River Road Church Baptist

November 23, 2003

Dr. Cecil E. Sherman

 

“Not of This World”

John 18:33-37

Customarily, on this Sunday I have preached a Thanksgiving theme, but attempting to stay with the lectionary, I’m going to try to go toward Christ the King idea. I’m not sure how well I’ll handle this. This is new country for me.

Our text is a conversation between Pilate, a Roman governor, and Jesus at the time of his trial. It would be hard to find two men more different. They had a hard time talking to each other. They spoke a different language, but I’m not referring to Aramaic or Latin or Greek. They came from different worldviews. One of them was the highest product of the kingdom of God and the other saw himself as a Roman public servant. One of them was on AM and the other was on FM. They had a hard time communicating. Pilate asked Jesus four questions. First, where do you come from? I guess Pilate thought he was going to hear, Nazareth or Galilee. Had Jesus answered, and he didn’t, he would have said, “God. I come from God.” That’s the sense of the gospel of John.

Second question: what have you done? I think Pilate meant what have you done that you should appear before me? Why are you in this court in the first place? Jesus might have replied, this is my speculation, “I’ve done the will of God.” That would have made no sense to Pilate whatever. Third question, are you a king? Not in the sense in which you use the word. But in a deeper sense, yes, I am. What do you think Pilate made of that? Last question, what is truth? And the question just dangles, no reply. In fact, there is a condescending sneer in it. There’s almost a modern cynics tone in it. What is truth? Implying it’s all a culture shadow, it’s not anything you can get your hands on. It’s different things at different places at different times. It makes no sense. What is truth? Done with a shrug. Jesus made no sense to Pilate and, in retrospect, Pilate made no sense to Jesus. One was of this world, the other was of a different and heavenly world and Jesus point blank said, “My kingdom is not from this world.” What could that mean?

At this point, I don’t leave the text, but I leave the specifics of the text and you should know that this is an interpretation. What does “not of this world” mean? Well, Christ’s kingdom has a voluntary citizenship. Jesus has an all-volunteer army. You can’t make people Christians, although some well-intentioned people have given it their best shot. It is the pattern of the gospels. Jesus invited, but he never forced. He watched several people walk away, most notably the man we call the rich young ruler; he offers himself to Jesus, Jesus gives him a high standard, the fellow doesn’t meet it, and Jesus watched him walk away sorrowfully. The average preacher would have gone after him. Jesus asked him to give away all his money; I’d have probably gone after the fellow and said, “Hey man, let’s cut a deal. How about tithing?” He kept the standard high and watched him walk away. In fact, the Jesus army was so voluntary it never did grow very large.

In the first chapter of Acts, after Jesus has done all he’s going to do on this earth, it sighted 120 who gathered in an upper room. Well, membership in this church is voluntary. We’ve got that right. Attendance is voluntary, giving is voluntary, in spite of my best efforts to the contrary, there is a love loyalty at the bottom of being a member of Christ’s kingdom and that kind of love can’t be forced.

Second idea – What does “not of this world” mean? Well, Christ’s kingdom has a peaceful agenda. If my kingdom were from this world my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is not from here. Sounds like a pretty flimsy kingdom. No soldiers, no swords, no guns, and no bombs. But Jesus knew something that I’m not real sure is clear to us. There are limits to what force can do. Often, the followers of Jesus have not been peaceful. They would say, since we are not in heaven, we must accommodate. No matter our accommodation, he’s still called the Prince of Peace. There’s a worldly wisdom in peace. Force makes enemies and enemies find ways to hurt. Peace makes friends; this is not just good religion, it’s good foreign policy.

Third idea – “not of this world” – it means that there is a higher justice. There’s something wrong when Pilate sits in judgment on Jesus and 30 years later, Nero would sit in judgment on Paul. Jesus was crucified, and Paul was martyred. Two thousand years later, I don’t know anybody named Pilate. We name our dogs Nero and our sons Paul. What Pilate did with Jesus is his judgment. History has reversed the verdict. He was weak, expedient and condescending. Jesus said in another context, “The father judges no one, but has given all judgment to me.” Jesus judges us all and when Pilate was and is compared to Jesus, Pilate looks bad. In Christ’s kingdom, the goodness of Christ becomes the yardstick by which all goodness is measured. It’s a higher justice; it’s a very high justice.

Finally, “not of this world”, what could it mean? It means the heavenly kingdom is a shadow of what all of our earthly institutions ought to be. My kingdom is not of this world but in a sense, Christ’s kingdom has become a judgment on and a standard for what we ought to be. Our justice ought to be like the justice that we anticipate in a higher kingdom. Our care of the helpless ought to be like the care Jesus extended to the helpless when he fleshed out the kingdom. Our fellowship ought to be an earthly shadow of a divine intention. If you are a Christian, you have a sense of right and wrong that has been set to the vision of the kingdom that is not of this world. That vision is your model of the way things ought to be done. Now, you say this every Sunday. Let’s all say it together, “Our father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.” That makes the point. The best we do here is to the model of something there.

There’s frustration in trying to impose the heavenly kingdom’s ways on to our earthy soiled institutions. We never get it right. But I’m not sure that’s what matters. Christ is not going to judge us by whether or not we made the institutions our hands have formed exactly like a divine model. He didn’t pull that off. He’s going to judge us by the purity of our vision and by the persistence of our effort. The purity of our vision…lots of people have been dead sure they were doing the work of God and 500 years later, they were mischief makers and history records it so. He’ll judge us by the purity of our vision; if we get it right, were we thinking straight? Were we in touch with a heavenly model as we tried to make things on earth to that standard?

The second idea – did you stay with it as long as you lived? A lot of people start well and finish badly. There’s a fatigue and a creeping cynicism to which we’re all vulnerable because you’ve run up the hill to make things right and you didn’t get very far. And not many people followed. Can you stay with it? Can you stay with the idea of church? Of all institutions, it ought most on earth to reflect the heavenly ideal. Sometimes things happen at church that don’t, they don’t belong in church. Church becomes so much of this world. Can you stay with it?

I’ll say it again. It seems to me that Christ is going to judge us by the purity of our vision and the persistence of our efforts. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is heaven.” Does he have a kingdom? Yes. Does he have an army? I’d be honored to be a foot soldier. Christ the king. Is he really the one who sets the standard? That’s the idea. Christ the king.

CES; lmk, mt