Don’t You Make Jesus Fight For His Kingdom
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.”
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. 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.”
I love how Jesus answers this question.
- It’s not that He doesn’t have an army
- It’s not that He’s afraid to fight
- It’s not that the enemy is too strong
- It’s not that His servants (does He mean disciples or angels?) aren’t ready to obey His command
The kingdom of judgment and control by murder in which Pilate lives isn’t Jesus’ kingdom. The structure of the Pharisees condemning pointing fingers at whoever they think is breaking the Law today isn’t His kingdom.
The Kingdom of Jesus is one that is full of the truth. There was no honest truth in His arrest. It was done in secret. There was no honesty in His trial, the Sanhedrin was only allowed to meet during the daytime. There was no integrity in His sentencing because Pilate never even figured out what Jesus’ crime was.
Jesus’ Kingdom is full of truth and His army fights by talking about, watching and seeing that truth. As His Kingdom comes, we see more and more evidence of Christ at work in the world in ways that lead to truth. Evil people are shown to be evil and the oppressed receive hope peace in ways that could only come supernaturally.
Jesus knows what He is doing and we grow when we notice it and share that truth with one another.
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