It is no coincidence that Pilate therefore says, “Behold your king,” only moments after saying, “Behold the man.” Though unknown to Pilate, and though everything one could see with his eyes would scream otherwise, the man was the king.
In the man, Christ Jesus – in His human face surrounded by a crown of thorns – we see God’s purposes completed; God’s faithfulness to His covenant is realized as the King of the Jews brings salvation into the world. To look upon Jesus, the man is to see the image of the true and living God, once revealed in all of His glory. Ironically Jesus had to become a man in order to become mankind’s king. Of course He always was God, and as such He is in every sense, the King of the Universe; however, it is only after He takes on flesh that He becomes the head of the church so that in all things He might have preeminence (Col 1: 18, see also Rom 1:3-4, Heb 2:9). This is how the kingdom has come with Christ – not in that prior to His coming God did not reign; He has always been and always will be the sovereign monarch of the universe – but with the death, burial and resurrection of God the Son, the kingdom of God is reinstated as originally intended among men, with Christ, the representative of man, as his King.
