Proper 29
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:4-8; John 18:33-37
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I.
Is God’s kingdom earthly and political or heavenly and spiritual?
In John 18:36, Jesus says clearly:
My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.
But Daniel 7:14, which is clearly a prophecy about Jesus, says:
…to him [that is, to Jesus] was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
So, which is it?
It is both.
A Reformed, Protestant rule-of-thumb when reading and interpreting scripture is not to read one text in such a way as to contradict another.
So, for instance, we cannot say, as some will, that Jesus’ words trump Daniel’s prophecy, because, well, Jesus outranks Daniel.
That is true, but Daniel was a prophet of God, and, therefore, by definition, Daniel’s words are true.
Besides, Daniel is writing about Jesus. Daniel 7:13, “behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man….”
The New Testament refers to Jesus using Daniel’s term, “son of man,” 82 times.
It is Jesus’ preferred way of describing Himself, as seen in Matthew 12:32; 13:37; Luke 12:8; John 1:51.
The correct principle of interpretation is to wrestle with the texts, with what sometimes seem to be contradictions, and to try to interpret them in such a way that harmonizes them.
If we cannot reconcile two seemingly opposed texts, then we must stop and pray, perhaps set them aside for a while, continue our study, and come back to them.
The one thing we must not do is disregard them by applying some outside rule of interpretation.
For instance, Roman Catholics will appeal to the pope, to the Roman magisterium, for a definitive interpretation.
Many contemporary scholars will apply various critical, which is to say Marxist, frames to the text.
It is common, for instance, to read Jesus’ words, “My kingship is not of this world” as proof that Jesus does not want His Church to have any political power, or that Christians are justified by adopting a retreating attitude when it comes to fighting the evils of the day.
You will know from my previous sermons that I do not agree with that interpretation.
Christians are called to love the good, but they are also called to hate the evil.
Amos 5:15, “Hate evil, and love good.”
Romans 12:9, “...hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.”
The question is whether such love of good and hating of evil are public or private acts.
Put another way, are they earthly and political acts or are they private and spiritual acts?
If Jesus’ kingship is “not of this world” they must be private and spiritual.
But, if Jesus’ kingship is also such that “all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” then our love of good and hatred of evil must have some earthly effect.
It should show up in the Christian’s politics.
II.
That said, both of today’s texts make it clear that Christ’s kingdom is a heavenly kingdom.
We are in John’s Gospel, in the middle of the account of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
Jesus’ makes it clear to Pilate that His kingship is not of this world and therefore no threat to the Romans.
In John 18:33, Pilate asks Jesus if He is the king of the Jews.
Jesus responds in John 18:36 saying:
My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.
It’s the clause “if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight,” that I think is the giveaway that Jesus is signaling that He and His followers are no threat to Rome, but that the Jerusalem power structure is.
This is consistent with John’s Gospel and even with the passages we’ve studied in recent weeks in Mark.
Jesus opposes the Jerusalem temple.
He opposes the economics of the temple and its system of sacrifices that robs the poor, and He opposes the scribes and Pharisees who were twisting Moses’ law into what was known as “the tradition of the elders” (Matthew 15:1-9).
By John 18:40, Pilate is releasing Barabbas, to appease the mob that is demanding it.
Luke 23:19 tells us that Barabbas was in prison for insurrection.
Jesus’ point is made.
Those who followed Barabbas indeed fought to keep him from being handed over, while those who follow Jesus do no such thing.
In fact, while all this is happening, Peter famously denies Jesus three times.
So much for an earthly kingdom with real political implications!
Peter is the model for all those Christians who want to sit things out when the going gets tough.
But they have scripture on their side, right?
“My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight.”
Well, there is other scripture that applies here too.
In Luke’s account of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus we read this exchange between Jesus and His disciples in Luke 22:35-36:
And [Jesus] said to them, “When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” He said to them, “But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.”
“Let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.”
Things are starting to get earthly and political now, aren’t they?
What this illustrates is that Jesus is indeed a king, with earthly and political power, even if He is coming from someplace else entirely.
John 18:36, “My kingship is not of this world.”
To which Pilate immediately responds in John 18:37, “So you are a king?”
As if to answer Pilate’s question we read from the Book of Revelation the same Apostle John’s words this morning:
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace… from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth” (Revelation 1:4-5).
“...the ruler of kings on earth.”
So, it ought to be clear from both the readings from Daniel and Revelation that there is no way to read John 18:36, “My kingship is not of this world” as saying that Christ is any less of a real-world political figure than any king, emperor, president, or prime minister who has ever lived or who is alive today.
I could stop here, but I want to get into why this idea faces so much resistance. I want to examine why Christians are afraid of the political consequences of their faith.
III.
The main reason is that we don’t understand where we are in the story.
Daniel’s night vision is looking forward to the future, when the Messiah will come.
The gospel accounts are clear that Jesus fulfills Daniel’s prophecy.
The messianic title, “Son of Man,” is used 82 times in the New Testament.
Jesus is clear where He is in the story.
He is about to receive the “dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him,” of Daniel 7:14.
But He must cast out the “ruler of this world” first.
In John 12:31, before a large crowd, Jesus says, “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out….”
In John 14:30, Jesus tells His disciples, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me….”
As we know from Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, the ruler of this world is the devil, and the power that the devil wields is death.
Jesus’ resurrection proves, as Saint Paul says in Romans 6:9, that “death no longer has dominion over him.”
So, Jesus is telling the truth that the ruler of this world has no power over Him.
Casting out the ruler of this world meant breaking the power of the Jerusalem temple and particularly the representatives of its religious establishment, the Pharisees.
In John 8:44, Jesus calls the Pharisees sons of the devil.
He calls them murderers, dealers in death.
He calls them liars.
He says, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth….”
By the time we get to today’s reading, to John 18:37, Jesus is declaring that He has “come into the world, to bear witness to the truth,” and that “Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”
Our job as Christians is to be on the side of the truth, to work out the implications of the truth in our personal and public lives, and to understand that we are on the other side of the events of today’s readings.
Jerusalem and its temple have been destroyed.
The ruler of this world has been cast out.
Death no longer has dominion over Christ — or Christians.
If we don’t understand this, if we don’t believe this — if we don’t know where we are in the story — we will never work out the political implications of our faith.
IV.
But Jesus makes it clear where we are in the story.
He says in John 18:36, “my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews.”
But the whole point is that Jesus must be handed over.
Jesus is playing, as the kids say today, a game of 4D — or maybe even 5D — chess.
Back in John 11:50, the high priest, Caiaphas, while plotting how to kill Jesus, became an accidental prophet when he hit on the divine purpose behind Jesus’ death.
Caiaphas said, “you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people.”
The people are you and me, all those who hear Jesus’ voice and are of the truth.
And because we are of the truth, we incur the obligation to live by the truth, and to work out all the implications of the truth, in all the realms of our lives.
V.
One implication is that we are not to attempt an escape from the world or the challenges we face here.
In John 17:15, Jesus prays to His Father for His disciples saying, “I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.”
A verse later, in John 17:16, Jesus adds, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Now, isn’t that interesting? Jesus is saying the same thing about us, His followers, as He is about His kingdom.
Neither are “of the world.”
This is where we get the notion that Christians are to be in the world but not of the world.
Too often this is spiritualized as saying that Christians should not care about earthly matters and that we should be stoic in the face of pain and loss because, after all, our “treasure is in heaven” (Matthew 6:20).
But that brings us back to something I said earlier.
Both our readings today make it clear that Christ’s kingdom is a heavenly kingdom, but, as I have labored to show you, that doesn’t mean His kingdom has no implications for the here and now, it just means that unlike earthly kingdoms, it cannot pass away.
It cannot end or be destroyed.
That’s because its origin, like Jesus Himself, is in eternity.
Daniel 7:14 says, “his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
When we look around us and see everything passing away, we know that it is still under another power, albeit a power that has been defeated, the power of death.
This means that rather than spiritualize our own and the world’s problems, rather than face tribulation stoically, we should declare war on the enemies of God and shout, “Victory!”
This is what Jesus means when He says, “...let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.”
These are the tools a Christian needs if he will fight against evil in the name of Christ.
A purse can only be gained by hard work and productive economic activity, both of which the Christian should be engaged in for his own betterment and for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.
The sword is rightly used to defend the fatherless and widow and to punish the wicked and evil doers.
These themes of righteousness and judgment will take center stage next week as we turn the page on Mark’s gospel and begin the season of Advent, reading from Luke.
Let us pray:
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Preached on November 24, 2024 at the First Congregational Church, Woodbury, Connecticut.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
A Reformed, Protestant rule-of-thumb for interpreting scripture is not to read one text in such a way as to ____________ another.
The New Testament refers to Jesus as “____________ ” 82 times.
Christians are called to love the good and ____________ the evil.
Christ’s kingdom is a ____________ kingdom.
Barabbas was in prison for ____________.
Christians are afraid of the political ____________ of their faith.
Jesus must cast out the “____________ of this world.”
Death no longer has ____________ over Christ — or Christians.
Jesus makes it clear where we are in the ____________.
Caiaphas became an accidental ____________.
Truth-begotten Christians must not attempt to ____________ from the world or the challenges we face here.
Explain why Jesus’ kingdom is heavenly and unlike earthly kingdoms.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Discuss with your parents one or both of the following: 1) What is the difference between authority and power? 2) Have you ever met someone with authority but no power? Have you ever met someone with power but no authority?
(1) contradict; (2) son of man; (3) hate; (4) heavenly; (5) insurrection; (6) consequences; (7) ruler; (8) dominion; (9) story; (10) prophet; (11) escape; (12) it cannot end or be destroyed
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