1Now when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus to put Him to death; 2and they bound Him, and led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate the governor … 11Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.”
Since the Jews, under Roman law, had no authority to execute Jesus, they decided to submit their case to the puppet governor appointed to oversee the nation of Israel’s affairs. It was not a coveted posting for any up-and-coming Roman leader with political aspirations. The Roman overlords considered the Jewish people to be the most difficult to govern, so Pilate had a tenuous relationship with them as well as with Rome that left him feeling insecure. At all costs, he wanted to keep peace in Israel lest he look like a failure in the eyes of his superiors.
Knowing that religious concerns did not carry weight in Roman courts, the Jewish leaders had to devise offenses that would gain a hearing for their cause to have Jesus put to death. Luke’s account has them accusing Jesus of “misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar” (Luke 23:1-2). The charge was ludicrous, for He taught that they all should “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Matt. 22:21). The Jewish leaders charged Jesus with sedition by proclaiming he was King of Israel (Luke 23:2b). While Jesus did make comments akin to such an assertion, He was clear in His comments to Pilate (not recorded in Matthew’s account, but in John’s):
“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” (John 18:36)
So, Pilate cut to the chase and asked Him point-blank, “Are you king of the Jews?” Earlier, the high priest had demanded a clear-cut confession from Jesus of what He thought about Himself. The question was, essentially, “Do you or do you not claim to be the Christ, the Son of God?” (Matt. 26:63). They knew that Jesus was acting and teaching like He was the Messiah (synonymous with “Christ”). They wanted to hear it for themselves, directly from His mouth. Jesus responded, “You have said it yourself” (Matt. 26:64).
Now, being interrogated by Pilate, who asked Jesus, effectively, “Do you or do you not confess to claiming kingship over the Jews?” Our Lord’s response was nearly identical to that of the high priest, “It is as you say” (Matt. 27:11). Jesus deftly agrees with the wording of both challenges, affirming that both the Jewish and Roman leaders were asking the right questions and drawing the correct conclusion. Jesus was (and is) the Christ, the Son of God, and the King of the Jews.
Both those charges were repeated by others before His death. The former was thrown at Him in mockery: “Those passing by were hurling abuse at Him … ‘If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’” The latter charge, the legal justification for His execution, was affixed to the cross: “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matt. 27:37). The Jewish leaders took exception to the wording and asked Pilate to change it to: “He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’” (John 19:21). In other words, that was His claim, but they didn’t want anyone to mistakenly think that they accepted His kingship over them.
The point of truth concerning Jesus’ identity, His people rejected Him! The prophet Isaiah said this about Him:
He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him … He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isa. 53:2, 3b)
The question for us, today, is do we embrace, at the very core, who Jesus is, our Christ and our Lord, and seated on the throne of our lives as King?
Lord, it is my highest honor to confess You as my Christ, the Son of God, and my King! I bow before no one else but You.
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