But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
“Take him away” (airo in the Greek) also means to raise up, lift up, or to bear away that which has been elevated. There may be another case of irony here in the cry of the crowd.
The vehemence with which the crowd responded is a good example to us of a couple of things. First, this is the way we would have been treated before the court of God had Jesus not died for our sins. And second, this is the way we should treat our own sins (Isa 2:20, 30:22).
Isaiah 2:20 In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.
Isaiah 30:22 Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
Pilate puts the word “King” in an emphatic position so that he gives the title all it can bear, but it is not enough and the chief priests answer that they have no king but Caesar. Morris notes that “Nothing could be more ludicrous than this protestation of loyalty on the lips of such men.” They were, of course, just saying this to try to get their way. They owned God as their King and not Caesar (Judg 8:23), but in reality they are speaking the truth since their actions prove that they do not hold God as their King and Lord.
Judges 8:23 But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.”
This treatment of the Messiah by the chief priests and the nation of Israel had been foretold long ago (Isa 49:7, 53:3). Ironically, their declaration of having no king but Caesar is the fulfillment of scripture which proves that Messiah has indeed come (Gen 49:10).
Isaiah 49:7 This is what the LORD says—the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
Israel had long before rejected God as their King (1 Sam 12:12). When they did so, God warned them of the consequences of such an action, but they nevertheless willingly pursued that course (1 Sam 8:1-18). Jesus also warned of rejecting His Kingship for that of Caesar and the consequences of such an action (Luke 19:41-44, 23:27-31), but Israel had not yet learned its lesson. The King they chose instead of God’s King would prove to be their downfall and destruction. This holds true today. That which man chooses in preference to Christ is often made to be a scourge and a plague for him in the end.
1 Samuel 12:12 “But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’—even though the LORD your God was your king.
1 Samuel 8:1-18 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plough his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”
Luke 19:41-44 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you.”
Luke 23:27-31 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills “Cover us!”’ For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
By their own mouths they are choosing a tyrant instead of God’s Messiah and that is also true today. Those who reject Jesus and the freedom that is found in Him will bow their knees, however unwillingly, to the slavery of sin (Rom 6:6). There is no other choice; it is either Jesus or bondage.
Romans 6:6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—