Read the Sign
Have you ever known someone who tells a story but gets stuck on the details? I have a friend who tells stories this way. It’s always frustrating for me because I want them to get to the point! Spare me the irrelevant details, please.
But that’s exactly what the author, John, does in this scene. He takes a small background piece of information and focuses in on it. What small detail does John want to draw your attention to in this passage? It’s the sign they put over Jesus' head while he is being murdered on the cross. Verse 19 tells us the sign read, “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.”
It was a common Roman practice that criminals who were condemned to death by crucifixion would carry their cross to the place where they were to be executed. While they were walking and dragging their instruments of torture, they would also have a sign hanging around their neck that said exactly what it was they were being punished for. Once said criminal was lifted up on the cross, the sign would then be nailed above their heads for everyone to see.
We also get a little back and forth between the Jewish leaders and Pilate about the exact wording of the sign. The way that it was phrased apparently irritated the Jewish authorities. “So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate meant this sign as a means of demoralization. Here is your king. Neither Pilate nor the Jewish leaders actually thought that Jesus was the king of the Jews.
When Pilate and other Romans looked upon Jesus on the cross with that sign they laughed. It was a means of mockery. A foolish joke and a way to keep power over the people. This is what happens to those who oppose us.
When the Jewish leaders looked up at Jesus on the cross and read the sign, it was offensive to them. They didn’t think it was foolish or funny; to them it was repulsive to have this man portrayed as their king.
What do you think when you read the sign? Is it an odd detail in an irrelevant story for you?
The twist of Good Friday is that the sign reads right. What we are witnessing at the Place of a Skull is the enthronement of Jesus Christ as King. You can choose to read it and laugh, you can choose to read it and be repulsed, or you can choose to read it and fall down in reverence.
