Jesus Presented as King

Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. 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.  John 19:14-15

This passage is completely disgusting.  This group of chief priests, who hated Rome, hated Roman authority over them, hated Caesar Tiberius, was now "surrendering" to Rome in order to get what they wanted - the death of Jesus.

This is betrayal and treachery in its worst form.  It is cunning deceit.  Hypocrisy.  As soon as these Jews get what they want, they will be right back to hating Roman rule again.  But for a few hours, they fake submission to Caesar.

This Caesar was Caesar Tiberius (Luke 3:1).  (After the time of Julius Caesar, all Roman kings were called Caesar, the same as all Egyptian kings were called Pharaoh.)  Caesar Tiberius ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD.  This emperor was, during the latter part of his reign, the most cruel, jealous, and wicked that ever sat on the Roman throne. In fact, during that time, faced with treachery himself from within the Roman empire, he put to death anyone that remotely appeared to be against him:

Executions were now a stimulus to his fury, and he ordered the death of all who were lying in prison under accusation of complicity with Sejanus (his political enemy). There lay, singly or in heaps, the unnumbered dead, of every age and sex, the illustrious with the obscure. Kinsfolk and friends were not allowed to be near them, to weep over them, or even to gaze on them too long. Spies were set round them, who noted the sorrow of each mourner and followed the rotting corpses, till they were dragged to the Tiber, where, floating or driven on the bank, no one dared to burn or to touch them.  (from wikipedia.com)

To think that there is even a possibility that the Jews were embracing Tiberius is preposterous.  I'm certain they feared him - who wouldn't?  But to think that they were gladly submitting to his authority is wrong.  Throughout his rule, they mainly tried to just stay out of his way.  He wasn't in Jerusalem, anyway, so the Jewish idea of submitting to Roman rule was just to quietly go about their business and not do anything that captured Roman attention. 

So now, it comes to this.  To me, what they are saying is, we'd rather have the tyrant Tiberius than this man Jesus.

They sold out an innocent man because of greed and fear.

They were afraid of losing their power.  They were afraid of losing their way of life.  They were afraid that maybe the God they had created - NOT the God who had created them - was going to be toppled.

Jesus preached love.  They taught fear.
Jesus preached freedom.  They taught rules.
Jesus preached that God was the authority.  They taught that they were the authority. 

So they gave this man over for crucifixion.  They led the lamb to the slaughter.  They incited the mob mentality and violence.

The tragedy is that Satan had so clouded their vision and their hearts that they refused to see that the God they claimed to know was standing right in front of them.  The Messiah they said they were waiting for now wore a tattered robe and a crown of thorns.  They thought they knew.  But they knew so little.

In my Wednesday night bible study we talked about doubts this week.  Is it disgraceful to doubt?  We decided, it depends on your heart.  To doubt so that you can learn more, is wonderful.  To doubt so that you can close off your mind, is disgraceful.

That's just what these men were doing.

It's so ironic that they wanted all this hurried up - this slaughter, this death, this crucifixion - so that they could go celebrate one of God's festivals.  How could they not see that God - through the celebration of Passover - had been preparing them for this moment for thousands of years?

They didn't see because they didn't want to.

That's terrifying.