Names of Christ: King of the Jews

And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands. (John 19:2-3 NKJV)

This term, King of the Jews, is very important when describing Jesus. It's associated with the Christmas story because the Magi used it to describe Jesus. They told King Herod they were looking for the King of the Jews, who was recently born in Bethlehem. This alarmed King Herod. He felt very threatened by it and told the Magi that once they identified this King of the Jews, that he wanted them to come back and tell him who this young king was.

Of course, the Magi did not do that.

But King Herod, nevertheless, decided to get rid of this new King of the Jews by killing all of the young boys, ages two and under, who had been born in Bethlehem. Jesus escaped that.

And we hear this term again (in Luke 23:3), very close to his crucifixion. When Pontius Pilate says, "Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus says, “It is, as you say.”

The soldiers used this to mock Jesus because they thought if Jesus was a king, then surely He would get Himself out of the mess He was in— that He would avoid His own crucifixion.

But we know that Jesus willingly went to the cross so that we could have salvation. And indeed, we did see that on the cross it was written Jesus, the Nazarene, King of the Jews.