Luke 23:35-38

The mocking of the people: V. 35. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the Chosen of God. V. 36. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, V. 37. and saying, If Thou be the king of the Jews, save Thyself. V. 38. And a superscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

The anticlimax of the people's frenzy had now been reached. Their bloodthirstiness had been satisfied, and it was only their curiosity that kept them at Calvary. They watched the soldiers in their gruesome work until the crucifixion had been completed. Then, however, they did not remain idle. No other distraction offering itself, they joined the rulers. For these worthies, who would at any other time have felt it a disgrace to mingle with the vulgar crowd, could not deny themselves the joy of coming out from the city and expressing their satisfaction over the success of their plan. They turned up their noses in token of utter contempt of the Lord, and sneeringly remarked: Others He saved; let Him save Himself, if this be indeed the Christ of God, the Chosen One. What they had formerly denied with all the bitterness of their envious hearts they now confessed, showing that they were hypocrites and rotten to the core. They had seen and heard a large enough number of evidences of His Godhead to satisfy any ordinary person, but here they again cast doubt upon the entire matter by challenging Him to come down from the cross to save Himself. Compare Ps. 22, 6-8. 17. But the Lord did not return the insults in kind. When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, 1 Pet. 2, 23.

The soldiers also, tiring of their game of dice, joined in the mockery, making fun especially of the appellation “King of the Jews.” That seemed to them the height of ridiculousness, that this man should have aspired to be the ruler of the despised Israelites.

The occasion for using just this name was given by the fact that Pilate had had a superscription placed over the head of Jesus, at the top of the cross, naming the cause or reason for His condemnation: The king of the Jews is this man, or, as it read literally: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. In Greek, the language commonly spoken on the street and in business, in Latin, the official language of the Romans, and in Hebrew, or Aramaic, the home language of the majority of the Jews, the superscription had been written out.

Note: Jesus here became, as Luther says, the rock of offense before the whole world, every class of people and the most representative languages of the world being here represented.

Also: Pilate undoubtedly wanted to express his contempt both for the Jews and for Jesus by choosing the superscription in that form. But his words were actually true and should be a comfort to this day to all that are children of Abraham in the real, the spiritual sense. The King of Grace, the King of Glory, that is the Savior in whom we place our trust.