The three tongues in which it was written were chosen simply to make it
easy to read by the crowd from every part of the Empire assembled at
the Passover. There were Palestinian Jews there who probably read
Aramaic only, and representatives from the widely diffused Jewish
emigration in Greek-speaking lands, as well as Roman officials and Jews
from Italy who would be most familiar with Latin. Pilate wanted his
shaft to reach them all. It was, in its tri-lingual character, a sign
of Israel's degradation and a flourishing of the whip in their faces,
as a government order in English placarded in a Bengalee village might
be, or a Russian ukase in Warsaw. Its very wording betrayed a foreign
hand, for a Jew would have written 'King of Israel,' not 'of the Jews.'
But John divined a deeper meaning in this Title, just as he found a
similar prophecy of the universality of Christ's death in the analogous
word of Caiaphas. As in that saying he heard a faint prediction that
Jesus should die 'not for that people only, but that He might also
gather into one the scattered children of God,' so he feels that Pilate
was wiser than he knew, and that his written words in their threefold
garb symbolised the relation of Christ and His work to the three great
types of civilisation which it found possessed of the field. It bent
them all to its own purposes, absorbed them into itself, used their
witness and was propagated by means of them, and finally sucked the
life out of them and disintegrated them. The Jew contributed the
morality and monotheism of the Old Testament; the Greek, culture and
the perfected language that should contain the treasure, the fresh
wine-skin for the new wine; the Roman made the diffusion of the kingdom
possible by the _pax Romana_, and at first sheltered the young plant.
All three, no doubt, marred as well as helped the development of
Christianity, and infused into it deleterious elements, which cling to
it to-day, but the prophecy of the Title was fulfilled and these three
tongues became heralds of the Cross and with 'loud, uplifted trumpets
blew' glad tidings to the ends of the world.
That Title thus became an unconscious prophecy of Christ's universal
dominion. The Psalmist that sang of Messiah's world-wide rule was sure
that 'all nations shall serve Him,' and the reason why he was certain
of it was '_for_ He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.' We may be
certain of it for the same reason. He who can deal with man's primal
needs, and is ready and able to meet every cry of the heart, will never
want suppliants and subjects. He who can respond to our consciousness
of sin and weakness, and can satisfy hungry hearts, will build His sway
over the hearts whom He satisfies on foundations deep as life itself.
The history of the past becomes a prophecy of the future. Jesus has
drawn men of all sorts, of every stage of culture and layer of
civilisation, and of every type of character to Him, and the power
which has carried a peasant of Nazareth to be the acknowledged King of
the civilised world is not exhausted, and will not be till He is
throned as Saviour and Ruler of the whole earth. There is only one
religion in the world that is obviously growing. The gods of Greece and
Rome are only subjects for studies in Comparative Mythology, the
labyrinthine pantheon of India makes no conquests, Buddhism is
moribund. All other religions than Christianity are shut up within
definite and comparatively narrow geographical and chronological
limits. But in spite of premature jubilations of enemies and much hasty
talk about the need for a re-statement (which generally means a
negation) of Christian truth, we have a clear right to look forward
with quiet confidence. Often in the past has the religion of Jesus
seemed to be wearing or worn out, but it has a strange recuperative
power, and is wont to startle its enemies' paeans over its grave by
rising again and winning renewed victories. The Title on the Cross is
for ever true, and is written again in nobler fashion 'on the vesture
and on the thigh' of Him who rides forth at last to rule the nations,
'KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.'