king

It's a month after Easter and I'm reading again through the account of Jesus' crucifixion, this time from the Gospel of Mark. I noted something interesting today in Mark 15  (excerpts are from verses 2, 12-13, 16-18, 25-26): 

"'Are you the king of the Jews?' asked Pilate.

'You have said so,' Jesus replied. . . .

 "'What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?' Pilate asked them.

 “'Crucify him!' they shouted. . . . .

"The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, 'Hail, king of the Jews!' . . . .

"It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: The King of the Jews."

Everyone from Pilate to the crowd to the soldiers to the court clerks called Jesus "The King of the Jews." In other scriptures the Jewish leaders objected to this. But nowhere in this account do we read of Jesus calling himself that, or accepting the title. 

Why not? He was, in the cosmic sense.

Maybe because that wouldn't be the right title. Maybe if Pilate had asked, "Are you the king of the world, of the universe?" Jesus would have said he was.

Or maybe because the role of King is too limited. Jesus, after all, perfectly fulfills for us the roles of prophet, priest and king, as well as being the ultimate sacrifice. 

Probably it's because Pilate and the soldiers and the Jews all were looking at Jesus as a political force. Jesus never meant to sit on an earthly throne and administer an earthly kingdom.

I'm struck again at how hard it is for us to truly see Jesus through the dirty lenses of all our misconceptions. Like Judas, we have expectations of what Jesus will do for us. He'll make us rich and healthy. He'll give us an easy life. He'll grant us what we pray for. He'll eliminate those feelings of guilt and give us joy. In the end, what we really want, once our sins have been atoned for, is a cosmic vending machine that produces whatever we push a button for.

In truth, Jesus will always be more than we can ever expect or imagine. We limit him because we have such a limited vision of what life should be. As C.S. Lewis said, we're like little children who don't want to leave our mud puddle because we can't even imagine a trip to the seashore.

Jesus as king means so much more for us than we're willing to accept, much less live out.