Sunday Bible Devotional (Nov 25, 2024)

"My kingdom does not belong to this world"

Christ is King! Jesus is Lord! These are both unflinchingly and objectively true. The challenge is not in regards to Jesus. The challenge regards us and the type of King or Lord that we understand Jesus to be.

The temptation has always been, even before Jesus, for humanity to turn the kingship of God into another kingship of man. We all think the idols of the Old Testament were made of gold or stone. In reality, they were forged within the imagination of our minds. The most deceptive god that we can create is the one that superficially looks a lot like the real God. The most difficult idol to topple is the one that looks just like the Church.

This was the type of king Moses warned them about in Deuteronomy 17. It was also the type of king the Israelites asked for in the 1 Samuel 8. It was the type of king they got in Saul, a little bit in David, a little more in Solomon, and a lot more in most of the kings after them until their exile. This is what a kingdom that belongs, even partially, to this world looks like. 

This was also the type of Messiah that many Jewish people during the time of Jesus were expecting. The Messiah that would physically, forcefully overthrow the Romans and re-insert the Kingdom of God reminiscent of those old kingdoms (the ones that were also of this world).

When we see Jesus’s kingship in these terms, and we see the Church, the new Kingdom of God established by Christ, in these terms, we turn them both into idols. This are not only the most deceptive idols because they can seemingly resemble the real thing, but they are the most destructive because of their deceptiveness. 

So what does Christ’s kingship look like? Where is his throne? Where is his footstool? Where is his crown? Of what is his glory? Who keeps his court?

All of these answers, and all other answers, can be found at the same place but from different vantage points: the crucifix and the altar.