Posted on by pastorkevinjud

Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum

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Good Friday 2025
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
April 18, 2025

Sermons online: 
Text and Audio:         immanuelhamiltonchurch.com   click “sermons”
Text:                           pastorjud.org   
Audio:                         pastorjud.podbean.com 
itunes:                         bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio:    bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship

            Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  Just a few months ago we celebrated Epiphany and the Magi’s trek from the East to find the baby Jesus.  The magi come to Jerusalem and ask, Matthew 2:2 (ESV) 2 … “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  

At that time, Herod the Great was king over Israel under the authority of Caesar Augustus, the King in Rome.  The Magi are asking about a new King.  Matthew 2:3 (ESV) 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him…”

            Herod the Great tries to trick the magi into locating the newborn King and reporting back to him so he could also come and “worship” Him. Of course by “worship” Herod means kill Him.  The magi are warned in a dream and depart by another route.  Jesus’ stepfather Joseph is also warned in a dream and the family escapes the sword of Herod by fleeing to Egypt.

            Fast forward 33 years and the King of the Jews is again causing turmoil in Jerusalem.  Jesus of Nazareth rides a donkey colt down the Mount of Olives to shouts of Luke 19:38 (ESV) 38 … “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  The King has returned to Jerusalem.  The local religious leaders are not pleased.  They beg Jesus, Luke 19:39–40 (ESV) 39 …“Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 

            The King of the Jews is back and the Jewish religious leaders are furious.  They plot and scheme to arrest Jesus away from the crowds so they can put Him to death for claiming to be the Christ and the King. 

            For 30 pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot leads Jesus’ enemies right to Him at Gethsemane late Thursday night and betrays Jesus with a kiss.  Friday morning the chief priests and scribes take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. 

But why is there a Roman governor instead of one of Herod’s sons?  After the death of Herod the Great, his son, Archelaus, ruled Judea for only two years before Caesar Augustus sent him into exile in France and replaced him with a Roman governor.  Now the “King of the Jews” trouble that Herod the Great had with the newborn King comes before the fifth Roman prefect of Judea.

            Luke 23:2 (ESV) 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” 

John 18:33–38 (ESV) 33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.”

            Jesus is King, but He is not king of this world.  Jesus’ kingdom far exceeds the kingdoms of this world.  He is the eternal King of all. 

Earthly kings come and go.  Tiberius Caesar is king of the Roman Empire when Jesus is crucified.  He dies in March of 37 AD, and his ashes are interred at the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome where they remain to this day.  In this world, kings come and go, prime ministers and presidents come and go.  Jesus is still King.  Jesus is King forever.   

            The people of Jerusalem that day, the Jewish leaders and the Romans are agitated and amused by the idea that this pitiable teacher from Galilee, tied-up, beaten, bloody and bruised is a king of anything. How quickly they dismiss all that they have heard about Jesus of Nazareth.  Everybody has heard about His great miracles; how Jesus healed the sick and crippled, how He drove out demons, how He fed thousands, how He raised the dead.  They are all especially aware of how Jesus recently raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany just east of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.  This Jesus raised a man from the dead after four days by telling him to “come out,” and all they can do is be angry, and abuse Him.

            The soldiers, who have heard about all that Jesus has done, flog Him and afterwards mock Him; crowning Him with thorns and dressing Him up in a royal robe.  They call out, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and then slap him in the face. 

John 19:12–16 (ESV) 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.…”  The Jewish leaders choose Caesar over God.  They abandon the King of the universe to follow an earthly king. 

What Herod the Great failed to do 33 years earlier, Pilate will reluctantly accomplish.  The King of the Jews will be killed.  The author of life will be executed for the crime of telling the truth about who He is. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  God has come to be one of us.  God the Father, out of love, sent His Son to give His life to pay for the sins of the world. John 3:16–17 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Pilate does not want to execute Jesus.  He believes the Jewish leaders are jealous of Jesus.  Pilate, however, is not brave enough to risk a riot and so he gives in to their demands and delivers over Jesus to be crucified.

            Perhaps to antagonize the elders and chief priests, or maybe because he had a glimmer of faith that Jesus spoke the truth, or for some other reason… John 19:19 (ESV) 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  To make sure everyone would know what he wrote, the inscription was in Aramaic, the local dialect, also in Latin for the Romans, and in Greek which was the common language of the period.  In artwork we abbreviate the sign as INRI, from the Latin, Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. As Jesus hangs on the cross, those passing by continue to mock… Luke 23:37 (ESV) 37 … saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 

            Jesus of Nazareth is the King of the Jews crowned with thorns and enthroned on the cruel cross at Golgotha.  All is going according to plan.  The King of the Jews, the King of the World, offers Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

            Jesus is the servant king who… Philippians 2:7–8 (ESV) 7 … emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

            Whether he meant to or not, Pilate got it right. Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews… King of the world…King of the Universe.  As Gabriel told Mary, Luke 1:32–33 (ESV) 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

Jesus is the King…your King…your Lord…your Savior.  He goes to the cross to save you.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen. 

Posted on by pastorkevinjud

You are not a Rented Mule

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Easter 4 2024
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud   April 21, 2024
Acts 4:1-12, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18
 

Sermons online: 
Text and Audio:         immanuelhamiltonchurch.com   click “sermons”
Text:                           pastorjud.org   
Audio:                         pastorjud.podbean.com 
itunes:                         bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio:    bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship

            You are on a business trip driving down the road with a coworker when you hit a bone-jarring pothole.  Your coworker looks at you with a grimace and softly says, “Ouch!”  You calmly reply, “No worries, it’s a rental car.” 

            It seems that human nature is to care for something better when it is your own rather than belonging to someone else.  We have some ugly expressions that reflect this idea. We say, “That team got beat like a rented mule”, or more horribly, “beat like a red-headed stepchild.”  If it is not your own then you are thought not to care as much for it.  And it seems that this is nothing new.

            Jesus says, “11I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

            This is unbelievably good news.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does not treat you like a rented mule; like someone else’s sheep.  He cares for you as one of His own sheep.  Jesus loves you as His own.  You belong to Jesus. 

            You are the sheep, Jesus is the shepherd.  So, who is the wolf?  It is the devil.  The devil is ever prowling.  Ever looking for another sheep to drag away and devour.

            You are one of those sheep out in the field doing what sheep do.  You hear a noise in the grass and look up and you see the gray fur moving through the meadow. You stare and see the wolf raise up his head and look right at you.  You can see the look of hunger in his eyes; you see his sharp teeth as he snarls. You are in great danger.  The wolf is coming to destroy you.  The wolf is coming to tear you apart and consume you, leaving nothing but a lifeless pile of bones.

            You panic, but don’t know what to do.  The wolf senses your panicked confusion and pounces toward you, bounding over the grass in gigantic strides.  You freeze in fear and await certain death.  The wolf is going to get you.

            But, just as the wolf takes his final leap to snatch you, the shepherd steps in between you and the wolf.  The shepherd blocks the wolf with his staff and the wolf turns his attack to the shepherd.  The wolf’s long, sharp teeth tear at the shepherd’s flesh bringing forth blood and agony as the shepherd offers Himself to the wolf in order to protect you.  The shepherd continues to give himself to the wolf until the shepherd lies dead in the grass. 

            All this you watch, trembling with great fear. Now the shepherd is dead.  The shepherd gave his life to protect you. But for what purpose?  You are now left all alone to face the wolf.  

            The wolf circles the dead shepherd for a few moments and then slowly moves toward you… licking his lips… already tasting your flesh.

            But then, incredibly, the shepherd is back… standing between you and the wolf.  He has come back from the dead, and the wolf, seeing the resurrected shepherd flees–with his tail between his legs. 

            Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 

            You see Jesus’ love for you for you in that He is willing to die to save you.  He willingly lays down His life to redeem you.  He lays down his life… out of love… for you. 

            John talks about this love in the epistle reading today, “16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us,”

            And then John teaches what it means to be one of the Good Shepherd’s sheep.  Since we know His love, in the same way we should love one another, “and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”

            Jesus cares for us as the shepherd, not as a hired hand. We are to care for one another not as hired hands, but out of great love for one another.  We cannot treat each other like rented mules.

We are certainly called to love our own.  We are called to look after and love our families.  We are called to care for our loved ones.  The question is, who are our loved ones?   

In marriage men promise to love their wives the way Christ loves the church. That is a heavy responsibility. If a man is out walking with his wife and a big, angry dog approaches, the man’s duty is to step between his wife and the dog and, if necessary, get bitten to protect his wife. 

As we marked the remembrance of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, it is good to note the many men who gave up their places in the life boats in order to save the women and children.

So, who are your loved ones?  As a follower of the Good Shepherd, as one for whom the Good Shepherd has laid down his life, you are called to love not only your family, but you are called to love one another.  You cannot treat others like they don’t belong to you.  You are united as sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock.  These others belong to you.  You belong to them. 

            You are called to lay down your life for your brothers and sisters.  And while we pray it will not come down to actually having to die for one another, you are called to selflessly love one another.  To give up your own desires in service to others.

            There is great teaching about love in 1 Corinthians 13 which is often read at weddings, but this scripture is not particularly about married love.  It is about how you should love one another as fellow sheep in the Good Shepherd’s flock.

With the Good Shepherd you are safe from the wolf; safe from the devil.  The devil has no power over you to snatch you away or scatter the flock.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (ESV and my translation) 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 [Love supports without limits, trusts without limits, hopes without limits, never gives up.]

            This is the love you are to have for each other because you have already been saved by the Good Shepherd.  This is the kind of love you have for each other because you already are part of the Good Shepherd’s flock.  The Good Shepherd is the one who has washed you clean and poured onto you His very name.  The Good Shepherd is the one who feeds you with His very Body and Blood, the same body and blood that He offered to the wolf in your place.  The Good Shepherd loves you because you are His own.

With the Good Shepherd you are safe from the wolf; safe from the devil.  The devil has no power over you to snatch you away or scatter the flock.

But the wolf does not give up easily.  He will do all he can to stir up dissension among the sheep.  He will do all he can to get the sheep to bite and harass each other.  He will try to get you to treat others as if they do not belong to you.  He will tempt the sheep to act like there is no shepherd. He will entice the sheep to run away from the Good Shepherd.  He will accuse the sheep, telling you that since you are not able to perfectly love one another that you must not really be the Good Shepherd’s sheep.  As you deal with others, the devil will try to get you to treat them like rented mules instead of treasuring your fellow sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd.     

But the wolf has no standing.  The wolf is powerless against the Good Shepherd.  The wolf has been undone through the power of the cross of Christ. So do not give the wolf any leeway. Do not try to fight the wolf on your own as if you could go toe to toe with the Prince of Darkness.  Do not engage with the wolf.  You will just end up a tasty snack for the evil one.

Rather, resist the devil and he will flee from you.  (James 4:7)  And when the wolf comes prowling; when the wolf comes stirring trouble; when the wolf comes accusing, simply point him to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and say, “I belong to Him.” 

            Amen.