Jesus’ kingdom is not from here
Palm Sunday John 18:33-40
33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ 34 Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ 35 Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ 36 Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from 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.’ 37 Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘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.’ 38 Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, ‘I find no case against him. 39 But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ 40 They shouted in reply, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a bandit.
“If my kingdom were from this world” – Jesus is a king, and his power exceeds that of Pilate (a mere governor) or even the power of the emperor who Pilate represents. Jesus the king has power that surpasses Pilate – but Jesus’ kingdom does not work the way the kingdoms, or nation states, of this world work. The way of Jesus’ kingdom leads to and through the cross. In Jesus’ kingdom dying is the way to defeat the powers of this world. Pilate is the means that gets Jesus to the cross, and the victory over the powers of this world. The cross is inseparable from Jesus and Jesus’ rule and reign. The triumphal entry of Palm Sunday leads to the Cross of Good Friday and only then can the true triumph of Easter Sunday be known and understood. To go from Palm Sunday straight to Easter Sunday is to miss the central truth of the reign of Jesus, that he brings people through suffering to the joy of resurrection hope.
Jesus and Pilate have a brief conversation about truth. Jesus speaks about truth in an interesting way – it is possible to belong to the truth. The truth is not so much a set of facts or statements to be agreed to intellectually – truth is something to be loyal to, a pattern of life to be followed.
Meanwhile Pilate is unsure that death is what Jesus deserves, the punishment does not fit the crime – “I find no case against him.” (vs. 38) But the religious leadership have made up their minds, they want Jesus dead, and they demand the release of Barabbas – “a bandit” (vs. 40) over Jesus. The threat posed by Jesus is in their minds more significant than the threat posed by Barabbas who everyone agreed was a criminal.
PRAYER:
Lord God, your Son, Jesus Christ, is not from this world, neither is his kingdom, show us the path of his kingdom that we may be faithful citizens of his true kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen.