The true Saviour of the whole world
by Julian Mann, TCW:
THE Prayer Book reading for today, Good Friday, from John’s Gospel reveals the profound irony in Pontius Pilate’s refusal to change the inscription on Jesus’s cross from a declaration of objective truth to a subjective claim.
All four New Testament Gospels record the inscription on the cross but John’s is the only one to relate the controversy over it:
‘And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews. This title [was] then read [by] many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.Pilate answered, What I have written I have written’ (John 19v19-22 – King James Version).
The Apostle John, in his witness account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, previously recorded how the Roman Governor, against his better judgment, gave in to the demands of the crowd to have Jesus condemned to death. He knew Jesus was innocent of the charges of political insurrection the religious leaders in Jerusalem had levelled against him.
Jesus had no political agenda. He made clear to Pilate during their conversation in the Praetorium: ‘My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence’ (John 18v36).
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
