Our King

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

OUR KING

Mark 15:1-2

15:1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. 2 "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.

NIV

We have come to the beginning of the cross, but first, we must go through Pilate. The Jews had no right to have a man crucified, so they had to bring Jesus to the Romans for such a murderous act. We are not sure why the chief priests and elders and the teachers of the law had to deliberate all night as we had just been to the house of the high priest and it was decided then that Jesus was worthy of death. Maybe they had to decide how they were going to do this and it was determined they had to hand him over to the Romans and how they were going to convince Pilate that Jesus needed to be crucified. Nevertheless, Jesus is here in front of Pilate, bound by the Jews. Why did they bind him? Did they think he was going to try to escape? We think it was more of their show of force, to show their authority for the sake of the people. What is interesting in the first exchange between Pilate and Jesus, at least according to Mark, is that Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews. That in itself was not against Rome, as they did not mind that the countries they occupied had their own leaders, for that kept the peace and that was more important in occupation, so taxes could be collected, peacefully. What is interesting is that Jesus admits to Pilate that He is the King of the Jews. For surely Jesus is the King of kings, and He is the Lord, fully in charge of the Jews and all this is going exactly according to His plan. We will see later that Pilate finds no fault in Jesus, but for now, we have to believe the Pilate is not concerned about Jesus being king of the Jews. Yet, he asks and Jesus says, “Yes, it is as you say”. We know we usually refer to Jesus as Lord, as most of the scriptures do. Yet, because we are the wild olive branch grafted in, we would also be considered Jews in that respect. In addition to the grafting in, we have to remember that Paul talks about who is a Jew and it is not because of the circumcision of the flesh, but if the heart that makes a man a Jew. This may fit into the whole idea of all of Israel will be saved. For all those who have been circumcised of the heart are the true Israel. It would seem out of the character of God to save all those chief priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the Law, especially those who hated Jesus. When we consider all the Israelites that refused to enter the Promised Land and how God turned them around and made them wander for forty years until they all died, and then brought their grown children into the land. All of Israel may well not be all of the people who were once Israelites, but all the people who have circumcised their hearts, which is us. So then we are the true Jews in that sense and although Jesus is our Lord, He is also our King. Hail to our King.