John 19:19-22, The Inscription of His Crime

19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

The inscription above Jesus is the description of the crime that put him on the cross. It is written in the three tongues of the day: the tongue of Jesus (Aramaic) and his fellow Jews, the tongue of Rome (Latin), and the universal tongue of contemporary Hellenism (Greek). Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. Therefore, Pilate declares him a king and crucifies Jesus as a king. Upset by the inscription, the chief priests try to have the sign altered or removed. Pilate will not accommodate them. What he has done is done. Jesus’ kingship is unalterable. Pilate has total contempt for the Jews, and if this spectacle embarrasses them, then all the better.

In John there are two moments devoted to the kingship of Jesus: his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and five days later at his crucifixion. No one understands the truth of his kingship at either event. Instead, his kingship is an unfolding story of the sacrificial nature of God’s mercy and love. It is in looking back that we understand what was going on, because in the moment, no one understood. What looked like the ultimate victory of Satan and his minions was the victory of God, the victory of the Cross of Christ.

King Jesus, we bow at the foot of your cross, witnessing the manifestation of your love and mercy. May your love and mercy stream into our hearts, transforming and mobilizing them, so that we may live according to your will and for your purposes. Amen.