But you don’t have an ascension and a resurrection unless you have a death.
Okay? He must die. This is the coronation.
This is the path to kingship. This is the final stage.
What I want to do now is ask the really simple question,
“How do the Gospels mimic this?
How do the Gospels inform us of Jesus’ rise to kingship
following this three-fold pattern?”
Now the first one (the designation) is kind of obvious
if you’re thinking about the life of Jesus.
So you recall from the Old Testament that Israelite kings were not always
and only designated by anointing with oil.
Sometimes there were other things, like the bestowal of the Spirit,
or some divine declaration. (“Thus says the Lord, ‘This is the guy.’”)
Like there could be the voice of God, or God tells a prophet, “This is the next guy.”
And the Spirit comes. All this kind of stuff. So Shelton writes this in his article.
He says: God indicates Jesus as his chosen one in his baptism
through several specific markers.
The last of the prophet figures, John the Baptist, anoints and announces
the arrival of the Messiah.
Upon his anointing with water by the prophet, God approves him by opening the heavens
and declaring, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Besides this water anointing, the gospel accounts suggest a greater and more complex
anointing through the Holy Spirit's descent (on Jesus) as a dove.
The anointing of the Son of David here echoes that of his type:
You know, that it says in the Old Testament; "Samuel took the oil and anointed him
in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David
from that day forward" That's the wording with David in 1 Samuel 16:13.
That’s what happens with Jesus except it’s not oil. He’s baptized and then he goes forward.
The Spirit of God descends on him and he goes forward and does his ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord empowers him. I mean, right after the baptism,
the Spirit of the Lord compels him to do what?
Think about it. Compels him into the wilderness to do what?
To confront an enemy. He has to show he’s worthy. And that enemy is Satan.
You can’t get a bigger enemy.
So here we are at stage two: the demonstration of kingship. “Israelite king,
you’re designated, and now do something that shows us you’re worthy.
Defeat a foe. Do some great thing against our enemies.” So Shelton writes this:
It is significant that this event (the baptism and what happens afterwards)
marked the beginning of Christ's ministry, for the activities
of the next three and one-half years function
to demonstrate his power over the enemy of God…
Basically, he’s not just going to have one demonstration that he’s worthy.
He’s going to have a whole bunch of them.
Shelton writes this: Immediately after his baptismal consecration,
Jesus went into the wilderness to accept the challenge
of the prince of darkness, Satan.
The cosmological dimension of the battle of good versus evil is reflected in Mark 1:12-13,
Which says; "Immediately the Spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness.
He was in the wilderness for days being tempted by Satan;
and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to him."
Luke 4:14 notes that Christ's ministry began after the wilderness episode when Jesus
"returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit."
The temptation in the wilderness is the inaugural event of Christ's battle
with Satan that characterizes his entire ministry and work as Messiah.
Like ancient Near Eastern kings, Christ engaged in a victorious phase of demonstration
—a proof of his worthiness for anointing.
This demonstration anticipates the final phase for any Jewish king-elect…
In other words, this is an expectation.
To a Jewish audience, this is what they expect,
because this is how kings are validated. This is the final phase for any Jewish king-elect.
This is how it’s done. So then, what about the coronation?
Shelton writes that the initiation of kingship in Israelite ritual is that you have
some sort of investment—some sort of enthronement event. He writes:
At times in the gospel narratives, Christ's identity
in the passion imagery is one that ironically
(other writers would say “parodically”) displays his glorious crowning as king.
Jesus is tried for claiming to "sit at the right hand of power" (Mark 14:62)
(This is what he’s on trial for. It’s like an insurrection against Caesar.
So he’s put on trial for claiming to sit at the right hand of power.),
he is clothed in a royal robe (Mark 15:17),
he is mockingly bowed before and worshiped (Mark 15:19),
and he is crowned with a crown of thorns (Mark 15:17).
The ascending king, the regal one anointed by heaven
who came to usher in the kingdom of God, is now being humiliated and executed.
But in the process, it’s a coronation ceremony. That’s the point.
He was designated, he showed himself worthy (for three and a half years),
and now he’s coronated. So the crucifixion is coronation.
There’s a specific article here. Again, I’ve put this one (the Joel Marcus article)
and the Shelton one in the protected folder. But Joel Marcus has an article on this.
And this is some steep reading because this is scholarly journal stuff.
But I thought I’d throw this one in. Joel Marcus, “Crucifixion as Parodic Exaltation”
(parodic means it’s a parody).
It's a coronation.
Journal of Biblical Literature 125.1. This is a 2006 article. Here’s the opening paragraph:
The central irony in the passion narratives of the Gospels is that Jesus' crucifixion
turns out to be his elevation to kingship. This seems to be the best way to understand,
for example, the fact that in Mark's Gospel Jesus is never called a "king"
until he stands before Pilate on the way to the cross; yet from that point forward,
within the space of thirty verses, he is called "king" six times: three times by Pilate,
twice by mockers just before and just after his crucifixion,
and once by the inscription over his cross.
These instances of basileus (that’s kingship) are heavy with irony,
since none of the characters—neither Pilate,
nor the soldiers who mockingly dress Jesus in royal garb,
nor the anonymous composer of the inscription "The King of the Jews,"
nor the taunting passersby at Golgotha—really believes that Jesus is a king.
Aside from calling Jesus king, dressing him in royal garb, and genuflecting to him,
Jesus' executioners also mock his pretensions to royalty
by crucifying him between two other "brigands," thus parodying a king's retinue.
Yet the reader understands that these characters’ actions and words
point toward a truth unknown to them:
royal garments and crowns rightfully do belong to Jesus,
who will show his kingship precisely by not saving himself but by dying on the cross.
Now the point, again… This is Marcus’ opening paragraph.
The crucifixion is the coronation.
We’ve said many times, when we’re discussing Unseen Realm
specifically or some of these other things, that this is the thing that must take place
for the plan of God to work.
Without… We can talk about the ascension. We can talk about the resurrection.
But you don’t have an ascension and a resurrection unless you have a death. Okay?
He must die. This is the coronation. This is the path to kingship. This is the final stage.
And so that’s a familiar discussion for listeners to this podcast.
But I wanted to marry that or give it its rightful place as number three,
actually, in a tri-partite system of how Israelite kings were shown to be kings—
were put into the office. So you can’t read the stuff in the New Testament well…
They’re English words so of course you can read it, but the impact of those words
is lost unless you know what is going on
in terms of how this would’ve been perceived in the context of kingship.
So the point, again, is to show you—expose you to—how the New Testament
is informed by the Old. It’s not always a simple quotation of the Old Testament.
I mean, that happens a lot, obviously.
Sometimes, like in this case, there’s an entire backdrop…
There’s an entire set of worldview elements or practices
that get repurposed in the New Testament.
The Gospel writers dip into the Israelite kingship accession process intentionally
to portray Jesus as passing through the series of stages that legitimize kingly rule.
And knowing that helps us get more out of the Gospel presentations
(I think) of Jesus’ life.