Around the First Century, experts and historians estimate that at least a hundred thousand pilgrims would descend upon Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Some of them would come from as far away as Cyrene in northern Africa … Macedonia, Thrace, and Pontus along the Black Sea … Cyprus … Ephesus, Pergamum, and Philadelphia in Asia Minor … Galatia … and along with them, thousands upon thousands of sheep literally being lead to the slaughter … lambs without blemish … perfect sacrifices for Yahweh, the God Most High.
They would be sacrificed on the 14th day of the lunar month of Nissan, which usually falls somewhere around this time of year. Each lamb had to be set aside for four days prior to the day of their sacrifice … on the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan. During those four days, the lamb’s health would be observed and they would be evaluated and authenticated by the Temple priest to determine if they were worthy and acceptable to be offered as a sacrifice without flaw and blemish as commanded by God in Deuteronomy 22:21: “When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the Lord to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable.”
When the pilgrims would arrive in Jerusalem for the Passover, they would either purchase or bring with them a special bronze name plate to hang around the lamb’s neck. The bronze plate would be etched with the family’s name to designate who or what family was offering that particular lamb as a Passover sacrifice.
Think about it. Hundreds of thousands of sheep every Passover for centuries … that’s literally millions upon millions of sheep being slaughtered and sacrificed to the Great I Am. Yet one sacrifice would stand above them all … a perfect Lamb … a Lamb without blemish … a Lamb that came all the way down from Heaven and wore a very special name plate designating His connection to a very distinct family. We learn about this special name plate in the Gospel of John 19:19-22:
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 19:19-22)
The sign that Pilate had made up for Jesus was called a “titulus.” It was made of wood and covered with gypsum. It was kind of like a white or silver blackboard that could be used over and over again. The prisoner’s charges would be written on the ‘titulus’ in black letters and either hung on the criminal’s neck or carried before him on their way to meet their fate. Once they reached the place of execution, the ‘titulus’ would be nailed to the cross above the criminal’s head.
We just heard what was written on Jesus’ titulus: “Jesus of Nazareth – The King of the Jews.” Pilate had it written in three languages … Hebrew for the Jews … Latin for the Romans … and Greek, the common language of the day, for everyone else.
Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent … that they were both being used in a cruel game. He tried several times to convince the Jewish religious leaders to release Jesus but they would threaten him if he did: “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the Emperor” (John 19:12). Very effective threats, to say the least … nothing that Pilate wanted to get back to Caesar, true or not.
The sign … or titulus … was an opportunity for Pilate to humiliate the Jewish authorities who had blackmailed him into crucifying an innocent man. The first thing he had written on the sign was “Jesus of Nazareth.” There was a saying amongst the Jews: “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” We heard Nathaniel say it when his friend, Philip, told him that he had found the Messiah … Jesus of Nazareth.
Nazareth was a hick town … barely a spot on a map … a one-light town, so to speak. The idea that a great king like David or Solomon could ever come out of some backwoods town like Nazareth was just ridiculous … laughable.
Pointing out and emphasizing that Jesus was from Nazareth was pure mockery. “Some king,” Pilate scoffs. “A carpenter … from Nazareth. Really? A loser king from a loser town. A loser king fit for a loser people. Look! Look at what I did to your ‘King’ from Nazareth!”
The obvious meaning of the inscription from the Roman perspective was that Jesus claimed … or the Jewish leaders claimed that Jesus claimed … that He was the “Messiah” or “King of the Jews.” His crucifixion was a graphic warning to anyone foolish enough to make such a threat against Rome. While Pilate meant it to mock and shame the Jewish leaders, God had another purpose for Pilate’s wording on Jesus’ titulus. As the Jewish leaders reminded Pilate: “Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor” (John 19:12).
Let’s stop and think about this for a minute. The purpose of the titulus was what? To publicly pronounce the “crime” of the condemned prisoner, right? And didn’t the Jewish leaders bring Jesus before Pilate because they wanted him to put Jesus to death for the crime of blasphemy? For claiming Himself to be “The Son of God”? And yet, the reason that the Jewish leaders where so upset is that the titulus, while spelling out Jesus’ so-called crime or crimes also bore the truth … that Jesus’ was who He claimed to be.
Follow me on this …
Pilate had the charges against Jesus written in three languages. He had it written in Greek: “Iesous o Nazaraios O Basileus Tan Ioudaion” … forgive my Greek pronunciation … and my Latin too … “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum.” And then we have the Hebrew, which I’m about to totally butcher as well: “Yeshau Hanatzri Velmelech Hayhoodem.” Yeah … sorry about all that.
The Jewish leaders were outraged. “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,” but ‘This man said, I am the King of the Jews” (v. 22). To say “Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews” would be to make a declarative statement … one that might suggest that it is true if Pilate had it written on a titulus. By changing it to “This man said, I am the King of the Jews” it takes away any hint of possible truth or recognition and makes it a libelous statement on the part of the condemned man, Jesus. He is making the claim. He alone. And His misguided followers believe it … and for that reason, for His treason and for His blaspheme, He is now on His way to die.
But there was something subtly disturbing about the Hebrew … not something that everyone might catch … but the possibility was there. “Yeshua Hanatzri Velmelech Hayhoodem.” You might not see it right away … or at all … because you don’t know Hebrew, but it has to do with the first letter of each word.
“Yeshua” starts with the letter “Y” … “Yod” in Hebrew. “Hanatzri” starts with the Hebrew letter “He” … or “H.” “Vemelech” starts with the letter … you’re getting it … “V” or “Vav.” And, of course, the last word, “Hayhoodem,” starts with the letter “H” or “He.”
Take the first letter of each word and you get “YHWH” … “Yod-He-Vav-He.” What does it spell? Yahweh! YHWH … Yod-He-Vav-He … the personal, sacred name of God! Now … is that awesome or what, amen? God uses Pilate’s insult, “Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews” to declare that this poor, bloody, beaten soul was something more than just the King of the Jews but Emanuel, God incarnate … Yod-He-Vav-He … Yahweh! … allowing Himself to be led to the top of Golgotha to be sacrificed on the cross … a freewill offering, without defect or blemish.
Remember those bronze name plates that the pilgrims placed on the necks of their Passover lambs so that lamb would bear their name and be sacrificed on their behalf? The titulus that was nailed over Jesus’ head on the cross was God’s way of telling us that this was His sacrifice on our behalf. God used Pilate to place His name on His Lamb for the whole world to see. Pilate’s inscription because God’s bronze name tag. For centuries, Jewish pilgrims had been hanging bronze name tags around their paschal sacrifices as a way of saying: “See, God … this lamb is for our family.” God hung His Son on the highest hill in Jerusalem as a way of telling us: “See … This is My Lamb … This is for My family!”
Let’s take a moment to pause here and really let that sink in. While thousands of lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple for the sins of various individuals and families, Jesus’ sinless blood was flowing on the cross for the redemption of all God’s children so that we could once again have direct fellowship with God, our Father. What was meant as a condemnation by the Jewish religious leaders … what was meant as a put down by Pilate … was used by God to declare Jesus’ true nature … “Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews” … Yod-He-Vav-He … Yahweh … Father and King of us all!
When Pontius Pilate had that inscription put on Jesus’ titulus, he unknowingly had put God’s name on the titulus too … YHWH! Yahweh used a Roman governor to put His name on the cross over Jesus’ head to show the world that Jesus Christ was HIS perfect Lamb … a lamb with blemish … a lamb without defect … a lamb without sin.
What if Pilate had given in to the Jewish religious leaders’ demand to change the titulus from “Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews” to “Jesus of Nazareth – This man claims that is the King of the Jews”? As I pointed out earlier, it would have changed what Pilate wrote from a declarative statement of fact to a claim or a proposition on the part of Jesus … grammatically that would have made a significant difference … but more importantly, it would have destroyed the Divine acrostic “YHWH” … which is why I believe that it was no coincidence that Pilate, who had capitulated and gave in to the Jewish religious leaders on every point, refused to given in to this one. He refused to change the titulus. “What I have written,” Pilate declares, “I have written.” I prefer to think of it as God declaring: “What I have written, I have written … Pilate was merely the human stylus or pen that I used to write it down.”
Regular sacrifice … the kind that was taking place at the Temple … was to atone for known sins. Offerings were specified according to the nature of the offense. A “sin” or “purification” offering dealt with the disruption in the relationship between a human being and God. According to the qualifications listed in the Book of Leviticus, the offering was based on the identity and status of the person making the sin or purification offering. A chief priest, for example, might be required to sacrifice a bull but the Lord made allowances for people who couldn’t afford such an expensive “gift” or sacrifice. An ordinary person was required to sacrifice a female goat or lamb and those who were too poor to afford a goat or a sheep were allowed to offer birds … or make a grain offering if they were very poor.
“Guilt” offerings dealt with distinct categories of wrongdoing that disrupted the divine-human relationship, such as the unintentional desecration of sacred things. The prescribed sacrifice was a flock animal … such as a sheep or a goat.
This sacrifices or “gifts” were made for sins or actions or behaviors that the pilgrim or worshipper or penitent knew about … but what about the sins that the person committed through ignorance or sins that they had no idea that they committed? When the sinner remains unaware of his or her guilt, there doesn’t seem to be an awareness or the need to sacrifice or atone for any sin because they simply don’t know what sin, if any, they have committed … and so that sin remains, in a sense, unaccounted for. If they are not atoned for, they can continue to accumulate. If this condition remains unrelieved or unresolved, the sacrificial system falls short of its ultimate purpose. So, to meet this pressing and ever-present need, God instituted “Yom Kipper” – The Day of Atonement.
Once a year the high priest would offer special animal sacrifices for himself, for the other priests and Levites, as well as for the entire nation or population of Israel to atone for all the sins of the people – known and unknown. On this day … Yom Kipper … God decides whether or not He is going to forgive the sins of the nation … so the entire day is spent in fasting and in reverence to God.
In the days of the Temple, the high priest would sacrifice a special goat – the “scapegoat” – on Yom Kippur. Two goats would be brought before the high priest … as identical in age, color, and size as possible. The high priest would reach inside of a wooden box that contained two engraved markers or “lots.” Without looking, he would grab one marker in each hand. One marker would be engraved with the words “For the Lord” and the other said “For Azazel.” “Azazel” is another name for the Devil.
Facing the two goats, the priest would open his hand and determine the fate of each goat. The marker in his left hand determined the fate of the goat on his left. Obviously, the marker in his right hand would determine the fate of the goat on his right.
If, for example, the marker in the priest’s right hand said “For the Lord,” a red thread was tied to the right-hand goat’s horn and it was sacrificed to the Lord on the altar. A red thread would be tied around the neck of the other goat … the “scapegoat” or the goat for Azazel. The high priest would then lay his hands on the scapegoat for Azazel and transfer all of the people’s sins onto that goat. A Levite would then lead the scapegoat through the east gate of Jerusalem … across a ramp … and out into the Judean wilderness … and let the goat go. The problem is that the scapegoat sometimes wandered back into town so, according to some commentaries that I read, there were Levites who were assigned the job of making sure that the scapegoat didn’t wander back into town by chasing it off a cliff.
Key to all of this were the scarlet threads. One scarlet thread was tied to the horn of the goat sacrificed to the Lord. Another scarlet thread was tied around the neck of the goat sent off into the wilderness … and there was a third scarlet thread. This thread was attached to the door of the Temple. After the sacrifice to the Lord was burned on the altar and the scapegoat had died in the wilderness, the scarlet thread on the Temple door was said to miraculously turn pure white. Upon seeing this, the people of Israel knew that it was sign from God that He had accepted their sacrifices and forgiven their sins.
Three scarlet threads … one tied to the horns of the goat marked “for the Lord,” the second tied around the neck of the “scapegoat,” and the third one attached to the door of the Temple. What do these three threads and Yom Kipper have to do with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Well, if your mind has been drifting or you’ve been picking cotton so to speak, you might want to focus and listen up right now because I wouldn’t want you to miss this.
According to Jewish history as recorded in the Mishnah, something amazing happened in the year 30 AD. The scarlet thread attached to the Temple door stopped turning white. From 30 AD until the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD … a span of forth years … the thread on the Temple door stayed scarlet red, leading many to believe that God was no longer forgiving the Jewish nation of their sins and why the Temple was destroyed.
Though Jewish scholars and commentators see it as a sign of God’s disfavor, we see it differently. Hummm … what happened in 30 AD? 30 AD was during the time of Jesus’ ministry and death. For us, the thread remaining red isn’t a sign of God’s displeasure but a sign that sacrifices and scapegoats are no longer necessary because Jesus … the spotless Lamb of God … has made our sins as white at snow through His own blood!
Those three threads lead us back to Calvary and the three crosses. One man … Jesus … died as an offering “for the Lord” like the goat that was sacrificed on the altar. Another man died rejecting Christ … and he was given over to Azazel, or Satan, like the second goat. The third man accepted Christ’s sacrifice and his sin became as white as the thread attached to the Temple door.
Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews … His crime was that of our salvation. We know that He lived a sinless life. We know that He was tempted in every way as we are tempted … but did not sin. We know that He was wounded for our transgressions. We know that He was bruised for our inequities. We know that He was hung up for our hang ups. We know that He took our place on that old rugged cross. We know that the sign over the cross should have detailed all our sinful deeds. We know that we should have been crucified in His place on the cross because the Bible says that the wages of sin are death. We know that God knew we could never pay the ransom for our souls that we forfeited to the Devil by our choice to sin. We know that we were barred from eternity in Heaven because the blood of goats and bulls no longer met the penalty price. We know that we could not get across the Divide that existed between us and God because of sin.
“Jesus of Nazareth: King of Heaven.” He came to us because we could not get to Him. He came to tear down the wall that separated us from the Father. He died on the cross so that we could cross the Great Divide between us and God. He became fully human so that He could take our place and fully pay the price for our sin.
Our guilt and our shame have been covered up and erased by the blood of Jesus of Nazareth. Many may know your past … and even your present … but only Jesus of Nazareth knows your future. When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, everything that was ever being held over me no longer held me. The chains that had me bound were loosed in the name of “Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews.” The sin that tried to take me to hell was destroyed in the name of “Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews.” The shame that tried to hold me back was broken … how? You got it! In the name of “Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews.” The disease that tried to take my life was healed how? That’s right … in the name of “Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews.” The debt that I could never pay was cancelled how? Common, say it with me: “Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews!”
“Jesus of Nazareth: The King of the Jews” … the spotless Lamb of God … the perfect Sacrifice … the only legitimate replacement for us up on that cross. His blood saved all of humanity … from Adam all the way up to you and me … and from now on, no other sacrifice is needed, amen?
Let us pray:
Jesus of Nazareth: The King of All Heaven …
Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Universe which You created …
Jesus of Nazareth: Our Lord, Our God …
Jesus of Nazareth: Our Holy Redeemer, Our Savior
We thank You for this day,
We thank You for Your infinite Love,
We thank You for Your forgiveness of our sin,
We thank You for Your Crucifixion,
We thank You for our Redemption and Salvation.
We thank You for Your saving Grace,
We thank You for all Your gifts of Love.
Amen.
