A Kingdom Not of this World

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to Him,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"

Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did  others say it to you about Me?"

"Am I a Jew?  Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You over to me.  What have You done?"

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world."

Pilate (just like every person who is alive today) had a fundamental problem with believing in Jesus.  Because of his mind's compulsive acceptance of the way the world was (and is), he was irreconcilable to Jesus' awesome power.  People are just like that today.

Pilate heard "king" and thought "Caesar."  He thought of power, and the accolades of men--himself included in the worshipers.  He thought of the military might that was able to subject an entire people group to Roman control.

And what he thought of didn't match up with what he saw.  A man in plain clothing--supposedly possessed of great healing power, yet now helpless to His captors' every whim.  A man who had been bound up, led away, and struck in the face.  No armies of loyal followers fighting for his release.  Just an ordinary, weak, normal man.  This could be no king.

Then the King spoke: "My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world."

This where Pilate and a whole lot of us get lost.  Because we as people are fighters.  Nobody has anything worth having who didn't have to fight for it.  We have these desires and urges that control us, and so we fight. Desperately, madly, we will fight to get our way.

But we serve a God who doesn't need to struggle.  God speaks, and it is done.  He forms substance out of nothing.  He can open up canyons from flat ground to swallow His enemies.  He can bring the entire sea down on armies that rage against Him.  When Jesus said His servants would be fighting, He is assuming the kind of power that Pilate thinks of as power.  The people kind of power; the struggle and get what you can kind.  The true power that our God possessed was far greater than some servants with swords.

Yet on this night, our King did not open up a chasm to swallow the soldiers.  He didn't rain down fire from heaven to consume the wicked.  Tonight, the power Jesus showed was the awesome, terrible power of submission.  Because He did not fight back.  He didn't struggle.  He let the weak and helpless fighters of this earth whip Him, hit Him, drive nails through His hands and feet.

And power was displayed.  The King and His kingdom shone in radiant glory that night like they had on no other.  Because our King showed that in His otherworldly strength He was mighty to die.  Mighty to sacrifice. Mighty to save.

This is our King.  And our kingdom is not of this world.