18.02 | Enslaved & Enthroned
Matthew 27:11-44
‘And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”’
Matthew 27:33-37
Have you ever wondered at the etymology of ‘oxymoron’?
OK, of course you haven’t. Why would you. You’ve got far better things to think about.
But it’s worth ten seconds of your day.
It’s from two Greek words; oxus, and mōrus. Oxus means ‘sharp’, and mōrus means ‘blunt’. Oxymoron literally means ‘sharp-blunt’, or, figuratively, ‘intelligent-moron’. It’s a juxtaposition of two completely opposite things, which in itself gives it its meaning.1 An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms, a logical impossibility. It is the meeting place of two ideas that have no earthly right to exist in the same space.
Today we go to the greatest oxymoron in history. It is this:
A king on a cross.
Matthew is deeply aware of this. He is telling the story of the crucifixion. But woven through what is spoken, accused, and written about Jesus, he metronomically plants a word before us.
Pilate asks, Are you the King of the Jews?
The soldiers dress Jesus in royal colours, crowning Him with thorns, and calling Him the King of the Jews.
The sign above Jesus’ head reads, The King of the Jews.
The mocking scribes and Pharisees and elders themselves look at Jesus on the Cross, and call Him the King of Israel.
King … king … king … king.
The rhythmic repetition of the kingly theme is the pulsing heartbeat of Golgotha.
The language is royal. And yet the imagery could not be more contradictory.
Archaeology has shown that there were two symbols for slavery in the ancient world: the whip, and the cross.2
The whip, because slaves were beaten to ensure compliance.
The cross, because this lowest form of execution was reserved for those most despised in Roman culture.
This is the story that Matthew is telling. Royalty and slavery. These opposite themes come crashing together in these moments.
But here’s the thing: this isn’t just a story about Jesus and His extraordinary act. It is also a story where you and I find our meaning. His Story shapes your story.
Because the Bible describes all humanity as living under slavery—to the things of our wounded desires, the devil, and death. The biblical story traces this slavery all the way back to the first man. Adam, in the biblical story, is the man who characterises both the glory of who we should have been, and the slavery under which we now live. He is the king who became a slave.
Jewish legend described the place where Adam’s skull was buried. They called it the Place of the Skull. In Aramaic, Golgotha. The skull of Adam was said to be buried under the very feet of the crucified, bleeding, Jesus.
The epicentre of the ages is happening before our eyes. The King of all creation went from life into death, so that our places of greatest death may be brought into the fullest life. He became enslaved like us so that we could become enthroned like Him.
The great contradiction leads to the great inversion.
Beautiful? Yes. Extraordinary? For sure.
But:
This is not just theory;
It is reality.
It is my reality and it is your reality.
The Cross is the reality invading all realities. It invades every place of anxiety, fear, bitterness, addiction, failure … slavery. It is the final word over every wound and place where we know we are stuck and broken and dying.
The Cross of Jesus defines your reality today.
The great contradiction became the great inversion.
And the New Order of reality is now the starting point for our every Today.
Reflect:
Are there parts of my life that feel like I’m trapped and enslaved beyond the power of God?
Bring these to Him today. Bring them to the Cross. Bring them to the Jesus who looks down at you with love in His eyes, inhabiting our slavery that we may inhabit His royalty. And invite Him to begin a work of newness in you afresh today.
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
Simply this:
I am enslaved,
In ten thousand ways.
This is my experience,
But it is not my reality.
My reality is defined, not by Adam’s failure, but by your victory.
And therefore,
Today,
I ask nothing more, and nothing less than this:
Invade my slavery again,
Through the power of what you did on the Cross—
Setting me free from every addiction, fear, habit, and wound,
And leading me to inhabit the royal identity that you restored to me.
My King,
King over Golgotha.
For I pray in your Name
And in the power of your Cross,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Leviticus 10-12 | Psalm 24
Grammar nerds will point out that this is an excellent example of a word that is autological: i.e. the word’s meaning expresses a property that it possesses.
There’s an interesting discussion on a podcast including ancient historian Dr Myles Lavan: In Our Time (BBC podcast: 05/04/18)