Watery tarts throwing swords!
I was hit with a thought yesterday that I can’t get out of my head. Have you ever taken the time to consider the differences between how Jesus came into His kingship and how all other earthly kings did? I started thinking about this because I don’t believe we, as Americans, can truly understand what it means to live in a Monarchy system of government. But when I really started thinking about it, even comparing Jesus rule to an earthly monarchy doesn’t do it justice.
Earthly kings come into their kingdoms in basically one of two ways. They are either born into their position or they take it by force. Jesus’ method of taking His place as King was the anti-thesis of both of those models.
He wasn’t born into His kingdom (in regards to the Passion week), He was murdered into His kingdom.
He didn’t take His kingdom by using force against others, He took His kingdom by allowing others to use force against Him.
Not only is Jesus a King. He’s THE King. It’s not fair to attempt to compare His authority and rule to any other king in the history of humanity. When John saw Jesus on the isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:12-20) he fell to the ground as a dead man. This is not the common reaction that people have when they encounter a member of royalty. This is something more.
So what does this mean for us? I can’t get the following passage out of my head, and I could be wrong…but what if I’m not?
Matthew 11:12 – From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Think about this passage in relation to how Jesus came into His kingdom. He didn’t exemplify a violent life against other people, obviously it was the exact opposite of that. His kingdom advanced when people took actions of violence and force against Him! If you are familiar with church history you also know that the times in which the church has grown the most and been the strongest has not been because of military might or conquering armies, but when the church was suffering violence and persecution. These are the times throughout history where we see the church moving in the most power.
What if…and it’s a big “IF”, Jesus wasn’t saying that we are going to advance the kingdom by violence ourselves (physically or meta-physically), but what if He was trying to communicate that His kingdom will advance the most and take the most authority when the “violent” and “forceful” come against it?
For another perspective consider this fact. The times when the church has been the most corrupt has been when it was governed by rulers who tried to establish it by force and law. Anyone remember the crusades? That was a government run church system.
I don’t know what the full implications of these thoughts are yet, I’m still processing through them. He just hit me up with all this stuff yesterday. But I think it’s important to consider these things, especially in the social/cultural/political atmosphere that we live in today.
So, I’ll leave you with this question. Are you making the same mistake I made of trying to ascribe to Jesus qualities of an earthly king? He is not an earthly King, and His kingdom is not of this earth either. He is the King of Kings. Are we living like “Dennis the peasant” or John the apostle on the isle of Patmos? The two reactions to their “kings” are polar opposites. We will all fall on one side of that scenario or the other. I pray to be more like John than Dennis.
peace
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