To Encourage You

John 19:19-20 “Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ 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.”

In the account above of the scene at the cross of Jesus, we see that many Jews were witnesses of His death.  God, in His sovereignty, had arranged that as they walked by, they would read the inscription that Pilate had placed there which said, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  Interestingly, it was written in three languages, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.  In that Jesus was crucified during the Passover, there were Jews there from all over the Middle Eastern world present.   It was made certain, then, that no matter where they were from, they could read what had been written. 

Of course, they didn’t believe what the words said.  In fact, their leaders, the chief priests, had urged Pilate to write “This man said I am the King of the Jews.” To this Pilate replied “What I have written, I have written.”  It was in this rejection of the truth that Jesus was indeed the King of the Jews that many of the Jews unwittingly sealed their own fate.  Earlier, Jesus had prophesied their rejection of Him, after which He lamented with these words: “See, your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38).  Indeed, in 70 A.D. Jerusalem was devastated by the Romans.  The historian Josephus tells us that 1.1 million Jews were slaughtered in this event and some 97,000 enslaved. 

With this we get a taste of the devastation that will come to anyone’s life that reads the words either about Christ, or of Christ, recorded in His Word, yet walks away without believing and acting on them. Jesus told the parable of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man that built his house on the sand.  Of these two types of people Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27). 

You see, just as many read the words “King of the Jews” posted on Jesus’ cross but failed to heed the significance of those words and act on them, so many have read at least some of what Jesus has said to us all, but have failed to do anything because of them.  And just as the result of rejection of Christ for the first century Jews was great physical destruction and loss, so those who reject Christ’s words now will one day soon bring swift spiritual destruction on themselves. 

May God keep us from following the sad example of those who read “King of the Jews” on the cross of Jesus, but rejected Him, the very King of kings, Who He truly is.