June 10 – Thoughts on 2 Chron. 34-36 & John 19:1-22

This section of John’s gospel is the center of a literary device called a “chiasm”.  This is a large “V” in the text that looks like this…

A – B – C – D – C’ – B’ – A’

Verses A and A’ are parallels or even restatements of each other.  The same goes with B and B’, and with C and C’.  The purpose of this kind of writing is to point with emphasis at verse D, which is the main point of the whole passage.  A good explanation and example can be found at God Questions: Chiasm.

In this passage, the chiasm is long, but centers on a verse 19:2, where Jesus is dressed as a king.  As we’ve been saying, each character except the Jews themselves, are proclaiming Jesus as king, and here it’s the soldier’s turn.  They mockingly bow before him, proclaim Him king, and even dress Him as king with a crown and robe.

I asked some of our folk to talk about Jesus as king, and the bulk of the conversation revolved around the question of His responsibility to us as king.  We expect Him to protect us, to provide for us, and to be there when we need Him.  But we seldom spend the same amount of time on our responsibility to Him as our king.  Ours is to obey unquestioningly, to give our taxes/tithes, and to stand up to defend the kingdom.  So… how are we doing?