John 19:12-16 12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
Pilate is an interesting character. Whenever I read about him (or about Barabbas) I always wonder if he ever got it, if he ever came to really know Christ and understand what he did. But this post isn’t really about Pilate. It’s about the chief priests.
Man, that last thing they say in verse fifteen is loaded. “We have no king but Caesar.” It’s difficult for me to even comprehend that they said that. They literally claimed allegiance to a man who had set himself up as a god to be worshiped in order to murder their rightful king and the one who deserved all of their worship. And they thought they were doing the right thing. How horrifying is that?
I’m far more comfortable with the knowledge that there are people in this world who do horrible things while knowing that what they are doing is horrible, or with the idea that someone who does something awful could do it while believing that there is no such thing as objective morality, that there is no actual standard of good or evil but only what we make up. It terrifies me to be made aware that there are people in this world who commit atrocities and who are such unwitting hypocrites that they can believe themselves to be making the world a better place by doing so.
It scares me because I know that I am not perfect. I’m not even close. I want to do what is right, but I fail. I know what kind of man I should be, and I know that I am not him.
But I also know who my King is. He isn’t Caesar and he isn’t me. I fail my King from time to time (more often than that implies), but my King is gracious. My King is never far from me. My King never turns away from me. My King does not demand that I shed my blood for him without knowing me. My King knows me better than I know myself. My King spent all of his own blood in purchasing me. My King delights to show mercy. My King orders the universe so that everything will work towards my benefit. My King wants me to know Him.
I have no King but Christ, the One who sent Him, and the One He sent to live in me.
