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To have a kingdom, you must have a king. In the Old Testament, the Lord gave lofty promises about a future King coming who would be like King David, only better. When Jesus came, He didn’t seem to fit the bill. The wise men could content themselves with Jesus as King, but not Israel. That little baby didn’t really seem like much of a king, even less after He grew up. Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Nothing regal about that.
But Jesus insisted that He was bringing the kingdom of God with Him wherever He went. In His first sermon, He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). And throughout His ministry, especially in His parables, He was telling His disciples what the kingdom of God He was bringing is like; for example, like a mustard seed. But the disciples wanted a kingdom bigger and better than the mustard seed kingdom Jesus described.
We see most clearly that they were clueless when James and John came to Jesus and said, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37), that is, when He would be enthroned as King. This got the other disciples quite angry, because they wanted the top spots too. Jesus told them that the spots at His right and left were already prepared for others, and then gave them the clue revealing for whom they were prepared; He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). When Jesus gave up His life on the cross, those placed at His right and His left were two thieves, but there the bleeding and dying Man in the middle was most certainly: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” just as the sign above Him said.
The disciples didn’t want a suffering King. They had their own agendas for Christ’s reign. They desired a kingdom of power, so when Jesus was arrested, Peter pulled out His sword to defend Jesus. But Jesus said, “Put that thing away.” Jesus is God the Son, so He could have asked His Father, the King of Heaven, to send down innumerable angels to defend Him. Instead, He chose to walk the way of the cross and reject the way of power and coercion.
There’s something outof- this world about the nature of Christ’s kingdom. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”…Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world….For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:33, 36-37).
The truth is that the kingdom of Jesus is not of this world because it bears no relationship to the kingdoms and political regimes of this world. The truth is that Jesus is the Suffering Servant, the Redeemer King, who laid down His life as a ransom for all. Even the best of secular kings cannot atone for the sin of the world with his death. Even the greatest kingdom in history cannot offer the priceless treasure given in one drop of Jesus’ precious blood. And even the most gracious of earthly rulers still reigns by power and not by self-sacrificing love such as Jesus showed in laying down His life for us.
The Gospel—the message that God has reconciled the world to Himself in Jesus Christ crucified—that is the message of the Kingdom of God, which has come to us even before we prayed for it. His Kingdom of grace comes not with coercive military power or oppressive martial law, but in Christ’s cross, resurrection, ascension, and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. On that day, those people were made subjects in God’s kingdom, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Baptism, that same Holy Spirit delivers the forgiveness of sins King Jesus accomplished for all people on the cross and turns sinners into members of the Kingdom of God, all as a free gift. Amen Rev. Roth pastors Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin.
