Belated Good Friday: Excerpts from John
7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
14-15 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
19-22 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
And on that day the world’s only true King was hung on a cross. Funny, but Pilate seemed to know more than anyone, whether he knew it or not. Things don’t change much. We all seek authority–truth and meaning to lead and order our lives–and we’re willing to try any authority besides the true one. Authority of our own invention or of our own choosing seems easier to stomach, most likely because it can be scorned or replaced according to our own whims. So God let the drama play out, and he let the violence occur and watched while some triumphed and others wept, and all the while the suspense was building and Act II was coming even though none of the actors in the play knew…