Luke 23:36-38
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
It’s interesting, if not surprising upon reflection, that each of the groups that mock Jesus does so in the terms that make sense to them. The religious authorities, for instance, ridicule Jesus as claiming to be a messiah yet who is unable to save himself. And now the soldiers choose not a religious term but a political one with which to mock him, again with the same refrain: “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.”
I suppose it’s natural to make sense of events in the terms that are most familiar to us.
The problem, though, is that nothing about Jesus is actually all that familiar to us. He is a messiah set on saving others, a king bent on serving rather than being served, the Son of God who does not consider his status something to be enjoyed or exploited but rather a mandate to care for others.
What do you think about when you think about these kinds of terms – Messiah, King, Savior, Son of God, Son of Man? Truth be told, we have no real categories by which to understand them. And so Luke invites another way. Rather than try to explain Jesus’ role or status, he instead tells us a story. And in the telling this story he invites us to follow Jesus along the way, first learning who and what Jesus is by watching what he does.
And then, in time, learning who Jesus is by following not just his story but his example, conforming our life to his as we discover who he is through our own discipleship.
Messiah, King, Savior – want to know what these things mean…for both you and for the world? Come and follow.
Prayer: Dear God, invite us once again to come to know you fully by following your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image from the Brick Testament.
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