Here is an article that reads like something out of an Indiana Jones movie!
It was Jan. 27, 1492, when workers at work in the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which was undergoing major renovations at the time, discovered, behind a brick, a lead casket, closed by three wax seals, and on which was written Ecce lignum crucis, “Behold the wood of the cross.” Inside the casket was the Titulus Crucis. The first to report the news of the discovery of the “arcula plumbea” that preserved the Titulus Crucis was a chronicler of the time, Leonardo di Sar zana (or Leonardo Sarzanese), who a few days later, on February 4, wrote a letter in Latin to a learned correspondent of his, Jacopo Gherardi known as “il Volaterrano” (the missive is preserved in the Vatican Library, in a codex, the Vatican Codex 3912, which collects a number of letters sent to Volaterrano): “there is no doubt, reverend father,” the letter reads, “that this piece of wood is a part of that most sacred wood on which our Savior was hung, fixed with nails, and are truly the titles of his gallows, of which the evangelists testify.”[1]
Wow! That is a fascinating thought, is it not, that we might possess the actual sign that hung over Jesus on the cross? But is this authentic? Do we have the actual inscription? While the titulus crucis certainly has its champions, the evidence would appear to point elsewhere: That it dates somewhere from the 10th to the 12th century. So, sadly, likely not! Such is the way of relics!
And yet, this much is true: There was a sign hung above the head of Jesus on the cross and it did proclaim Jesus as King. In fact, the fact of the inscription on the cross belongs to a group of facts that is actually mentioned in all four gospels: in Matthew 27:37, Mark 15:26, Luke 23:38, and in John 19:19.
It would be quite a find to find that sign, but would you like to know what would be even better? Even better than finding the sign that says “Jesus is King” would be you and me becoming the sign that says “Jesus is King.” And, in fact, we are called to do this very thing: To be living advertisements for King Jesus, to point the world to Him through our words and our actions.
Church, Jesus is King! No consideration of the Kingdom of God can proceed without a close consideration of Jesus as King!
Jesus is King…but His Kingdom is Unlike the Kingdoms of the World
Jesus is King and Lord of all!
Paul proclaims His kingship in Ephesians 5.
5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
And again in 2 Timothy 4.
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom
And yet, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that His Kingdom is not like the kingdom of the world.
In John 18, Pilate asks Jesus if He is, in fact, a King. Listen to Jesus’ response.
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
What is the nature of this otherworldly Kingdom? Jesus gives us one clue in his response to Pilate: It does not fight like other kingdoms, does not seek retribution like other kingdoms, and allows certain things to happen that other Kings would never allow to happen.
This much must be understood if we are to understand the Kingdom of God rightly: The Kingdom of God and the King, Jesus, are not like other kingdoms and other kings.
Here, historical theology might help us.
Traditionally, in Christian theology, we speak of Christ as holding the munis triplex, or “the threefold office,” of prophet, priest, and king. Meaning Jesus is the ultimate of each of these offices.
Concerning the third office of the munis triplex, the kingly office, the historian Philip Schaff writes:
The kingly office (munus regium), whereby Christ founded his kingdom, defends his Church against all enemies, and rules all things in heaven and on earth. The old divines distinguish between the reign of nature (regnum naturae sive potentiae), which embraces all things; the reign of grace (regnum gratiae), which relates to the Church militant on earth; and the reign of glory (regnum gloriae), which belongs to the Church triumphant in heaven.[2]
This threefold distinction within the third office of king is helpful. Let us repeat:
- the reign of nature (regnum naturae sive potentiae), which embraces all things;
- the reign of grace (regnum gratiae), which relates to the Church militant on earth;
- and the reign of glory (regnum gloriae), which belongs to the Church triumphant in heaven.
The kingdoms of the world are considered first and foremost with their own borders and subjects and then, possibly, with imperial expansion. These kingdoms are born, they live, they do good and do evil, then they die.
But the Kingdom of God and its reign of nature, grace, and glory encompasses all reality and will have no end! It is greater than the world and the world cannot understand it!
Jesus is King…but He Would Not Be Forced into the World’s Expectations or the World’s Timing
What is more, the Kingdom of God has its own sense of timing, and it will not deviate from that plan for that plan is designed by God Himself.
Paul, in Ephesians 1, writes of God’s “purpose” and God’s “plan.”
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
God knows exactly what God is doing, and He will not have His plan derailed, for His plan is as perfect as God Himself is. At the heart of that plan was, of course, the coming of Jesus. So, in Galatians 4, Paul writes:
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
God has a plan, and that plan is meticulously timed. We can see this not only in the birth of Jesus, but also in the timing of His passion.
In John 6, after the feeding of the 5,000, we read:
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
If the mob was able to seize Jesus and seek to make him king by force, it would have set into motion events that God did not yet want set into motion, namely the clash of the earthly powers—religion and state—that culminated in the cross.
But this episode in John 6 reveals the reality of the timing of the Kingdom of God and also the superiority of the Kingdom of God’s timing over that of the world.
Jesus is King…and You Can Tell This by How Intensely the Devil Tried to Mock Him Over It
The kingship of Jesus is also confirmed, interestingly, in the devil’s efforts to mock this reality.
The most scandalous example of this is found in the scourging of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 27. Notice the heavy mocking emphasis on Jesus’ kingship.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
Jesus’ kingship is mocked by the soldiers:
- putting a king’s robe on Him;
- crowning Him;
- putting a reed (a mock scepter) in His hands;
- mockingly hailing Him as a king.
Then they strip Him and beat Him with the reed, with the mock scepter. This painful passage is so diabolical and so heavily dependent upon kingly imagery that one wants to say of the devil, “Methinks thou dost protest too much!” The devil is revealing his own insecurities here, and his own hatreds. He detests the idea that Jesus is King, even as he knows it to be true!
Then later in Matthew 27, the religious establishment joins with the state in mocking the idea of Jesus as a king.
41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.”
This much is clear: The devil seemed to particularly relish striking at Jesus’ kingship. The scourging and the mocking undoubtedly reveal a truth about the devil: He knew that Jesus was King and he trembled before it! In other words, the devil overplays his hand and seeks to mock what he knows is the truth that will ultimately undo him: Jesus is King!
Jesus is King…and He Saves His People in a Way That Could Not Be Imagined
What is more, Jesus is the King who saves His people in a way that could not be imagined.
John’s account of the inscription on the cross is lengthier than that of the other gospels, though, again, all mention it. John’s account is most interesting. In John 19, we read:
18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
There is a wonderful note of ambiguity here and it is introduced by Pontius Pilate. John tells us that “Pilate…wrote an inscription…”: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” And it was written, John tells us, “in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.”
The religious leaders take issue. Their protest does not sound like a lot, just in terms of word-count. But make no doubt: They were very serious about what they wanted done here.
Here is what Pilate wrote: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
Here is what the priests wanted: “This man said, I am the King of the Jews,”
The bald assertion that Pilate wrote—regardless of the intention behind it—was too much for the Jews. They could not stand the sight of it. So they wanted to qualify the statement. They wanted it attributed specifically to Jesus. They did not want any misunderstanding.
Pilate’s answer is as powerful as it is enigmatic: “What I have written I have written,”
There is a note of irritation here on Pilate’s part, just as there is in the Jews’ request. Is there more? What is happening here?
In an earthly sense, we might say that power tends to recognize power.
There is another example of this, earlier in the gospels, and it also involves a part of the Roman military machine. In Matthew 8, we read:
5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.
This is amazing. This Roman soldier looks at Jesus and sees authority. He recognizes it. And he says he recognizes it because he too wields it. And Jesus marveled at this and called what the Roman centurion had “faith.”
Power recognizes power.
Now, I do not claim that Pilate put saving faith in Christ. After all, he gives in to the mob—whether one thinks he “had” to or not—and delivers Jesus over. But one can detect in Pilate a kind of hesitation, a nervousness.
In John 19, we can see this:
4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
Of course, Pilate had been warned earlier by his wife not to involve himself in this, in Matthew 27:
19 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.”
So here we see a wife’s warning and an official’s uncertainty. And we likely see a recognition on the part of Pilate that Jesus was something different, something unique.
Regardless of what is behind this, Pilate’s inscription and Pilate’s refusal to soften the wording stand as powerfully prophetic, even if, on Pilate’s part, it is at least partly unintentional or confused.
“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
How powerful! What Pilate wrestled with and what the religious leaders hated was nothing less than the truth itself. Jesus is King! But see Him there: Our King is on a cross!
This is a King unlike any other king.
Most kings are enthroned on a throne of gold. Our King hung on a cross.
Most kings have crowns of jewels and finery. Our King wore a crown of thorns.
Most kings have a court surrounding them. Our King was abandoned by most of His friends.
Most kings assert power. Our King came lowly.
Most kings send an army. Our King came Himself.
Our King loves His people with a love that no other king has ever shown!
Church, Jesus is King! Kneel before him! Sing His praises! Follow Him! And tell the nations about Him.
[1] https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/works-and-artists/the-discovery-of-the-titulus-crucis-and-reactions-in-art-michelangelo-and-signorelli; For a really interesting skeptical take on this relic: https://www.leidenmedievalistsblog. nl/articles/fake-news-in-fifteenth-century-rome-the-miraculous-discovery-of-the-titulus
[2] https://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc03/htm/ii.6.8.2.htm