He must have had dark hair and a plain face, but surely his eyes must have been kind – bright too, clear, and sometimes incisive. He was surrounded by those who seemingly held all the power. Yet it was they who stooped to catcalls, false accusations, desperate pleas, and hap hazard ploys. The man who was bound was the only one in possession of himself. He sat in quiet dignity, an unshakeable sense of authority about him, even in the midst of mud slinging.
It’s not that he was unable to feel emotions. In fact, he had spent the night pouring out his heart to God. While his friends slept in a haze of bleary oblivion, he knelt in the dust of an olive grove alone in the night apart from his God. Tears and drops of blood had coursed down his face as he asked his father, his best friend, to be spared this pain.
The answer was no.
And so it was that he set his face toward Jerusalem and toward his captors, those who were twisted with pride and hate and disdain. His sight was clear.
He was the king of a people who had rejected him.
He was the king of a world that no one could see, not even those who had followed him three years.
He could see what they could not. Like Moses, he looked to the invisible. Like Elijah, he might have cried “Lord, open their eyes to see!” Like the prophets of old, he preached a message that was rejected by God’s people.
But his kingdom was different from the earthly Israel. This was no military coup nor was it an exodus from the oppressive Rome. This was a kingdom that could not be shaken. This was a kingdom in which all nations would be brought together, despite wars, despite prejudice, despite human ineptitude. This was a kingdom with no more tears, no more pain, no more death.
Pilate could not see. The Jews refused to see. Even the disciples could not see beyond the fact that one of their own had betrayed them all and delivered their friend, their rabbi, the son of God to those who would slaughter him as the Passover lamb had been slaughtered a thousand years before.
They could not see, but their king could. He could see through the darkness of that night to the light at the end. He could see the kingdom waiting, the father beckoning. And because of his clear vision, we have a chance to be in his kingdom, to be his people, to submit as he did that day.
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13-14
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28-29
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