Our King

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

OUR KING

Luke 23:1-7

23:1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king." 3 So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. 4 Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man." 5 But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."6 On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. 7 When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

NIV

We will get to page two, the rest of the story, but we have to stop here and consider the words of Jesus as he responded to the question of Pilate. Jesus admitted that he was the king of the Jews. Of course, he was not putting forth the idea of being an earthly king, such as King Herod, although he was not much of a king either for all of Israel was being occupied and controlled by Rome under the ultimate authority of Ceasar, the one and only king over Jerusalem and all of Judea. So when Jesus admitted he was the king of the Jews it might have meant something to Pilate, but he was not threatened by what Jesus admitted, in fact, Pilate found no fault with Jesus. But those chief priests and teachers of the law could not tolerate Jesus, because he was teaching a better way and many people were following him, instead of listening to them. It is interesting how today seems similar. There are those voices that want us to pay attention to them rather than living under the kingship of Jesus. Voices from the world we know are diametrically opposed to the authority of Jesus, for their voices are motivated either by the devil, or by their own self-interests, which are for the most part from the bent toward evil within their hearts, as God has said, “how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the throughs of his heart was only evil all the time”. However, what concerns us is not the voices from the wicked world, but those voices within the community of faith. First, we have those silver-tongued spreaders of deception who live so large from the wallets of those who are deceived by their false words. But then we also have voices that are more commonly found in every local church who want to live under their own set of rules and regulations they truly believe Jesus would want them to follow. However, we cannot find the rules and regulations found described by Jesus, or his apostles. Certainly, we are not advocating living any way our heart desires, but to follow Jesus, not the law.  Many voices, but what we want to always be keen to hear is the voice of our King, for he is the King of kings, Lord of Lords, and He is our ruler. He is the King of our hearts and our heart desires to serve Him and Him alone. You can choose this day whom you will serve, but as far as me and my household, we will serve the Lord.