My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

My Kingdom is not of This World

John 18:36-38

We come to this Maundy Thursday in a very troubled world. There are wars in Ukraine, Yemen, South Sudan, and other places. We have suffered lockdowns and other restrictions from a “pandemic.” The global financial situation is perilous, and inflation is rampant. Because this is the world we live in today, we tend to think this is the worst it has ever been. But the world has always been troubled. we live under the distortion of the global media in which we know about conflicts and troubles all around the world rather than just local troubles. We become addicted to listening to the news about these matters and the pundit’s analysis of what is happening. And we are troubled over censorship and are not sure whether the news we hear is the “truth” or propaganda.

We can see these obvious things which disturb the peace, our own peace of mind and the peace of the world. It leads to helplessness and despair? What can we do?

So lets us come back to what Maundy Thursday, forgetting the problems we face in this world for a little while. It is on Maundy Thursday, we remember events which happened nearly 2,000 years ago in far-away Palestine. Why should we take our eyes off our problems to remember something that happened so long ago? This is because these events have forever changed world history. These events did not change God’s history, as he foreknew and ordained these events. But it has forever changed history from the perspective of the world. On Maundy Thursday, we remember the beginning of the final hours of Jesus on earth. We remember the Last Supper,footwashing, the Farewell discourses, the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the denials of Peter, and the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and Pilate. On Good Friday, we remember the crucifixion of Jesus, His death and Burial. On Holy Saturday (Sabbath) we remember that Jesus rested from his work of the New Creation even as God rested from His labor of the Creation in Genesis. And of course, we remember on Easter Sunday, that Jesus arose from the dead, on the Day of Firstfruits and showed Himself alive. Surely these events are more significant than the troubles of the world today. However there current problems work out, the remembrance and significance of these events will fade from human history, and new crises will take their place. But the events of these few days in Palestine so long ago have eternal consequence. Let us, therefore, put things into their proper perspective.

As we have seen, there are a lot of events packed into the day we call Maundy Thursday. We cannot cover all of these tonight. So I want to center in to one small passage from John 18:36-38 tonight. turn your Bibles to this passage, and let us read the passage together.

We might want to know that all of these events from the Lord’s Supper on actually happened on the day we call “Good Friday” as the Hebrew day started at sunset. So the Friday was one of the longest days in history. Jesus had instituted the Last Supper as the new Passover. He told the disciples that they would abandon Him and that Peter would deny Him. He settled an argument among the disciples on which was the greatest both in words recorded in Luke as well as in the washing of the disciple’s feet. He gave one final sermon to His disciples. He then walked with them into the Garden of Gethsemane. There He prayed in agony that He might not have to drink the cup of wrath of the Father. the first of much blood Jesus would shed that day was mingled with the sweat. It was there Jesus was arrested and tired at night by the Jews, first before Annas and then before the Sanhedrin. He was condemned, beaten, and bound. Then he was sent to Pilate for trial. So even at the point of the passage we read which occured in the middle of the first examination under Pilate, it had already been very long day. He had had no sleep, and must have been exhausted, humanly speaking. But the day would be even longer and more painful that day until three o’clock in the afternoon when He yielded His Spirit into the care of the Father, at the time of the evening sacrifice. One can only imagine how awful that day was.

When we look at this passage in John, we realize that Jesus affirms that He is a king even before Pilate asks Him. By saying “My kingdom” he affirms His kingship. We don’t know what Pilate knew about Jesus or what the Jews might have said of Him, but as 2 cohorts of the Roman Legion joined the Temple Guards in arresting Jesus in the garden. So, Pilate must have known something. He only came up to Jerusalem when he had to, such as Passover, which was a celebration of Israeli independence from Egypt. The Jews were expecting a Messianic king and believed that he would overthrow the Romans. Pilate had to be on guard for an insurrection by the Jews against Rome. Barabbas was such a charismatic leader who had come to Jerusalem hoping to be that Messiah. He was now in Pilate’s prison awaiting execution. It is probable that the two thieves crucified with Jesus were his accomplices. One would expect the question would be brought up by Pilate. But Jesus preempts the obvious question: “Are you the King of the Jews.” He is indeed a king, but not of this world.