What is the Biblical basis for the belief that the Jews rejected their king?

Question

Jews are persecuted and harassed for rejecting their king, yet, Jesus was never anointed by a prophet and set up as a king, and slipped through the crowds not allowing the Jews to make him their king when they wanted to. What is the Biblical basis for the belief that the Jews rejected their king?

Answer 1

Why do Christians consider Jesus to be the king of the Jews?

1. Jesus is the heir of David:

   And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:31-33)

2. Jesus often spoke about his kingdom

   Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:28)

   Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36)

   In this last verse Jesus is not denying that he is the king of the Jews, but explaining that he was not reigning as king in an earthly political fashion in this life. But he will reign in that fashion after the second coming in the new earth.

3. Jesus is in fact not just the king of the Jews, but the king of the whole world

   Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)

Why do Christians think that the Jews rejected Jesus as their king?

1. Verses such as this show this directly:

   Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber. (John 18:38-40)

   Because they didn't refute Pilate's statement that Jesus was their king, this is seen as tacit approval of that truth. Of course almost all of them wouldn't have actually believed that he was their king, but this kind of public statement would have some legal force. All four gospels record the crowd's demand for Jesus to be killed.

2. The Sanhedrin heard the gospel preached to them by Stephen, in Acts 7. This included the claim that Jesus was the "Righteous One", the messiah, who stands at the right hand of God. Because Stephen mentions David and Solomon Jesus's kingship can be understood as clearly implied. But despite having over 500 witnesses of the resurrected Jesus, they refused to believe, and stoned Stephen.

So both the people and the nation's leadership rejected Jesus, both before and after his resurrection, and many of these verses show that they did so in the context of claims that he was their king.

Answer 2

For someone to be runner up for claiming kingship direct male descent has first claim to it (Numbers 27:6-11). Jesus who claims descent through his mother would be one of the last in line to be king. With David having many sons a direct male descent line is easy, and includes many in a paternal line. Jesus was not in this paternal line but was in the maternal line. He was not eligible because of this.

Numbers 27:6-11 describes how a maternal descent can claim the inheritance only if there is no direct male line. This is not the case in Jesus' situation, hence the Jews and courts did not recognize his authority as king. There's no scriptural authority for his adopted father to pass any kind of lineage, so Jesus was powerless in his claims to be king.