John 18-19, Psalms 145-146

(I have fallen far behind the reading schedule in this blog. Today, I post the reading assignments as blank blog posts. Later, I may publish reflections on the readings here. If you want to check back to see those reflections, then please do.)

Here is my "catch-up" reflection:

It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.

But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

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.” (John 19:14-22)

There is no small irony here, namely that Pilate publishes Jesus Messiah's proper title, King of the Jews, while the leading priests reject that title. They give Jesus no title, no place. Their desire is to publish the claim they attribute to him.