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John 18 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
“While human politics is based on the premise that society must be changed in order to change people, in the politics of the Kingdom it is people who must be changed in order to change society.”
Charles Colson “Kingdoms in Conflict“
Jesus was indeed the King, but He was not a king in the sense of being a political threat to Rome. If there were ever a time for Jesus to take sides in the earthly realm of politics, this was it. He declines, not because He is disinterested, but because His Kingdom is not of this world.
Earthly kingdoms are built upon pride, force, authority, human praise, and world domination. Jesus’ kingdom was built on humility, sacrifice, love, and truth. Jesus’ motive wasn’t to change the system. He went to the cross to change people. There is no political system that can deliver that kind of change.
“In Jesus’ day, they were conditioned to look for salvation in political solutions – we are also tempted to further the purposes of the Kingdom by the power of this world; history shows that any gains realized are greatly offset by the liabilities of a religious state.”
David Guzik
Just think about this for a minute. We live in a world with broken systems. The family structure is broken. The foster care system is broken. The political system is broken. The legal system is broken. Our nation is broken morally, socially, and racially. But for some reason, we continue to put our faith in human systems to bring about the change that Jesus already died for.
Augustine said that Christians should be the best citizens in the kingdoms of man. This is because we should be living like Jesus. We should be living in a Kingdom not of this world. This doesn’t mean we are negligent to the needs of our world, but that we will trust in the attributes of Jesus over the human systems of this world to birth healing, forgiveness, and restoration.
Our lives should literally reflect the words Jesus commanded us to pray… “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6) We should not be using the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection to validate our human systems. We should be structuring our human systems to reflect the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection. People must be changed in order to change society. Jesus’ sacrifice changes us. It is now our responsibility to go into society and be that change.
Additional Resources
The Boxcutter Podcast – #015 – Malchus, The Kingdom, & Alithos Anesti