My Kingdom Is Not From Here

On Wednesday, July 29, 1981, I can tell exactly where I was and exactly what I was doing. My 6 year old self was on the den floor, parked in front of our black and white television watching as carriages made their way to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and lace made its way along the aisle…and then as a real-life prince and princess said “I do” and made their way back down the long aisle, into the awaiting carriage, and waved to the crowds as they led the processional to the palace. I can remember hoping out loud that they had a son soon so I had a chance at marrying him and becoming a princess myself. We know now that all was not as filled with love and joy as the festivities made it seem.

But we have human tendency, even when our experience tells us better, to want a monarch – someone who has a claim to have been chosen by God and thus deserving of our honor and devotion, who can claim their decisions are God-ordained. It seems like it would make life easier.

After God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God provided rules for communal living, what we call the 10 Commandments, and spoke to them through prophets. Samuel was one of those prophets, and the elders came to Samuel and said, “You know, we really want a king. All the other countries around us have kings; ask God to give us a king to lead us.” And Samuel prayed about it, and this is what God said: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

This was Samuel’s warning: “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle[c] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.”

Yet, they continued to want a king, and they got their king. And what they saw was that power corrupted. The first king, Saul, had a habit of ignoring God’s instructions and then making excuses. God’s instructions for battling the Amelekites were to destroy everything completely. But, Saul let his soldiers plunder rather than destroy, and when Samuel called him on it, his excuse was that he was sparing the best sheep and oxen to sacrifice to God. Then when Samuel questions his excuse – how could you think disobeying God was a good way to honor God? – Saul blame shifts “I did listen to the voice of Yahweh, and went on the mission he sent me… but the people took the spoil.”
Only when Samuel responds, “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” Does Saul repent, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them.” All was not restored. Samuel did go back with Saul to worship and offer a united front. But, then Samuel went home and never saw Saul again, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The next king God anointed was a shepherd-boy, red-cheeked, humble, the smallest and youngest of his brothers; the one who would have been voted least likely to be king. God told Samuel, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” David was a great king – even on his deathbed he mused, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: ‘When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.’” Yet, his reign was not without problems, there was the assault of Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah and then the cover-up – all because he had unchecked power.

About 1,000 years after the last King of Israel, Jesus is standing in Pilate’s court being asked if he is King of the Jews. Pilate’s job is to make sure there are no uprisings against the Roman Empire on his watch. But, it’s improbable that he really believed that this poor man standing in front of him, from the wrong part of the country and a rag-tag group of followers who have all now fled.

So he asks, “What’s this about? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

I like how NT Wright translates Jesus’ response, “My kingdom isn’t the sort that grows in this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my supporters would have fought, to stop me being handed over to the Judeans. But it’s not like that. My kingdom isn’t the sort that comes from here.”

Jesus didn’t come to earth to become a king. Jesus already IS king. Jesus is Lord of a kingdom that already exists and is growing. This kingdom does not come from the world. Over and over again, we have seen what happens when people offer their allegiance to a human leader, choosing a person to reign over them. “Jesus is denying that his kingdom has a this-worldly origin or quality. [BUT], He is not denying that it has a this-worldly destination…..His kingdom doesn’t come from this world, but it is for this world.” – NT Wright.

Pilate is trying to understand, “So, you are a king?”

And Jesus answers, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate is looking for a political claim – but Jesus is making a heart-claim. Jesus’s kingdom doesn’t come from this world, but it is coming TO this world and FOR this world. And who are the citizens of that kingdom? Everyone who listens to Jesus’ testimony to the truth. And what is this truth that Jesus swears to, and that each who listens to him belongs to? The truth of the kingdom of God, the sovereignty of God.

The truth that God, who told Moses my name is “I Am”, my name is “BEING”, would lay down God’s power and die for us, lay down what God IS for us, would cease to “BE” to make a heart claim – the truth of God’s deep and abiding love for each and every creature and for creation. The truth that the God who created all that is, who created you in God’s own image, Jesus’ kingdom not from this world, but from God’s image in us. Amen.