John 6:15 states, “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”
Back around 1960, a game came out called “King of the Mountain.” I never heard of the game then, but a couple of years before that we would play king of the mountain at recess. We would find a pile of snow and push and shove each other to see who could stay on top of it. The name was probably coined before then. From our text I chose to name Jesus, “King of the Mountain.”
Jesus had a great multitude following Him because of the miracles He was doing for the diseased. Then He proceeded to feed the 5,000 (John 6:2-13). John 6:14 says, “Then those men, when they had seen the miracles that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” The Jews had been looking for the prophet who would come into the world way back from the time of Moses. The people feared the voice of God from Mt. Sinai, and asked Moses to speak to them instead of the fearful God of the mountain (Exodus 20:19). Moses spoke about that prophet to the people before they entered the land of Canaan in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”
In our text the people recognized Jesus as “that Prophet.” He truly was, yet did not let the people make Him a king. Why? Instead, He got away from them and went by Himself up the mountain. I think He went up there to talk to His Father. He knew He was king indeed, but it was not the time for Him to assume that role. He was to be the suffering Servant, the sacrificial Lamb who was to be killed on the Passover—God’s Lamb. How easy it would have been for Jesus to just skip the cross and be the king right then. If He had done that the world would not have the opportunity to be saved.
How tempting it is for us to avoid our cross and watch Jesus bear His alone. Paul said to Timothy (II Timothy 2:12), “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him:…” In 1693, Thomas Shepherd and others wrote the poem, “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?” Verse two says, “How happy are the saints above, Who once went sorrowing here! But now they taste unmingled love And joy without a tear.” As Jesus left the crowd and climbed the mountain alone, He knew that Mt. Calvary loomed ahead. The crowd couldn’t make Him king, He was KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!
