Owning His as King

There’s only one time the term Calvary appears in Scripture and it’s in Luke 23:33: “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”

Jordan says, “We sing that song that goes, ‘Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified at Calvary.’ That’s a term that in Christian parlance is the essence of the gospel.

“Do you know that term’s not found in any of the new Bibles? It’s completely taken out of all the English Bibles after 1881. They say, ‘Well, it’s a bad translation because it should say the skull.’ Well, notice John 19:17: ‘And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.’

“Golgotha is the Hebrew term that means the skull. Calvary is a Latin term that means the same thing. It’s a perfectly good translation, and the fact that you can translate it and it be legitimate, John 19 tells you that.

“Over and over Luke crafts his gospel to point to Christ, not simply as Israel’s Messiah, but Israel’s Messiah through whom all the nations of the earth are going to blessed. So it’s not surprising that Luke would have a term that would focus on the Latin.

“Why that gets to be important is in the next two verses: ‘Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
[19] And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.’

“All three languages have ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.’ It’s written over His head so that everybody can see it. It’s written for all of mankind to see: ‘Here He is.’

“God is the God who invented languages. He never confined His Word to only one. He designed it to be available in the language of the nations and this is an illustration of that.

“Isaiah 53:9 says, ‘And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.’ Verse 12 goes on, ‘Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’

“In His death He’s going to die and He’s going to be identified with the rich and with the wicked. He dies between two thieves, numbered with the transgressors, and outcast with the malefactors on either side.

“Before the evening’s over, He’s buried in a rich man’s tomb. Just little details like that dovetail in with what the Scriptures say.

“Psalm 22. Crucifixion was invented originally by the Phoenicians and it was taken over by the Romans who loved the viciousness of it, but that was centuries after David wrote these words. Verse 2 says, ‘O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.’

“Here is literally a glimpse into the mind and the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ when He’s hanging on Calvary. And it extends all the way down to verse 21. You notice verse 18: ‘They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.’

“When you’re reading in John, you’re reading events that are compressed together, that contain all of these various sundry passages.

“Pilate wrote a title and put it on the Cross. Luke 23:38 says, ‘And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.’

“There’s an argument about what did the Cross look like? There’s a thing called ‘St. Stephens Cross’ and it looks like an ‘X.’ Then there’s the cross the way we usually draw it and it looks like a ‘T.’ Then there’s some people who say it’s just a stake with no crossbar at all. His hands were just nailed and He hung down.

“Well, when he says there a superscription placed over His head that helps you kind of get an idea what the Cross must have looked like. Because if it was on a stake with His hands up here like this it would be hard to have a superscription where His hands were. With an ‘X’ there’s nothing over His head to put a superscription.

“Like many cowards, Pilate had a vindictive streak in him and he took every cheap shop he could, and then if he had a shot that wasn’t a cheap shot, he took it in spades. And that’s what he does when he adds in ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ because it was embarrassing enough to call Him the ‘king of the Jews,’ but to say He’s from Nazareth. In Israel’s thinking, that was a reprehensible cheap shot. A mean kind of a thing to do. It was scorned and it was a not so subtle shot at Pilate at the Jews.

“For example, John 1:46 says, ‘And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.’ He said, ‘You got to be kidding. There is nothing good that comes out of Nazareth. That’s a scorn; that’s a putdown.’

“That’s the reputation it had. Every city has a part of town like that. ‘He comes from the wrong side of the tracks, dude. You know nothing good comes out of that crowd over there. Bunch of rejects; in fact that’s what the name means.’

“So when Pilate put that up there it’s really prophetic because what had they just done to their king? You see, all those Jews came into town for the Passover. Acts 2:5 says, ‘And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.’ Verse 8 says, ‘And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?’

“Look at all the different tongues in verses 9-12. All those different languages of the Jews that were there in Jerusalem to worship! They were there for Passover!

“They go out of the city, they see these crucifixions, and they see this big placard: ‘This is Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.’ It isn’t just the Jews in Jerusalem getting this; now the Jews are the whole nation spread across the world getting this message about who He is!

“So verse 21 says, ‘Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.’

“They said, ‘Write not.’ You see they knew they were crucifying one who said He was king of the Jews; one who in plain terms had offered himself as the Messiah, the King of Israel, and then been rejected by Israel.

 

“Pilate understood who He was; he said He was the innocent one. Three times Pilate calls him the innocent man, the just man. Pilate knew who He was.

 

“And they say, ‘Write that he said,’ and Pilate grew a backbone. Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I’ve written.’ Now, that’s a little late to get a backbone but that stubborn stance demonstrates the sovereignty of God.

“The question is often asked, ‘Where did that thief on the Cross come up with the idea that Jesus was a king and going to have a kingdom?’ Perhaps it was the inscription that was the source for the conversion of that thief.

“The Roman soldier would watch Jesus die and say, ‘Surely this is the Son of God,’ out of nothing except watching the way He died. And that thief watching the mocking crowd saw what was happening in the Savior as He died. He sees the inscription over His head. I can’t prove that but that when Pilate left it there. the result was that that thief was converted and his conversion was a statement of faith in the message on that inscription.”