The Kingship of Christ: Navigating the Two Kingdoms
This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Feast of Christ the King on Sunday, November 24, 2024.
Transcript
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Question of Kingship
Pontius Pilate confronts Jesus with a question that is perhaps the most tricky and fraught question that he is confronted with in all of the Gospels. Pilate asks him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
This question is fraught with baggage. It's a difficult question to answer, not because there isn't a clear answer to it, but because no matter what he says, he's going to be in trouble.
If he answers no, then he might save his own skin, but he denies that he is the Son of God. He denies everything that's true about him, that he has been spoken of by the ancient prophets, that he is the fulfillment of God's promises in time and space, that he is the word through which the universe was created. He can't answer no.
And yet if he answers yes, he's committing a potentially capital crime because he's saying, "I am king over against the kings that Pontius Pilate represents." Pontius Pilate is the governor of the province in Rome of Judea, and they already have a king there.
And so Jesus does what he usually does when people try to trap him with a question. And you'll notice that this happens in the Gospels: oftentimes he sidesteps the easy yes or no answer. And he does that here. Instead of answering the question, he asks a question of his own. He says, "Are you asking this, or are you just checking up on what other people have told you?"
Pilate's Dilemma
Pilate understands power. He understands palace intrigue. He is an expert and experienced politico. He is hoping that by serving as the prefect or the governor of this little backwater province on the edge of the Roman Empire, hopefully someday he will be recalled to Rome in order to move on to bigger and better things. His life's ambition is not just to be in charge of Judea. He knows palace intrigue.
He knows how difficult it is to navigate this question. He has a responsibility to keep the people of his province placated and not rising up in revolt. And yet at the same time, he is concerned with the question of what is true and what is just. He's not a monster, but he's stuck in a difficult predicament.
And so Pilate also answers his question with a question. The chess pieces move on the board. He asks, "I am not a Jew, am I?" No, of course he's not. He's saying, "I don't care about this petty squabble between you and the chief priests. I have bigger fish to fry. You are not that important to me. And clearly, I am the one who is in charge here."
He says, "You were handed over to me. What have you done? What are you guilty of, Jesus? You can't usurp my power. I'm not concerned with you because you don't have the power to rise up against me. You are in custody. You're arrested. But there are many people out there who think of you as a tremendous threat. So why are you now in my custody?"
The Two Kingdoms
Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." God gives us his gracious rule in two different ways. Martin Luther discussed this, but it's clear through the scriptures that God works in two different ways. And it's important for us to understand those two different ways. Sometimes we call this Martin Luther's doctrine of two kingdoms. Doctrine just means teaching. And the two kingdoms are this. He describes them as the right-hand kingdom of God and the left-hand kingdom of God. They are both kingdoms of God, but they operate in different ways. And we ought to understand them and not get them confused.
The right-hand kingdom of God is God's proper work. In other words, it is the church. And the church's mission in the world. It is the invisible union of all true believers in Jesus Christ across time and space. When we confess in the creed the communion of saints, we're talking about this kingdom. We believe in the communion of saints. We're saying the whole connection of believers across time and space gathered around the throne of God, like in the vision of Daniel today, gathered around the throne of God as the just God opens the books of the records of what we have done and begins to sit in judgment.
God's proper work is this work. Killing and bringing to life. Convicting us of our sin and then raising us up to new life in Jesus Christ. Declaring that we are sinners who are opposed to God and then giving us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is the proper work of God. The right-hand work of God. The work of the gospel of Jesus alive and well in the world.
The Left-Hand Kingdom
On the other hand, God also works through his left-hand kingdom. The left-hand kingdom of God is how God works through the structures and powers of this world. Through civil government. God cares about good, just government. He cares about whether truth wins out. He cares about whether justice is done. It curbs sin. It restrains sinners. It executes God's judgment against those who sin against other people in this life. It is part of God's work, but it is what Luther would describe it as God's alien work, or his other work. Not alien like, "meep, meep, I'm from Mars." But alien as in, it's not his proper work. The alien work of God is Christians and others gathered in civil government to do God's will.
The problem in our society today, or one of them, is that we have misplaced these two kingdoms, and some people want to unite them into one kingdom. And that's not how God ever intended to work. And Jesus is speaking specifically to this situation today.
Jesus is saying, "My kingdom is primarily, first, properly speaking, the kingdom of the right hand." If it was the kingdom of the left hand, if it was an earthly, worldly kingdom, a civil kingdom, then his followers would be fighting to save him from being crucified. His followers would be at the gates of Pilate's palace, trying to beat down the door in order to rescue Jesus from this terrible fate which is about to befall him. But it's not. His kingdom is of the right hand kingdom. His proper kingdom is here. It's not that God doesn't use that kingdom, but this is the proper work of God in Jesus Christ.
The Nature of Faith
It can't be imposed. You can't be made to believe in Jesus Christ. You can be made to go through the motions of worship, and we know that there are plenty of religions in the world which compel that from the people who live in their territories. Islam is most notable of this, but there are others. But you cannot be made to have faith and trust in Jesus Christ. In fact, it's something that you can't even stir up in yourself. It's something which God must give you in his proper work in Jesus. It can't be imposed. It can't be taken by force.
And so it doesn't matter that his followers aren't fighting. He really truly is the king of the right hand kingdom. This kingdom comes into the hearts of those who have been called and chosen by Jesus Christ to believe. And so today we speak of the right hand kingdom of God. The one where God kills and makes alive, rooted in law and gospel. Where God convicts us by his righteous law and says, "You, you are a sinner. And you cannot save yourself. You have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed by what you have done and by what you have left undone." Sound familiar, sinners? This is the proper work of God in saying, "Look, you are a sinner. And you need a savior. And Jesus Christ is your savior." It convicts us and kills us in our sins so that we have died in Christ and then we are made alive with Christ in the resurrection.
Jesus and Truth
So when Jesus says back to Pilate, "Are you a king?" He says, "Yeah, you say that I am a king." What he's saying is that's what you people would call me if you were able to see the right hand, proper, invisible kingdom of God. That's what your people would call me. That's the best word you human beings have for someone like me. But he's more than that. Because everybody will see at the coming of Jesus Christ again that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Everyone, he says, "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Jesus says, "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Truth is one of those slippery concepts in our society. Truth has become very relative. Our society believes that there's no such thing as an absolute truth. That there's no such thing as capital T truth. It's my truth and your truth. And they don't have to be the same thing. And it makes it impossible for us to connect to each other on the basis of reality. Because if my truth and your truth don't align, who's right?
And yet Jesus here, standing before Pilate, his life on the line, about to go to the cross and be crucified that very same day, he stands in front of this earthly ruler, this ruler of the kingdom of the left hand, and he says, "You say that I am a king. Everyone who belongs to the Truth listens not to you, but to my voice."
Truth in our society is relative, and it's easy for us to compartmentalize that. You want to know what true is? Well, then I have to ask you first, what kind of TV do you watch? Who do you listen to on the radio? What kind of social media do you follow? And what kind have you blocked? That's what your truth is. Because today in our society, we look for truth that makes us feel validated, not truth which speaks reality.
And so Jesus rebukes Pilate with this saying. He says, "Your truth, your relative understanding of personal experience is nothing compared to the truth, capital T truth, the truth that is most fully expressed on earth in the person of Jesus Christ, in the Word of God made flesh and standing right in front of you."
The World's Opposition
Jesus will not be endorsed by the powers of this world. The world does not love your faith in Jesus Christ. The world is not looking for you to become a better Christian. The world is not trying to help you be a faithful follower of Jesus. Because this world is always obsessed with power and is always relativizing truth. This world that you live in opposes the reign of Christ among us. Because this world is corrupted by sin and has no Savior. But the reign of Jesus Christ in the proper kingdom of God is redeemed.
So if we say Jesus Christ is King, we're making a capital T truth statement. We're saying something is not relatively true or my true, but we're saying something is absolutely true, capital T True - and for you and for every other human being alive, whether they know it or not. We're saying that Jesus Christ is truth itself.
The difficulty though is that when you start making those kinds of absolute claims, claims which are absolutely supported by 2,000 years of Christian history and our scriptures, you are automatically saying that if Jesus Christ is Lord, something or someone else isn't.
Early Christian Persecution
Remember that in the Roman Empire, the empire that ruled over the crucifixion of Jesus and the empire in which the majority of the growth of the Christian movement happened for the first 300 years of Christianity, that to be Christian was illegal. Not just socially disfavored, not just uncomfortable at Thanksgiving dinner, but illegal. You could be arrested. You could be thrown to lions to be dismembered for entertainment. You're forced to be a gladiator. And then many of the Christians simply threw down their weapons and allowed themselves to die with a hymn on their lips.
You see, the Romans were generally religiously tolerant people, and that doesn't seem to square with the experience of the early Christians and Jews. Their attitude towards people was, "Okay, fine, you know, everybody's different. They have a different religion. Truth is relative and we're not going to impose anything on you. You guys are all polytheists. You worship multiple gods. And it doesn't matter whether you worship two or three or five or 12 gods. It doesn't matter. All we ask is that you would include our gods with the gods you already worship. You can worship the cow god or the chicken god or whatever kind of god you want to worship. That's fine. But worship our gods too and we'll get along just fine."
And for most people in most places, that's how it went. They were religiously tolerant. They said, "Oh, you can worship who you want. Just worship Caesar and worship Jupiter, the god of Rome." But the Jews got in trouble with this. When the Romans came in and conquered Judea in the second century BC, they had a problem because the Jews don't believe in multiple gods. They believe that their god is the one god, the only god. And they're right about that. The first commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before me. Worship the Lord and serve only him." And so the Jews got in trouble and they butted heads with the Romans over and over again because they were unwilling to worship any other god than our God. And as the Christian movement takes off after the resurrection of Jesus, they had the same problem.
And so they were seen as a subversive and anti-establishment element within the Roman Empire. They were blamed for all kinds of things. This is why the Christians were persecuted. Jesus comes along and the Christian movement starts and they start saying things like, "Jesus is Lord." But if Jesus is Lord, that's the earliest Christian creed. That predates the Apostles' Creed. It predates the Nicene Creed by hundreds of years. Jesus is Lord. He says, "Well, then somebody else isn't."
And it's important that you say, if Jesus is Lord, that means that Caesar is not Lord. The cry of worship amongst the Romans was, "Caesar is Lord." And the Christians said, "Jesus is Lord." This means that Caesar is not kurios. He is not the Lord. And we know that word kurios in Greek because we use it when we talk about worshiping God as we did earlier today in our service. We sung the Kyrie. That Kyrie is simply saying to you, "O Lord, O kurios." Then we're saying, "Jesus, you are Lord." You've already confessed that today. And that's why the early Christians suffered so much. It was unacceptable to Rome to tolerate people who believed in just one God. They believed in a relative truth, a lowercase t truth. And yet those who followed Christ knew that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and that beside him there is no other.
The Capital T Truth
This is the capital T Truth of the kingdom of God. That Jesus Christ was born among us. The eternal Son of God became flesh in the man Jesus of Nazareth, born of a virgin, and then raised up and preached and taught and did miracles and proclaimed that he was in fact the Son of God. That he came face to face with the seat of power and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. But he didn't stay in the grave because God both vindicated him, proving that he really is the Son of God by raising him from the dead and also used his life as a ransom to save you from your sins and a way of making it so that we can say that as Jesus Christ rose from the dead by the glory of God the Father, so too shall all who trust in Jesus Christ rise.
That no matter who you are or where you are or when you are, to say that Jesus Christ is Lord and to follow him as King and God is to make yourselves part of a promise for which Jesus' life and death and resurrection was a down payment. As you die, so shall you live.
From those first 11 disciples after the crucifixion, at Pentecost that number became 3,000. Just 50 days later there were 3,000 followers of Jesus. And then from there, things grew and changed. Yes, there are kingdoms of the left that can compel your behavior. They can say you shall do this and you shall not do that. And as long as they are doing things which are comporting with the Word of God, it is our responsibility as citizens of both kingdoms to follow and listen to those who have authority. But where those kingdoms come into conflict, we are first citizens of the kingdom of the right hand. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We are citizens of the proper work of the gospel. Our kingdom is the kingdom of the right hand.
The true king in this life controls not just what you do, in this life, but what you do in eternity. Your eternity in the next is what God promises you in the right hand kingdom. And then our king poured out his power and majesty to devote himself to his subjects. He didn't lord it over us. He didn't ascend to some throne and sit down and make us all grovel to him. But he said, "I will give of myself for you. I will empty myself for you. I will die for you on the cross."
No earthly ruler would glorify himself by emptying himself and dying for his subjects. For when he dies for his subjects, he loses all the power which he's accumulated as king. But Jesus could trust that he really is the Son of God and that he would be redeemed and restored, that he would be vindicated by the power of God so that he could redeem and restore us. This king who deserves our worship faced the certainty of death for us, his citizens, his slaves. He emptied himself for us.
This king who deserves our worship, the word that God spoke to create reality itself, gave it all up and died for you because his reign is different than all other reigns so that you might be saved from your sin and given eternal life with him. And the proof that this worked, the proof that this kingdom endures is that even though it was illegal for 300 years, 30,000 followers of Jesus at the day of Pentecost became 30 million Christians 300 years later. 50% of the Roman Empire became converted to Christianity before it ever became legal to be a Christian. Half of all Romans were Christians by the time that Constantine legalized Christianity.
Not because we used power and authority to compel Christian behavior, but simply by showing that love, people said, "These Christians are telling the truth. And they're people of the truth. And they have a truth that goes beyond anything else our society has to offer. I want to follow him too. I want the promise made to me that has been made to you in your baptism."
Not by Christian power or authority, not by wielding the power of the left-hand kingdom, but simply by the power of the grace of God and the acts of Christians making the work of Christ manifest in the world. They emptied themselves for the people around them just as Christ emptied himself for us. And they trusted that even though they put themselves sometimes at great risk, sometimes staying in cities affected by plague, knowing that they might die but that they have an eternal home, and it's worth it to serve their Lord and God through their neighbor.
Sometimes being willing to take in children who had been abandoned to being exposed to the elements because those babies were unwelcome in Roman households, but Christians would take them in and raise them as their own children because they had been given a spirit of adoption. And so they adopted these exposed and abandoned newborns into their own homes. Trusting that even though the life that comes from following Jesus in this world sometimes involves difficulty and suffering beyond what most people face, it was worth it because Christ abandoned all of his prerogatives for us.
Conclusion
And so yes, we live in the kingdom of the left. We live to be people of good order. We try to be as good citizens as we can, but every power and principality is subject to King Jesus. And we are people of his kingdom first. And Christ is Lord of everything in our lives. We subject ourselves totally to his teaching and rule. And in this, we find not oppression as if some earthly king is wielding his authority over us for his own benefit, but we find the truest expression of what it is to be a human being.
And it gives us true hope that our lives don't just last from birth to death and our job is to capture as much of that joy for ourselves as we can before we die, but that we can let go of those things with an open hand and we can say, "I don't have to cling to stuff in this world because our Lord calls us to empty ourselves knowing that our joy and reward is in heaven with God."
We are redeemed by his cross so that our Lord, our King has gone before us and has suffered as we do, has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin beckons us forward to a better way of being human. So may you trust our merciful King. May you trust that in every suffering or loss, our Lord has gone before us. May you confess with your lips, "Jesus Christ is Lord" in the face of anyone who would demand your loyalty instead. And may you remember that the peace of Christ is for all who call upon his name in every place, in every time. And may that peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.
