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King Jesus
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"My kingdom is not founded in this world" said the Messiah to Pontius Pilate. The accusation the priests had made against Jesus when they brought him to the Roman procurator was that he claimed to be Messiah, a king, teaching the people not to pay taxes to Caesar. They were in the Roman province of Judea, where the authorities were always on the look out for rebellions against Roman rule. "Are you a king?" Pilate asked him. Jesus explained that he had no armed followers. His purpose in being in the world was to bear witness to the truth. (He demonstrated the true character of his Father, he showed by example the true way to live your life.) Everyone who loved the truth would listen to what he was saying. "What is truth?" asked Pilate, who was accustomed to half-truths and lies, and who governed by violence. Jesus' kingdom was not founded on lies, half-truths and force. Only those who acknowledged the truth when they saw it could be his subjects. His rule is God's rule in the human heart. His rule is of the kind that makes us respond to goodness, but this is not to say that all governments of the earthly kind are evil. Not every ruler controls his people by manipulating the media and using secret police. The world's people, in general, are glad to be governed, because a strong government brings benefits. Paul, the apostle, told Christians to be good citizens because it is God's will for there to be effective government. "Give everyone his legitimate due, whether it be toll or taxes or reverence or honour" (Romans 13.7). Jesus himself said "Give Caesar what is Caesar's" - and to God what is God's. It was not necessarily easy in the Roman empire to keep this distinction between what was the emperor's and what belonged to God. There was a strong tendency for even the most beneficial of rulers to claim the position and authority of a god. The emperor Augustus, for example, not so many years earlier, while doing great things in organising his empire and bringing peace (he who decreed that 'all the world should be taxed') became in some localities an object of worship. In BC 9 an inscription was made at a town in Asia Minor concerning him: 'The providence which has ordered the whole of our lives, showing concern and zeal, has ordained it the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a saviour for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere.... the birthday of the god [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the glad tidings which may have come to men through him....' News about the ruler, Augustus, was glad tidings. It was a gospel, good news for all, and whenever a new ruler was proclaimed, it was called gospel (evangelion). Jesus too had been a bringer of good news, to the poor: God's spirit is in my heart; - Alan Dale Luke 4.18 Matthew 10.9ff The Jewish people, following the prophet Isaiah, had been looking for the Messiah as their national deliverer (which had international implications for world rulership) as prophesied by Isaiah. Jesus was the powerful figure to bring the good news they were looking for: Get you up to a high mountain, How beautiful upon the mountains The Lord has anointed me It was the verse in Isaiah 61 that Jesus read aloud in the synagogue, and applied it to himself (Luke 4.18). It was to these same actions and the same message that Jesus appealed when John the Baptist (then in prison) had misgivings about who he was. 'When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (Matt.11.2,3 NRSV) "The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them" was the reply. And when Jesus declared, "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden....." he added, " Take my yoke upon you...." (Matt.11.28,29) A yoke implies that one must obey. There are similarities between the claims that were made for the benefits given to the world by Augustus and Jesus' words about who he was and what he was doing. Although Jesus was a different sort of king, with different aims and methods, He did make a claim for people's loyalty. When Paul, having been dramatically converted, was sent to the non-Jewish world, his mission was like that of a herald telling of a new king's accession to the throne. He explains himself when he writes to the Christians at Rome. He is a servant of Messiah Jesus, called as a messenger, set apart for telling God's good news which had been prophesied in the sacred writings long ago. The good news is about God's son, who has risen from the dead. He is Jesus, Messiah, Lord. He has chosen Paul to promote belief in Him and obedience to Him among all nations. This is what Paul explains to believers who lived in the city which was the heart of the Roman empire. He was engaged in the propagation of the kingdom which would spread through all the world, not by armies or political intrigue, but entering the hearts and minds of those who were ready to listen to the truth. The term 'King Jesus' was never used by Christians, but in effect he ruled their lives. When they called him 'Lord', or referred to 'Christ' (the anointed and chosen one, the one sent by God, Messiah), they were acknowledging his sovereignty. As Paul said when he wrote to the believers at the Roman 'colony' of Philippi, Jesus was not only their personal example for their conduct, but had become supreme in all the world. "The attitude you should have is the one Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death - his death on the cross. For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. And so, in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2.5-11 GNB) Nearly two millennia later it is easy for us to take these titles for granted. When praying about a personal concern, we 'talk to the Lord' about it, in a relationship which is comforting, even cosy - but prayer is in fact an awesome privilege. "Thou art coming to a King: Likewise we may make statements about Jesus Christ, in a discussion for example, and we are just using it as his everyday name, the 'handle' by which we refer to him without any particular sense of what the name means or who He is. In the same way we might refer to King Alfred or Queen Victoria, merely as historical figures. But if in daily life we had an occasion to 'meet the Queen' personally then her title would become more meaningful (even to the staunchest republican!) She would be special, real. So, even if we do not use the term 'King Jesus', let us
always remember who He is. The person whom Pontius Pilate caused to be
strung up on the cross, with the contemptuous label 'King of the Jews', is
truly King to each one of us. |
