We have heard this before.
We've heard this so often that accept it at face value: Jesus says his kingdom is not from this world. So that means that Jesus is a king, but his kingdom is somewhere else, outside of or beyond this world we know of. This world belongs to another kingdom. We often take that to say that this world belongs to the evil one.
There may be other ways of looking at this. It may not mean what we have thought it means. Maybe it would be better to wipe the slate clean and re-imagine the whole thing.
Here, I may dare say, imagination is the key. We have to go beyond what we think the passage says and reach out with that same faculty of our minds and souls that allow us to see so many things in the clouds of a summer day or that lets us develop a whole life history for a snowman standing on our front lawn.
So when we think of a kingdom and a king, we imagine just what we've seen in our lives or in history. We see a king as a powerful figure who may be concerned for the subjects of the kingdom or may be quite exploitive of them. Still, they remain powerful and willing to show that power in any number of ways.
We see pomp and ceremony, rich and exotic court clothing, royal guards and various functionaries of the court.
We might expect to show deference to such a king, to bow to them and offer some sort of honour in their presence. We'd expect to see their image on the money and stamps and... well, we could go on in any direction we wish.
Now, could there be another sort of kingdom? Could there be one that does not take it's shape or values from the world in which it exists? Could there be a king who is truly a king but whose reign would be so different from what we'd expect?
We don't have to go far to imagine this image. When we see Jesus before Pilate, we have an image of this re-imagined king and kingdom. In saying “My kingdom is not from this world”, Jesus is telling all who will listen that the direction, the values, the basis of his kingdom is not drawn from the direction, values, and bases of the kingdoms of this world. What is important in Jesus' kingdom is different from what is important to the other kingdoms. He is not concerned with power, image, or prestige. He is not tied up in ceremony and pomp, in the politics of acquisition and deference. No, Jesus' kingdom is based on something altogether different.
There is still another point to be looked at. In saying that his kingdom is “...not from this world.”, there seems to be a note of refusing to divorce his kingdom from all of the created order. It can be easy to think of Jesus and his kingdom as a heavenly kingdom, existing elsewhere in another place and time, parallel or opposite to our own. If his kingdom were divorced from the world, his followers would either be invading to rescue their monarch or would be unconcerned, knowing that the illusionary power of Pilate and the empire of Rome could not touch him.
For Jesus to say “My kingdom is not from this world.”, he is laying claim to this world as his kingdom, and at the same time saying that his claim is not the claim of worldly authority. The source and the nature of his authority is quite different. The kingdom has been his from the beginning of all things and it includes all of creation, not simply the people who would acknowledge him as Lord.
Beyond that, Jesus' conversation with Pilate on the Friday so long ago shows us the nature of his kingdom. Historically, rulers have been at their best when defending the lives and rights of their subjects and administering justice. In this scene in Pilate's headquarters, Jesus says his mission is not power or conquest, but truth and the proclamation of truth for all. The search for truth is a continuing theme in the Gospel of John and it is here that it is most present: “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." To know Jesus is to know him as the king of truth.
Further, we know what comes next in the narrative from John's Gospel – the way of the Cross, the crucifixion, death, and burial of the one who was condemned for being a rival to Caesar. It's been said that Jesus reigns from the cross and goes to his death as a king in procession to his throne.
It is a very special king who shows his power through weakness and by dying for his followers. It is a very special kingdom that includes all who seek truth. It is a special sort of reign that refuses to be the sort of kingdom that worldly people expect. It is a very special kingdom that is both present and still to come.
And that sort of kingdom is the one that we -by the grace and mercy of God- are part of.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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