The Lamb King

Chapter 22 Jesus is Sentenced to Death (AD 30)

Later that evening the unbelieving Jewish leaders had Jesus arrested and brought to Pilate, the governor of the Jews - for the Jews had no king of their own. Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews, and Jesus responded, “It is as you say.” The furious religious leaders saw this as blasphemy, Jesus equating Himself with God, and persuaded Pilate to have Jesus sentenced to death in the worst imaginable way, by hanging on a cross. The Roman soldiers then mocked Jesus and placed a crown of thorns on His brow. They put a sign on His cross that read “The King of the Jews”. Jesus had lovingly come to offer Himself up as the ultimate and final blood sacrifice needed for peace between God and man. The religious leaders did not recognize Jesus as their prom- ised Savior and King and did not realize that by rejecting and killing their own King they were actually sacrificing the very Lamb that had been sent to save them.

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