Matthew 26, we find Jesus lifted up on that cross, wearing his crown, a crown made of thorns pressed into his head, elevated up above the people for all to see, and a sign above his head which reads, “King of the Jews,” meant to mock him and tear him down. “Oh, so this is your king, this one who we are crucifying.” But I think these details are important. I think Matthew is putting these details in here to show us that the way Jesus takes the throne is by pulling our sin and shame upon himself, wearing his crown and being raised up above the people as king of the Jews. In his lowest point, in his point of most pain and shame, Jesus is crowned King.
And while the people don’t yet know it, that their mocking and jeering is truly telling the reality of the situation, Jesus is up on the cross as king. They don’t know it yet. But that is our king, the king that lowered himself to the point of death on a cross. And in his moment of showing to the people that he is king, Matthew portrays this moment as the moment that he is crowned as king of the Jews.
And we find then one chapter later, right just how correct that sign was, just how accurate those mocks and jeers ended up being. Christ our Lord had raised from the dead and beaten death.
Jesus, he comes back triumphantly in Matthew 28 to declare once and for all that he is king. Matthew is really, really important in emphasizing Jesus teaching, and he has one last thing to teach us in Matthew 28, the very last words of Matthew in his gospel.
The last words of Jesus recorded in Matthew. This is what Jesus says. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age, Jesus returns, and the last words he leaves his disciples with is, all power and all authority has been given unto me.
The long awaited Messiah prophesied long, long ago. The king who’s come now, many may have left before that and doubted him because he didn’t come in the way they expected. But it is clear that Matthew is showing us, right, that Jesus, although it’s not what we might have expected, is in fact that king, King Jesus here to rule and reign and bring about his kingdom. And so what on earth does that have to do with us? Well, if you don’t believe the gospel writer of Matthew, then maybe not much.
But for those of us that believe this is the word of God spoken to us through people like the prophet Matthew. This has a huge effect on our life. It’s the gospel message. It’s that message that got thousands and thousands of people to leave their families, leave their whole life behind in pursuit of this king, following him, extending his kingdom. That is what the gospel does.
But a lot of us are really confused about what the gospel is right this good news message, what is it?
If you accept Christ as your king, if you believe he is who he says he is, if you believe Matthew and his portrait of Jesus as this king that was said to come and save all of his people, if you believe that, and you proclaim that, it requires that we understand that if Jesus is Lord, I am not. If Jesus is king, I am not. If control is to be in his hands, it is not in mine.
But how many of us go through life grasping on to as much as we can? Some of us live freely most of the time. And when things go well, Christ is king when my life is flowing smoothly. But as soon as that situation that I subtly want to control becomes out of control, at least in my eyes, what do I do? I step right back into that role.
I say something like, Jesus, thank you very much. I will take the throne for a minute so that I can handle this right. That’s the way we approach life. But that is not the way Jesus, if we believe him to be king, has called us to live. We are called to live with him as king and king alone in our life with full and complete control, complete surrender over that which we can’t control and that which we can.
You may be a Christian reading this, and at some point or another, you have declared Christ is Lord. Christ is king over my life. And you may not have known fully what that entailed and meant at that moment, but I’m telling you today that the good news is that Jesus doesn’t just cast us aside. He doesn’t just say, you’ve messed it up, see you. He takes the throne, invites us to sit next to him and extend the kingdom with him.