The Promised King: King of the Jews — Crowned with Thorns
Matthew 27 is the day the Promised King is crowned.
Not with gold. With thorns.
He is delivered to Pilate. The crowd is given the choice: Jesus or Barabbas. They choose Barabbas. Pilate washes his hands. The soldiers mock Jesus, strip Him, put a scarlet robe on Him, weave a crown of thorns, and beat Him with a reed.
They lead Him out and crucify Him between two robbers. Over His head they place the charge: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
It is mockery. And it is the truth.
He dies. The curtain of the temple is torn in two. The earth shakes. The rocks split. A Roman centurion confesses: Truly this was the Son of God.
The Promised King is crowned by the very people who killed Him — and the inscription over His cross declares the truth they intended as a joke.
Delivered to Pilate
When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. They bound Him, led Him away, and delivered Him over to Pilate the governor.
Judas's despair
Then when Judas, His betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders:
"I have sinned by betraying innocent blood."
They said: What is that to us? See to it yourself.
He threw down the pieces of silver into the temple and went and hanged himself.
The chief priests took the silver: It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money. They bought the potter's field for a burial place for strangers. So that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
Judas felt remorse — but did not repent. Remorse runs from the consequences. Repentance runs to Christ. Judas ran neither to the Lord he had betrayed nor to mercy. He ran to a rope.
This fulfilled Zechariah's prophecy of the thirty pieces of silver thrown into the house of the Lord.
Before Pilate
Jesus stood before the governor. Pilate asked:
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus said: You have said so.
But when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer. Pilate said: Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?
He gave him no answer, not even to a single charge — so that the governor was greatly amazed.
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." (Isaiah 53)
The Promised King does not defend Himself. He came to be condemned.
Barabbas
At the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner for the crowd. They had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
When they had gathered, Pilate said: Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?
For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered Him up.
While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word: Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
The governor asked: Which of the two do you want me to release for you?
They said: Barabbas.
Pilate said: Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?
They all said: Let him be crucified!
He said: Why? What evil has he done?
But they shouted all the more: Let him be crucified!
One man called Barabbas — son of the father — goes free, because Another, the true Son of the Father, takes his place. The gospel is acted out in the courtroom. The guilty walks free. The innocent dies.
Pilate washes his hands
When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd:
"I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves."
All the people answered: His blood be on us and on our children!
Then he released for them Barabbas. Having scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.
Pilate cannot wash his hands of this. No one who has heard of Jesus and refused Him can pretend to neutrality. The cross demands a response.
Mocked as a king
The soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and gathered the whole battalion before Him. They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. Twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and placed a reed in His right hand. Kneeling before Him, they mocked Him: Hail, King of the Jews!
They spit on Him. They took the reed and struck Him on the head.
When they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him. They led Him away to crucify Him.
Every gesture is mockery. Every gesture is true. He is the King. The robe is real. The crown is real. The kneeling will one day be eternal. But on this morning, it is all done in jest, and the Promised King endures every blow.
Golgotha
As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry His cross.
When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall. When He tasted it, He would not drink it.
When they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over Him there.
Over His head they put the charge against Him, which read: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
The inscription was meant as mockery. It became the gospel's truest headline.
Mocked at the cross
Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.
Those who passed by derided Him, wagging their heads:
"You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him:
"He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him."
The deepest mockery is in the very thing they think disproves Him: He saved others; he cannot save himself. It is exactly because He came to save others that He cannot save Himself. Coming down from the cross would have saved one Man. Staying on it saves many.
"My God, my God"
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice:
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" — "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
This is the cry of Psalm 22 — the psalm that begins in forsakenness and ends in worldwide worship of the Lord.
He bore the wrath we deserved. He bore the forsakenness our sin earned. And in His forsakenness, our acceptance was bought.
Some of the bystanders said: This man is calling Elijah. One ran, took a sponge filled with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to Him to drink. The others said: Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit.
The curtain torn
Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook. The rocks were split. The tombs were opened. Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
The curtain that separated the people from the presence of God was torn from top to bottom — torn by God's hand, not man's. The way into the Holy of Holies is opened by the blood of Christ.
The temple of stone is finished. The temple of His body is the new and living way.
The centurion's confession
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said:
"Truly this was the Son of God!"
A Roman centurion — a Gentile, an executioner — gives the great Christian confession. The cross is its own first sermon, and the centurion is its first convert.
The burial
When evening came, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. He rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
The next day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate and asked for a guard at the tomb, lest the disciples come and steal the body.
Pilate said: You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
The Promised King rests in a borrowed tomb. The sabbath of His death has begun. And the guard and the seal will make the resurrection all the more undeniable.
Closing prayer
Father, thank You that Your Son was crowned with thorns so that we could be crowned with grace. Thank You that He did not save Himself — so He could save us. Thank You that one Barabbas went free because the true Son took his place. Thank You for the curtain torn in two and the way opened into Your presence. And grant us the centurion's confession: Truly this was the Son of God. In Jesus' name, amen.
