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

Pilate, the unexpected evangelist.

Having just ordered the death of Jesus, you really don’t expect God to use the man, Pilate to share the gospel.

But God moves in mysterious ways, even at the cross. Perhaps more so than anywhere else.

So Pilate writes a trilingual sign to declare Jesus’ lordship as he dies on the cross.

I find this passage a challenge. Here is the man who crucified Jesus inadvertently declaring the facts of the matter. Meanwhile, I know that it’s true. Jesus really is the king of the Jews and of all humanity.

Do I declare it as clearly as Pilate did, in my day-to-day life?

That’s not a rhetorical question because I know the answer. The answer is that I don’t. I’m too busy with other things. Surviving not thriving. Getting through the day. Working out what else is an ‘absolutely-must-be-done’ task before I can next get back into bed.

If I’m honest, I’m not focused on sharing King Jesus with the world. I’m focused on a bunch of other things that take precedence and on the slim occasions when I do have the opportunity to share the truth of the gospel with someone else, I congratulate myself too much for having done so.

If Pilate was an unexpected evangelist, I’m probably an occasional one.

I ask myself why that is and my eye lands on the start of this passage.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross.

Prepared and Fastened. Do I make plans to share the gospel? Do I stick to them?

Now of course we can over-plan and leave no room for those open spaces where wonderful conversations can happen. Or, alternatively, become so planned that we’re robotic and emotionally disconnected from the somewhat horrified person onto whom we’re inflicting our gospel sharing endeavours.

But we can under plan as well. And I put myself into that category. Perhaps a little less “Let it be, hug a tree” and a bit more intentionality would be a good thing in my life.

Lent seems a good time for that. The second half of Lent especially when it’s now a month away from Easter and people are making plans for the long weekend.

Is there a better time to ask them what that long weekend means to them, if anything?

Because if Jesus really is the King, everyone needs to know that they will have to bow the knee one day, whether they like it or not.

How will they know if no one tells them? Fact is, they won’t.

And that’s a problem in any language.

Yours starting to prepare,

Alison