![]() When we come to Palm Sunday we are consumed with the events of the Crucifixion, and the Humility of Christ in his action of Incarnation. St Paul says in our Epistle, (Philippians 2:5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Our hearts and our minds are brought to the realization of the sacrifice that was made on Golgotha. We at this time are forced to behold the cross, and the one nailed to it. This is a somber time of much reflection and consideration. This is also a time when we come face to face with the sting of sin which is death, but the glory and sweetness of that cross. This morning, though, I would like to draw our attention to a man who, for a moment in time, held this great event in history in, of all things, his hands. Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea, was a man who found himself in the middle of the most profound, and explosive times in history. Although Pilate himself would have never seen or considered the fact of the matter at hand, the fact that was disposed to him was the empirical fact that an innocent man was being sentenced to death. But what of his two, maybe sarcastic or maybe inspired, statements behold the Man, Behold your King. Pilate’s declaration of Christ’s humanity and His kingship was spoken by a man who had the keys of authority from the Roman government itself. Pilate’s statements did not gain him any popularity points with the Jew’s. This is why his judgment was so ironic the Jew's had their King right before them and they couldn't even recognize Him. As we talked in our Hebrews Study they were maybe looking for three different deliverers not one, but a prophet, priest and a king. Pilate's ironic judgment came on the heals of what we are celebrating today Palm Sunday when all of Jerusalem turned out to see their King ride in on a donkey. So as to forget this event, and to strong arm their case, the chief priests dug up some law to ensure that Jesus would die on the cross. Almost amazed by the brazen audacity of the Jew’s, fear grips Pilate not only by this mob, but the dream that his wife had saying to him “Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” Pilate was having one of those days that change’s the course of his life and the life of his jurisdiction. So he goes in to Christ and asks, "Where do you come from." You see Pilate saw something not only with Christ's testimony, but with the urgency of the religious establishment’s insistence on Christ's crucifixion, and his wife’s insistence to avoid any controversy with Jesus. At this point Pilate was ready to let Jesus go free and put this whole incident behind him. Jesus statement that all authority is given from above struck a cord within Pilate’s heart to the point that he sought to release Him. As time went on the Jew's became the more embittered toward Pilate, and the more against Christ. They even went so far as to accuse Pilate of not being a friend of Caesar because of his insinuation that Christ is their King. Pilate though wasn't insinuating that Christ is king, I believe that Pilate knew that Jesus was special in some sense. This is not to say that Pilate had a conversion "experience” and became a Christian. No I think what Pilate recognized was the authority that Christ represented in himself. Pilate saw the apparent lawlessness with the Jewish customs coming before any real justice or law. The Jew's became a law unto themselves, not submitted to any real law or any real justice just pure anarchy and insurrection. On the other hand, Pilate recognized in Jesus a sense of statesmanship, or submission to a higher law. Jesus being the Word Incarnate, the law of God made manifest imaged for Pilate order and hierarchy. This of course is something that Pilate didn't see with the hostility of the mob who brought an innocent man to face death. At this point Pilate was immovable, even in the face of insurrection and anarchy, he sits down at the judgment seat brings Jesus out and declares to the Jew's "Behold your King"!! This didn't go over well with the Jew's, this only made them angrier at the truth at hand. The gall, they thought, for a pagan to make such a statement concerning the Hebrews. One would immediately expect that the Jew's would declare there allegiance to Jehovah as their king and Lord, or even hearken back to David as the model King. No they with much hatred in their hearts look at Pilate and say "WE have no King but Caesar"! This was the hypocrisy and irony that Pilate was faced with, and this is the hypocrisy that Pilate made known to the entire world on that Good Friday 2000 years ago, Pilate nails to the cross a public declaration that this man is the King of the Jew's in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Pilate washed his hands of the matter and made it clear that the man who is crucified is the King of the Jew's. Pilate never retraced his judgment even in the face of opposition from the Jew's, but said "What I have written I have written." This is the sweetness of the cross of Christ that even with all the opposition against our Lord there is vindication even by the Gentiles. The blindness that God had placed over the eyes of the Jew's was brought to the fore in this event. "Darkness", as the prophet Isaiah said, "covered the earth and gross darkness the people...And the gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the Brightness of thy rising". The sweet victory of the cross is that access is made to the world; we now have redemption and reconciliation through the Cross of Christ. We must admit that Palm Sunday is full of irony. The cross is bitter to us because it shows us our sinfulness, and hypocrisy. The cross is sweet to us because it is the sweet aroma of life to those who are being saved, and death to those who are perishing. So now we can see Pilate’s judgment in the light of not only his inscription above the cross, but in his perception of Christ. Pilate’s two declarations "Behold the man and behold your King!" Ring true to the world of the humanity and divinity of Christ. This also rings true of man's heinous actions toward a loving God. Toward the one who went so far as to send His son, His only Son to redeem mankind, preserving us from the sting of death. The old spiritual hymn puts it well: Were you there when they crucified the Lord, Were you there when they nailed Him to the Tree? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, were you there when they crucified the Lord? We were! We crucified Him we Nailed him to the tree, we mocked at Him as He hung on the cross bearing the stench and sting of death for us. We conspired with the religious leaders to have Christ crucified. We told Pilate that we have no King but Caesar. We told Pilate to give us a guilty man and send an innocent one to the tree. YES! WE WERE THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED THE LORD. BEHOLD THE MAN, BEHOLD YOUR KING. May God help us to see the bitterness of the cross, and to receive the sweet redemption that God has made through the cross as we enter Holy week. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
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