And Pilate wrote a title also and put it on the cross. But there was written Jesus the Nazaraean, the King of the Jews.
Jesus hung between two others, and Pilate fixed a written notice to His cross. The wording he chose — a name, a despised hometown, and a royal title — turned an execution into a public claim of kingship.
Pilate had his own reasons for what he wrote. Commentators see a second hand behind his. At the Lord's lowest point, His dignity still stood in writing.
Jesus, humbled and bearing His cross, takes His place with the transgressors. Yet He who wanted everything to be fulfilled ordained a testimony to His dignity. So Pilate fixes the Lord's title to the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Perhaps he did it to annoy the Jews. He certainly did it to carry out the purposes of God. The title carries a twofold truth: the despised Nazarene is the true Messiah.
At the cross no human voice spoke up for Him. The witness came from an unlikely source.
Here there was no human testimony. So a piece of board cried out instead. Pilate wrote it, or had it written, and it declared that the despised Jesus of Nazareth was truly King of the Jews. It is remarkable how our Lord Himself took up that title of shame. Risen and glorified, He wove it into a wreath for His brow. It is an astounding fact that JESUS OF NAZARETH IS IN HEAVEN — see Acts 22:8.
Nazareth was a name people looked down on. One writer finds glory hidden inside that lowliness.
Like Matthew, John gives our Lord's personal name. No royal dignity equals the dignity of what He was in Himself. Even His divine glory as Son of God is pleased to live in this dwelling, the lowly Jesus. Nazareth stresses that lowliness still further. At the beginning Nathanael had asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Here, at the cross, that despised name has a place of honour beside the title of His royal dignity.
Each Gospel quotes the notice a little differently. Writers explain this in more than one way.
Only John reports the words "of Nazareth." John tells us of the One who is the eternal Son of God, put in the place of lowest humiliation, the object of the Jews' hateful spite. The full title was likely "This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." But each of the Gospel writers reports only the part that suited the character of his book. Or the wording could have been a little different in each of the three languages of the title. All mankind is represented in those three: the religious world (Hebrew), the intellectual world (Greek) and the political world (Latin). All were guilty of crucifying the Lord of glory.
Enemies tried to have the words removed. Commentators see God's hand in the fact that they stayed.
The Lord Jesus hung as the Lamb of God on the accursed tree. Over His bleeding brow the inscription stood in every language: "This is the King of the Jews." They tried to blot it out, but God would not have it blotted out. He would have the whole creation know that the cross was the title to the kingdom.
So the notice is not just an insult that backfired. It announces a King whose reign death did not interrupt.
He comes into death as King — "King of the Jews," indeed, but that in its full sense implies so much. It faces the Jew, the Greek and the Roman. It states a meaning for each one, in his own language, with a firmness His enemies try in vain to set aside. Here is God's King, affirmed in a special way — King in death as in life. His cross is from now on the very sign of His power, the royal staff under which they bow in adoring homage.
- Written — Pilate wrote the title himself. He may have meant to annoy the Jews. He was carrying out God's purpose.
- Witnessed — no human voice defended Jesus, so a board above His head said who He was.
- Worn — "of Nazareth" was a name of contempt, and the risen Lord took that very name up as His own in heaven.
- Worded — each Gospel quotes the notice differently. Writers point to the three languages, or to each writer's aim.
- Withstood — enemies wanted the words gone. God kept them there, so all creation would know the cross was His claim to the crown.
This title therefore many of the Jews read, for the place of the city where Jesus was crucified was near; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin.
John records two plain facts here. Crowds read the notice above Jesus, and three languages carried it. A Roman execution notice becomes a public announcement of who this dying man is.
John gives a simple reason for the crowd. The execution ground sat close to Jerusalem, probably near a busy road.
The title then remained unaltered, publicly declaring that the Jews had crucified their King. Many read it, for Golgotha was near the city, and probably near some thoroughfare.
Each language carried a world with it. Together they bring religion, culture and empire to the foot of the cross. (The ESV calls the first language Aramaic; the writers quoted here call it Hebrew.)
The title was written in the three main languages of that day. Hebrew, the tongue in which the Law of Moses had appeared, the language of religion. Greek, the language of Gentile culture. Latin, the language of Gentile imperialism. In this representative way the whole world was involved in His death.
The reach works both ways. The world shares the guilt, and the world hears that this crucified man is King.
These languages represented the religious, the philosophical and the political worlds. They cover everything in which man trusts and boasts. The title was written this way so that all the world might know that Jesus the Nazarene, crucified by men, is King. The chief priests rebelled against the writing. They wanted Pilate to change it, so that He might die under the title of a pretender who had made a false claim. But the writing could not be altered; penned by Pilate, yet dictated by the Holy Spirit.
The title names the town as well as the crown. That word landed differently on a Greek than on a Jew.
To stir up the scorn of a Greek, it might be enough to say that the King of the Jews hung there. That is just what Luke has recorded. What did it matter to a Greek whether the Crucified One belonged to Judaea or Galilee? But for a Jew, how it would sharpen his contempt as he read, "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." The Nazarene! The reader may remember Nathanael's question, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
What Pilate meant as mockery states a double truth at once.
Pilate fixes the Lord's title to the cross: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." He may have done it to annoy the Jews. He certainly did it to carry out the purposes of God. The title holds a twofold truth: the despised Nazarene is the true Messiah.
The Gospels do not word the title alike. One writer offers two explanations:
The full title was likely "This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." Each of the Gospel writers reports only the part that best suited the character of his book. Or the wording could have differed a little in each of the three languages.
Pilate wrote for his own reasons. God used the notice to state the truth about Jesus in public.
Yet God took care that even there the inscription on the cross gave a fitting testimony to Him, whatever Pilate's motive was. The despised man of Nazareth was the Messiah. Where were the Jews if He was their King? … There stood His title, read by many, for the place was near the city. It was written in the languages not only of the officials, nor only of the polite world, but of the Jews too.
What men meant as an execution charge stands as a royal claim.
We see His title to the kingdom confirmed with full authority. The enemy would have had it blotted out, but he cannot prevail… The cross shall be the Lord's standard. The LORD will display on it the inscriptions of His royal dignity, however angry the earth may be.
- Written — Pilate held the pen, but the Holy Spirit dictated. No protest could revise what stood over the cross.
- Read — Golgotha lay near the city, on a road people travelled, so crowds read the notice.
- Reaching — Hebrew, Greek and Latin brought religion, culture and empire together; the whole world shared in His death.
- Rejected — "of Nazareth" sharpened Jewish contempt, yet it states a twofold truth: the despised Nazarene is the true Messiah.
- Reigning — the accusation became His standard; the cross carries His royal dignity, however angry the earth.