John 19:13-16, Behold Your King

13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

The trump card having been masterfully played, Pilate is ready to have Jesus declared guilty and crucified. He has the judge’s seat, the official symbol of Rome’s power to judge, brought out to the terrace. Matthew tells us that Pilate washed his hands of guilt for the death of Jesus, putting it squarely on the Jewish authorities. This, among other actions, shows really how ethically weak Pilate is, unable to stand up to the people he is supposed to rule.

It is Friday, “the day of Preparation,” at noon, “the sixth hour,” and Pilate, unable to declare Jesus guilty, proclaims to the crowd, “Behold your King!” The man who asked, “What is truth?”, unknowingly announces the deep truth of Jesus. Immediately, the crowd demands his crucifixion. Playing with them, Pilate asks, “Shall I crucify your King?,” which prompts a decidedly twisted and ungodly response from the chief priests, “We have no king but Caesar.”

In the rejection of Jesus, their Messiah, the Jews declared allegiance to and worship of their king, Caesar, the Beast of Revelation, who is ultimately Satan himself. That is why in Revelation Jesus called their worship assemblies “synagogues of Satan.” Israel gave her allegiance to Caesar. She chose to be saved by a pagan state rather than God. The false prophet of Revelation represents the leadership of apostate Israel, who rejected the Messiah and worshiped the Beast. Instead of a godly imprint upon its culture and society, Israel was remade into a pagan culture and society that God destroyed in A.D. 70. Unbeknownst to them, this is Israel’s darkest hour with Jesus’ crucifixion only minutes away.

Thou art my God, sole object of my love;

Not for hope of endless joys above;

Not for the fear of endless pains below,

Which they who love thee must deigns to bear

An ignominious cross, the nails, the spear;

A thorny crown transpierced thy sacred brow,

While bloody sweats from every member flow.

For me in tortures thou resigns thy breath,

Embraced me on the cross, and saved me by death.

And can these sufferings fail my heart to move?

Such as then was, and is, thy love to me,

Such is, and shall be still, my love to thee—

To thee, Redeemer! mercy’s sacred spring!

My God, my Father, Maker, and my King!

(Alexander Pope, 1688-1744)