“Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king! To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth: everyone that is of the truth hearest my voice.
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Little thought the sons of Zebedee and their ambitious mother what the earthly throne of Christ’s glory was which they and she begged they might share. For the king crowned by his witnessing, witnessed then to the height of his uttermost argument, when he hung upon the cross—like a sin, as Paul in his boldness expresses it. When his witness is treated as a lie, then most he witnesses, for he gives it still. High and lifted up on the throne of his witness, on the cross of his torture, he holds to it: “I and the Father are one.” Every mockery borne in witnessing is a witnessing afresh. Infinitely more than had he sat on the throne of the whole earth, did Jesus witness to the truth when Pilate brought him out for the last time, and perhaps made him sit on the judgment-seat in his mockery of kingly garments and royal insignia, saying, “Behold your king!” Just because of those robes and that crown, that scepter and that throne of ridicule, he was the only real king that ever sat on any throne.
Commentary
by Jolyn Canty
“Brothers, sisters, have you found our King? There he is, kissing little children and saying they are like God.”
“Brothers, sisters, have you found our King? There he is, kissing little children and saying they are like God.” –GeorgeMacDonald
Has there ever, in the history of the world, been a king, a president, a leader of a country, who said to his people, “I will fight evil on your behalf. I will go into battle and save you. I will not send you, I will go in your place.” No. Never. Our leaders require, and often demand, our adoration and loyalty, and require that we defend and fight for them. But we have a King who acted very differently. His crown was thorns, and He fought the battle in our place. Not only that, the full punishment we deserved for sinful actions was taken by Him too. He has saved and delivered us from our sinful nature, the consequences of our poor choices, and from the evil around us. No earthly king or leader has or could ever fill His crown.