City Life Starter

The Word

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.

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

Deuteronomy 10:17

Exegesis

“We have no king but Caesar.” These are words that cannot be taken back once said, and what was in the hearts of the chief priests finally came to light.

We have no king…

Who is the true king but the one who sits enthroned upon the heavenly realms? As Deuteronomy says, He is the God of gods and Lord of lords. The true King, the true Ruler. He was the one who made the Jewish nation from the seed of Abraham, brought them out of Egypt, and gave them a home.

Yet. the chief priests claimed that they have no king?

And they had the audacity to call Jesus a blasphemer? The hypocrisy of the chief priests was clear to everyone but themselves. They, by rejecting Jesus, ended up rejecting God Himself, by their own words! The blind were walking the blind.

John has painted a picture for us all to see. By choosing Barabbas, the son of the father, that is Satan, they rejected Jesus Christ. By rejecting Jesus Christ, they rejecting God as their king. The truth that Jesus Christ brought was to expose the darkness that resided in the chief priests for all to see, for centuries to come.

Application

Let us not fall into this same trap. It is easy to forget who we serve and to be led astray by those who claim to hold the truth. In the end, their lies and deceit will be exposed by the truth that Jesus Christ brings. Do not reject Jesus and choose what Satan has put in front of you, instead choose the life that can only come through Jesus, and what He has done for you on the Cross.