Truth on a Cross

 

The inscription of the charge written against him was:
The King of the Jews.

Mark 15:26

Pontius Pilate was probably a bit peeved at the Jewish religious leaders who basically forced him to crucify Jesus.

He declared that he found Jesus innocent of any kind of capital offence, but the Jewish Sanhedrin members and the rabble they had roused insisted that Jesus was trying to overthrow the Roman government by declaring himself King.

Pilate had Jesus beaten to within an inch or two of his life in an attempt to win the Jewish preacher some sympathy from the mob . . . with no success.

He gave the crowd a choice between the Prince of Peace and a thieving murderer and they chose the convicted felon, demanding the Romans free Barabbas and crucify Jesus.

But Pilate had the last word when he posted Jesus' crime in three languages so every soldier, every citizen, and every passerby would see the authority of Rome on display: Here's what we think of your so-called leader. Here's the power we have over every last one of you. You are not the boss of me!

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Truth is...Pilate was not expressing faith in Jesus by labeling him "King of the Jews." He had no idea how accurate he was, nor how his bowing to the will of the Jewish leaders would result in the world's salvation and a future time when "at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." (Philippians 2:10-11 CSB)