The Kingdom

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE KINGDOM

John 18:33-36

33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"  35 "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?" 36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place." 

NIV

Luke’s record of this event does show the Jews made this type of accusation against Jesus, that he was opposed to paying taxes to Caesar and claims to be the Christ, a king. Luke also records that when asked if he were a king, he told Pilate, “It is as you say”. But John has given us other details of this exchange. It seems Jesus was somewhat aggressive in his manner, putting Pilate on the defensive. This is Jesus, and he is not a victim, he is Jesus, the Son of God, headed with purpose to the cross for the sins of the world. He does tell Pilate who he is and where he comes from and where he is going, at least in so many words. What Jesus says here does put to rest any ideas people might have about the kingdom of God being here on earth at this time. The kingdom of God is not here, it is another place, a place where we will go when we leave this place. We are in the world, but of course we are not of the world, we do have citizenship in the Kingdom of God and are his ambassadors to this world. Jesus never made this world his home, but came here for a purpose. This world was made a perfect home for us the people God created, but we turned his perfection into imperfection, we turned his incorruptible into corruptible and made it our own form of home, one Jesus was not a part of. There were no servants to fight, to prevent his arrest by the Jews, for his servants were the whole host of angels who were waiting in heaven for the return of their conquering king. Jesus was to conquer death, sin and all the corruption of mankind, establishing a way for us to escape the clutches this world has upon people, thus we were able to forgo our citizenship of this world and become citizens of his kingdom. Although it is true we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, that kingdom is in our hearts, not actually here on earth at this time. There will be a time his kingdom will be on earth, but not this one, but a new earth. So for now we live in our hearts in a kingdom of another place, the Kingdom.