John 18:37
“Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’”
America and the West don’t much like to think on this verse. We’re uncomfortable with knowing Jesus as King. He’s our cosmic buddy, our savior whose job is to, well, save. That’s what He does. We like John 3:16 and are right to memorize it but the many verses that proclaim God’s sovereignty make us slightly uncomfortable. Kings don’t exist in democracies and republics. Kings don’t run for office. Listen closely to contemporary preachers and you’ll notice the encroachment of Americanisms upon the gospel of God. We hear “make a decision for Christ” the wrong way. We start to think of God as though He’s running for office and that if we don’t make a decision for Him then, like a candidate from yesteryear, He just goes away. But God isn’t running for office. Jesus is always God. He’s not wringing His almighty hands, pacing the floor with worry, checking election results, and fretting of being kicked out of office. This is an erroneous assumption at home with Western sensibilities where the voter is sovereign or, at least, a co-sovereign.
Jesus replies basically by saying, “Yep, you’re right. I’m a King.” Much like His statement to the Pharisees earlier in John’s gospel where He says, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” We, who are stuck in time, who are aging, and growing ever closer to death’s day, do well to notice the construction of this sentence. Jesus says that He is the timeless One. He simply says, “I Am.” The Jewish leaders, knowing their Scriptures (though not understanding them) and recognizing Jesus’ self-attribution of Exodus 3:14, are enraged. They know that this means Jesus is saying He is the sovereign God of all the universe, the mighty King, the eternal One. And they are enraged for good reason because God’s glory isn’t to be shared with anyone. But Jesus didn’t just come and say, “Howdy…I’m the Son of God.” He came with what we call miracles, but the book of John calls signs – and they’re signs because they’re meant to show God’s approval of His message. To raise the dead, heal the crippled and sick, give sight to the blind, turn a snack into a meal for thousands, and have power over space and time, is to be declared by God as approved. In all the New Testament God speaks audibly from heaven only three times – and each time to validate His Son.
This is the economy and logic of Scripture. The Jews should have checked their premises, not demanded that Jesus check His because, as Nicodemus said, “…we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Yes, so they knew this, but in their evil selfishness and greed, they refused to think deeply enough about the logical consequences of Jesus’ power.
We commit a similar sin when we fail to meditate upon Jesus’ Kingship. He is absolutely our gracious and loving interceder and because of Him there is no condemnation for us. This is remarkable, indeed, but all the more so in that He is King too. Are we sufficiently in awe of Jesus? Imagine Him seated on His throne in heaven, the earth His footstool, the power of all creation on His very lips. This is no earthly king. He is the King of kings. That He is meek and mild before Pilate, a sheep led to slaughter, the spotless lamb of God, does not mean that He can be trifled with. These things He was for our sake.
No regular citizen of America can walk into the Oval Office to see the President about this or that problem and yet every Christian has the privilege of going before the throne in prayer – and He has so much the higher office. What reverence do we give earthly thrones compared to the heavenly one? Ah, but you might say, that kind of big God scares me and I prefer not to think about Him that way. Well, don’t you know, Christian, that it is precisely that big God that saved you? How grateful would you be if the President of the United States called your creditors and told them that your bills were to be reduced to zero? How much more if he deposited millions into your checking account? Would you swear to be grateful forever? Well, then, don’t lose sight of what the true and living King has done for you. He is that majestic and powerful and, yet, that loving and meek too. We should be prayerful and watchful not to play one attribute of God against the other.
That Jesus is truly the King makes His grace that much more astonishing and praiseworthy.
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