My Kingdom is Not of this World
My Kingdom is Not of This World
Weekend before last, “No Kings” marches took place all over the country. The marches intended to send a message to President Trump that acting as a king, rather than an elected official, is not befitting of the President of the United States of America. The march derided capricious, self-indulgent, and nepotistic behavior. Presidents are not kings. was the message. Presidents are not given authority by heredity or by self-determination. The people elect their president, and the people expect the president to act in their best interests and to follow the law. Americans are often fascinated by royalty, captivated by the pomp and splendor, stolen jewels, galas, balls, fancy hats and dresses. Yet, Americans also fancy voting for their leaders. The United States is a capitalist democracy. Capitalism is about private ownership, production, and profit. And a democracy is a government wherein the people rule by electing representatives to make laws and policies.
I have been rereading the book of John during Holy Week, 2026, and meditating on the passage where Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea during Jesus’ ministry. Pilate asked Jesus if he was the king of the Jews
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:36-37 NJK)
The Message translation of the Bible interprets Jesus as saying that his kingdom does not consist of what is visible. The kingdom to which Jesus refers in this passage is heavenly, governed by God’s truth, justice, and mercy.
Before Jesus was presented before Pilate, he said goodbye to his apostles. Jesus models servant leadership by washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus then commended them to God’s protection and asked God to make their joy complete, reminding them to show the world God’s love by loving one another.
Jesus and the twelve apostles leave the Passover meal and go into the garden of Gethsemane. Judas, one of Jesus’ apostles, has betrayed Jesus to the Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus. The Jewish temple guards and the Roman soldiers come into the garden and arrest Jesus. The armed men first take Jesus to Annas, the former high priest. The Romans have deposed Annas, but he is the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest of that year. Caiaphas was in good graces with the Roman government.
Consulting with the Sanhedrin, the ruling body and highest legal entity of Jewish Judea in Jesus’ time, Caiaphas had told the leaders that one man should have died to save the people. Caiaphas makes his statement because he wants to kill Jesus to preserve favor with Rome. But the apostle John’s commentary is that Caiaphas, as high priest, is confirming that Jesus’ death would be a substitutionary death for all the Jewish people.
Earlier in the apostle John’s gospel account, John narrates the plot of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, because they feared losing power if the people followed Jesus in mass. John indicates that the intent behind Caiaphas’s statement is selfish. Caiaphas says that Jesus’ death will save the Jewish nation, only because Caiaphas wants Jesus killed to maintain power, influence, and wealth. But God intended to use Caiaphas’ utterance, standing in the office of high priest, to establish the truth that Jesus would save both Jews and Gentiles. God’s intent from the beginning of humanity’s fall has always been to redeem and save the whole world. God wants to return humanity to “good.”
John 11:48-52
If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
It is important to recognize that the plot to kill Jesus was not from the Jews in general. Rather, powerful and wealthy Jewish leaders hatched the plot to maintain favor with Rome and thus their wealth and power. The rulers hatched a plot to kill Jesus, before Passover, to quickly get a judgment against him for blasphemy.
To be clear, the people who threatened the Jewish leader’s authority were Jewish people who were following Jesus, because they believed in Jesus’ teachings and witnessed the miracles Jesus performed. So clearly, not all Jewish people wanted Jesus crucified. The early Christ-followers were all Jewish.
There are kingdoms within kingdoms displayed within John’s narrative: the Roman world power, the Jewish nation (the people), and the fiefdom of the chief priest and the ruling class of the Jewish people.
And, Jesus declared to Pilate that his kingdom is not obvious. Jesus’ quote in the apostle John’s narrative means that his kingdom is not like the kingdoms represented in the Roman Empire or any other era. War or plots to maintain power by murderous violence do not establish Jesus’ kingdom. Jockeying for favor with the powers that be does not legitimize Jesus’ kingdom. God, the maker of heaven and earth and all that is in it, establishes Jesus’ kingdom and authority
So, from this point of view, even democracies are kingdoms whose rules and premises are observable. Christ’s kingdom is different from all other kingdoms, whether the nations’ leaders are elected or crowned. I am glad to live in a democracy. I enjoy the privilege of voting for our leaders. But as the great devotional writer, Oswald Chamber said, (I am paraphrasing). The first thing a follower of Christ gives up is nationalism, because Jesus died for the whole world. Chamber contends that we give up personal rights in following Christ. This includes nationalism and selfish ambition, which contradict full allegiance to Christ and God’s kingdom in Christ.
The nations rage against God and God’s Christ. The people of the nation may rage against their leaders, who rage against God. And the nations and their leaders have and continue to imagine vain things. God has ordained, established, and given Christ authority to rule the earth and humanity. And Christ shall reign, sovereign in God’s loving kindness and tender mercy forever and ever. Amen!