10.11 | Two Kings
John 18:28-19:22
‘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.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.’
John 19:15-16
Compare and contrast.
It’s a common approach to an exam or essay question, which points to the fact that we often discern that which is true more clearly through making comparisons.
We understand tiredness, because we know the possibility exists of being rested and energised. We know what it is to be cold, because we have experienced warmth. We understand the experienced of being soaked in a rain shower, because we know that it is normal to be dry. We understand sound in contrast to silence, speed in contrast to slowness, and light in contrast to darkness. Sometimes, to see things clearly, we need to see the reality of a thing in contrast to its exact opposite. Only then does its true nature become clear.
As Jesus stands as a prisoner before Pilate today, John is giving us a compare and contrast moment. Because the imagery of this passage presents us a clear comparison.
Between Jesus, and Caesar. Between the Kingdom of God, and the empires of man. Between the ways of heaven, and the ways of the earth.
For Caesar was often dressed in purple, with a crown upon his head. Caesar was surrounded by soldiers, who knelt and paid homage to him, using the words, ‘Hail, Caesar.’ Caesar ruled over the Empire that had covered much of the known world—a global king. Caesar was described as a ‘son of the gods’. Caesar dominated his Empire with the threat of crucifixion—intended to control the wayward as a grotesque emblem of fear. Caesar was he who, more than anyone in the known world at the time, was understood to rule the kingdoms of the world.
Compare and contrast.
Our King is so different. His Kingdom does not look like force and fear and control and ego—manifested in the brute power of military might. It looks like surrender and humility and the greater power of suffering love. As Caesar claimed likeness to the gods through vanity projects and and self-adulation, Jesus inhabits the nature of God Himself through the most radical expression of love the world will ever know. As Caesar reigned over a kingdom that espoused all the corruption and inequality and brutality and superficiality of a broken world, Jesus initiated a movement of a Kingdom beyond this world, that the life of a bruised world may be met with the inbreaking life of heavens for which every broken heart more deeply longs.
And yet, the contrast presents us with a choice.
It is the great choice of our lives—made decisively in conversion and baptism, and yet also made daily in a million tiny choices. It is the choice between the temporary glamour of status wealth and controlling power, and the deeper beauty of humble surrender and the gracious soul. It is the choice between worship and mocking, kneeling or condemning, between every limp and empty imitation of God found in the wounded ways of the broken ego, or the far greater majesty of the scourged King of all: mocked, despised and rejected, and yet possessing within a measure of glory that shines with heavenly life and before which the grave itself will tremble and fall.
The Jewish leaders reveal their choice:
We have no king but Caesar.
For this Jesus reveals. He stands distinct. He hangs on a Cross yet with a sign above His head declaring Himself to be the true King. King of the Jews. King of every incubated promises of God to this nation. King of the only Kingdom that will endure.
Reflect:
How do you see the ways of Caesar at work in the world around you?
What does it look like for you to chose the Way of heaven’s King?
Pray:
Jesus,
My King.
I’m undone by You.
You stood before the greatest powers of
Oppression, and injustice;
You were the focus of
The darkest moments of human history.
You — the true King of all things —
Surrendered utterly to the depravity of a broken humanity
With a greater intention in Your heart.
Jesus,
My King,
Turn my heart from being impressed by the fallen empires of this day;
Turn my life from the empty pursuits of every Rome;
Turn my thoughts from being mesmerised by the superficial glamour of every Caesar,
That my heart may behold
The truer authority,
The truer power,
The truer beauty,
Of the suffering King.
For I have no King but You,
King Jesus.
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Ezekiel 21-22 | Psalm 126