KING OF KINGS

‘Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him’, Matt. 2.1-2. On this day in the year particularly there are many who ponder on the one ‘born King’. The great irony is that this ascription of regal title, and the worship that accompanied the acknowledgment of His right to the throne, came not from the lips and heart of Israel but from gentiles who had come from afar. The Lord Jesus would one day be presented to Israel by their Roman governor, Pilate, with the words, ‘Behold your King!’, and they would roar, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, ?Shall I crucify your King?”ù The chief priests answered, ?We have no king but Caesar?’, John 19. 14-15. There was nothing but hatred for the Man crowned with thorns. No homage was paid to the Man into whose hands the soldiers had placed a mock sceptre. No pity was given to the Man upon whom they draped their robes of humiliation. No dignity was ascribed to the Man whose lovely face they anointed with their spittle. He endured their taunts, their blows, their scorn and every indignity they could heap upon Him. They had their day, ‘and he bearing his cross went forth into a place called …Golgotha’, John 19.17. There Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, ‘JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS’, John 19. 19.

That was Israel’s last sight of the Lord Jesus, but now He is returning in power and glory to establish His kingdom on earth. What a soul-thrilling sight we have in Revelation 19! No crown of thorns but ‘many crowns’, v. 12. No mock sceptre but ‘a rod of iron’, v. 15. No cast-off Roman tunic but ‘a vesture dipped in blood’, v. 13. Not again shamed by spittle directed from the mouths of impious men, but ‘out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations’, v. 15. Not now bearing the cross alone, but bearing the glory and accompanied by ‘the armies ... in heaven’, v. 14. Not now the superscription of a weak Roman ruler but, praise God, ‘KING OF KINGS’!