33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:33-38 ESV).
In our study of the Gospel of Matthew’s record of the Passion Week of the Lord Jesus Christ, it has been necessary, and insightful, to examine all four Gospel accounts. This discipline provides us understanding of all the events and encounters which took place during those hours and days.
With this in mind, the Apostle John’s narrative of Pontius Pilate’s second encounter with Jesus is important to examine. Therefore, we deviate from Matthew’s Gospel at this time to exclusively focus on John’s.
When Herod Antipas sent Jesus back to Pilate, he reentered his headquarters and began his second interrogation of the Lord. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
It was not a simple yes or no question by Pilate. Neither would it require a simple yes or no answer by Jesus. At issue was whether Jesus was a political, earthly king or someone greater. Pilate, and Rome, would view an earthly political rival as a threat to their empire, authority and power. If Jesus was not a political king, then what kind of King was He? This is what Pilate wanted to know. The Lord’s initial response, and the dialogue which followed, revealed two significantly different worldviews. These two worldviews continue today. One’s allegiance to one or the other determines whether an individual is a believer in Jesus Christ, or not.
34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Pilate wanted to know what practical and political crime Jesus committed warranting the Jews desire for the Roman government to execute Him.
Pilate’s response revealed his earthly perspective of Jesus’ supposed kingship. The Roman governor was a secular man with a secular mindset and thought process. Secular is defined as “attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.” It is a worldview focused exclusively on the temporal present and not upon any spiritual or future afterlife. Secularism denies transcendent reality and intrinsic meaning. For the secularist, ultimate reality exists in what can be experienced with the physical senses.
However, Jesus was not a secularist. How could He be? He was and is the eternal, transcendent and immanent God. He not only created the world, but sustains it by the word of His Power (Hebrews 1:1-3). With this mindset and worldview, Jesus answered, ““My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
Jesus stated His kingdom, or His rule and reign, was not a secular one of the temporal world and earthly kingdoms which come and go (Dan. 2:20-22). Three times He used the phrase “my kingdom.” If His kingdom was of this world, Jesus reasoned His disciples would fight like others who follow their earthly kings in battle. Rather, He ruled an eternal kingdom not of this temporal world or existence. He also stated this three times.
“We are dealing, therefore, with a spiritual-dominion concept. John 18:36 does not have reference to God’s dominion (hence, also the dominion of the second person of the Trinity) over all his creatures, but distinctly to Christ’s spiritual kingship in the hearts and lives of his followers,” explains Dr. William Hendriksen.
“Secondly, then, the kingship of Jesus is not like an earthly kingship. It does not spring from the earth: it was not given to him by any earthly power, and it is totally different in character. Thus, for example, it does not employ earthly means. If Christ’s kingship had been earthly in origin and character, he would have had officers (“underlings”)—just like the Sanhedrin, for instance, which had its police-force, and just like Pilate, who had his Roman guards—, and these would have been fighting, so that he would not have been handed over to … here we probably expect “the Romans,” but Jesus says, “the Jews!”
“Far from trying to lead the Jews in a revolt against the Romans, Jesus considers these Jews his opponents. Have they not delivered him up to Pilate? Had Christ’s kingship been of an earthly kind, his attendants would have been fighting, under his own command, so that in Gethsemane he would not have been handed over to the Jews and their wicked Sanhedrin! But instead of ordering them to fight in his defense, he had done the exact opposite,” concludes Dr. Hendriksen.
Jesus’ biblical worldview confused the secular Roman governor. It confuses secularists today (I Cor. 1:18-25). However, it is the power of God to whom God justifies, redeems and reconciles (Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-26).
Soli deo Gloria!
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