to the young adults, to the teenagers, to the seekers, to the hardened unbelievers, to the whole world. And, yes, preach the Gospel to the preschoolers.
I'm not saying it won't be scary. The Gospel will disturb the children. And, if you understand it, it will disturb you too.
God did not send his Son to die such a cruel and miserable death for nothing more than just as a good example. He dies so that we do not suffer an eternity in Hell, which is what we deserve because of our rebellion and sin against God. He dies that we might be forgiven and have life and salvation. God dies so that we might not die. As a result he is King of all Kings and Lord of all lords.
For us as Christians, Christ is King as he hangs there on his throne the cross. There we have our God who is truly important to us. There is our Saviour and our Lord. And here as we focus on our King on the cross, we find what is truly important for us and for our Christian life. There we understand what it means for us as we live our lives as his people. As we continue to live in a sinful world we too will have to carry our crosses as we die to the sinful way of life that our world lives.
All the while, now for us, Christ and the cross is supreme. No matter how terrible and negative the cross may seem, now the cross and the man who dies on it, is the only means of life and salvation for us all. To him then be all glory and honour, now and always. AMEN
Pastor Roger Atze
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Toowoomba
posted by Roger at
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