Silly rabbis, the God-Man is not mocked! Just like He said five chapters back, “you are mistaken because you understand neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” The Kingship of Jesus is not a matter of debate, He owns the whole world and the people in it (Psalm 24:1), He does as He pleases (Psalm 115:3) and He laughs at His enemies (Psalm 2:4), so let us dissect what these mockers were expectorating instead of building yet another case for the undisputed Throne of God. Let us just be honest, we can’t kill Him, He threw Lucifer out with one-third of the hosts and Lucifer doesn’t even challenge His Throne and authority. He knows the Scriptures, at this point he is just trying to take as much of humanity down with him as he can. Victory for him is not really an option, his tactic is to drag image-bearers into the lake of fire as one last insult to the Almighty.
Matthew 27:42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe in Him.” Quickly we will see the utter error in what they are saying, we will take this verse piece by piece.
“He saved others.” Well, if He saved others, why won’t you believe Him? Were His signs, wonders and miracles not good enough for you? It is not a good thing when your leaders are mocking people who are dieing. The scribes, chief priests, elders and other leaders showed poor leadership and no character. Watch and pray for your leaders.
“He cannot save Himself.” First, meekness is not weakness. Being able to do something doesn’t make it wise to do it. One Thanksgiving I was playing ping-pong with a young boy. I beat him four games in a row without trying, so I switched hands and let him beat me. He felt great about himself, which was far better for him than the feeling of victory I would have from beating a 10-year-old at ping-pong. It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t save Himself, it was more like He wouldn’t. He never demands of us what He is unwilling to do. So when He said “He who saves his own life will lose it and he who loses his life will gain it”, He knew exactly what would happen to Him and He would go down that road before anyone else would – good Leader. What a stupid thing it would have been for Him to go through with the Incarnation but not the Resurrection! It would be like Danny Ocean setting up and following through with a heist only to stop at the prize and turn to grab a pen instead. It would be pointless. And as my friend put it, on the Cross Jesus essentially said “My Bride’s life is more valuable than My own”. True. Jesus was operating under the influence of His desires. His life was not His own. Selah.
“He is the King of Israel.” You got it this time! No, wait, you’re being sarcastic.
“Let Him come down from the Cross and we will believe in Him.” No you won’t. First, it is in the best interest of everyone but the devil that He die and be raised up, but you don’t know that. Second, y’all saw that Lazarus was alive and you tried to kill him again, what would make this any different. And ultimately, would they really? If He had yanked Himself off that Cross and stood before them, would they have served Him? Not out of love, but out of fear, maybe. But we don’t want a malevolent dictator, we want a love King. Servants in love with their King are far more loyal than fearful slaves. Jesus doesn’t want to rule over people, lording His authority over us, He has always wanted partnership with mankind, ruling with us. This is what a religious spirit will do to the truth, twist it to make God a mean club-holding grouch. He is not that, He is a meek Savior, loving mercy and justice, the Benevolent Crucified King of Resurrection.
*Our King, of Israel and the Gentiles, we lovingly bow before You, thankful. Amen*
