Christ is risen!
Indeed He is risen!
Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. (John 6:15)
We recognize Jesus as our Lord and King, yet in His lifetime, He fled any effort to declare Him king. And when Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, Jesus refused that offer as well (Luke 4:5-8). Worldly power was of no interest to Him. Something Christians should think about as they so busily try to establish Christian kingdoms. This is not just a problem of ancient history, just look at the Russian Orthodox Church’s recent document, “The Present and Future of the Russian World” (see my blog post Has the Russian Patriarch and Church Abandoned Christ and the Gospel?) in which the Russian Church shows little interest in Christ (He is not mentioned in the document) but great interest in establishing a worldly kingdom. It is a temptation and evil which possesses every Christian nationalist group. They should pay attention to Christ’s words which they have rejected: “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.” (John 18:36)
Despite Christ’s public refusal to be proclaimed king, the Jews ultimately bring this accusation of Jesus claiming to be king to the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate demanding that Jesus be crucified for this claim! (Luke 23:2; John 19:12)
Pilate asks Jesus if He is king, but Jesus only tells Pilate, that is your claim. Pilate looks at Jesus as a pathetic character and no threat to anyone. He concludes that the man Jesus is no claimant to any kingship. However, when Pilate crucifies Jesus, he mockingly affixes on the cross the charge against Jesus: King of the Jews. That causes the Jewish authorities to protest that the charge against Jesus is wrong. “The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews,” but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”’” (John 19:21) Pilate has the last laugh as he knows the Jewish authorities had concocted the whole trial anyway – it was the authorities who brought this very charge against Jesus who are now wanting to change the accusation. Pilate is happy to execute any Jew who claims to be king or who others make that claim about him.
Jesus desires to be king on earth – but king and lord of our hearts, minds, souls, spirit. Archimandrite Aimilianos writes that Christ’s kingdom is in our hearts:
In our reflection on Psalm 38, we saw that in order for the kingdom of heaven to become a living reality in our heart, for it to become something truly within us (cf. Luke 17:21), we need to experience God’s holiness and His glory. Why? Because when we experience God’s holiness, we become conscious of our own sinfulness, and this opens the door for contact with God. The moment we begin to perceive and comprehend something of God’s glory, we start to see things differently. Our sense of the possibilities changes, and from the smallness of our fallen condition—from our sinfulness and our nothingness—we acquire an open, expansive vision of our growth in likeness to God. (PSALMS AND THE LIFE OF FAITH, p 224)
Christ is king and lord of our hearts and of heaven. He shows no interest in being an earthly king or wanting earthly power. Sadly, today worldly institutions claiming to be Christian, like the Russian Orthodox Church and its Patriarch, show little interest in Christ ruling over their hearts and instead want to rule on earth with worldly power. Our Lord Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
We do not need another worldly power warring with all the other powers of the world – these are the kingdoms which Satan claimed belonged to him (Luke 4:5-6). We need to let the King of Glory rule in our hearts so that His love can pour forth into the world and we can be part of His heavenly Kingdom.
Fraternized 