Good Friday, April 10, 2009
Meditation by John Turner
What Kind of King Is Jesus?
Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus asks Pilate if the question is his own or if it has been fed to him.
Pilate essentially confesses that the question is beyond him, that it has come to him from the Jewish religious leaders who have handed Jesus over to him, and then he asks Jesus, “What have you done?”
Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers would have been fighting by now. But my kingdom is not from this world.” In other words, Jesus is denying that his kingdom seeks secular political power or that his kingdom operates by secular political standards.
That is too sophisticated for Pilate. He focuses like a laser on Jesus’ use of the words, “my kingdom.” He responds, “So you are a king?”
Jesus counters, “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.”
In other words, Jesus is saying that truth reigns, that he represents truth, and that those who want the truth listen to his voice and let him rule over their lives.
Jesus asks Pilate if the question is his own or if it has been fed to him.
Pilate essentially confesses that the question is beyond him, that it has come to him from the Jewish religious leaders who have handed Jesus over to him, and then he asks Jesus, “What have you done?”
Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers would have been fighting by now. But my kingdom is not from this world.” In other words, Jesus is denying that his kingdom seeks secular political power or that his kingdom operates by secular political standards.
That is too sophisticated for Pilate. He focuses like a laser on Jesus’ use of the words, “my kingdom.” He responds, “So you are a king?”
Jesus counters, “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.”
In other words, Jesus is saying that truth reigns, that he represents truth, and that those who want the truth listen to his voice and let him rule over their lives.
What Is Truth?
Pilate, sounding a bit like he is a member of our post-modern culture, asks, “What is truth?” It is probably more a dismissal of the question than it is a serious searching for an answer. To Pilate’s pragmatic political mind, Jesus’ advocacy of a non-political truth is irrelevant to life in this world. But nothing could be further from the truth than that Jesus is irrelevant to life in this world. Jesus may not be of this world or from this world, but what he commands is definitely relevant to how we live in this world.
Jesus came to represent the power and purpose at the heart of all life and all creation, the power and purpose of God, the rule of God, the reign of God, the kingdom of God. God had a purpose for us from the beginning of creation, but our sin has warped us so that we are not fit to carry out the purpose. Jesus came to restore the purpose for which God created us, that we are to be children of God being remade in his image so that we can represent God’s perfect purpose in all its many dimensions.
Jesus came to represent the power and purpose at the heart of all life and all creation, the power and purpose of God, the rule of God, the reign of God, the kingdom of God. God had a purpose for us from the beginning of creation, but our sin has warped us so that we are not fit to carry out the purpose. Jesus came to restore the purpose for which God created us, that we are to be children of God being remade in his image so that we can represent God’s perfect purpose in all its many dimensions.
Jesus’ method is to counter the lies of Satan that have led us into sin with the truth of God that gets us back on the path toward our created destiny. It is in Chapter 18 that Pilate asks, “What is truth?”
In Chapter 17, Jesus had talked to his heavenly Father about what truth is: The truth is that his heavenly Father has sent Jesus to give eternal life to all who will receive it. Jesus prays, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.” As Jesus introduces people to the truth of who God is and who God’s Son and representative is, those people who respond to Jesus know the truth, and the truth sets them free, free to be no longer of the world, but to be of God, to be God’s representative children in the world, to be what they were meant to be, what we were meant to be, from the beginning of creation. When we are what we are meant to be, that changes everything.
In Chapter 17, Jesus had talked to his heavenly Father about what truth is: The truth is that his heavenly Father has sent Jesus to give eternal life to all who will receive it. Jesus prays, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.” As Jesus introduces people to the truth of who God is and who God’s Son and representative is, those people who respond to Jesus know the truth, and the truth sets them free, free to be no longer of the world, but to be of God, to be God’s representative children in the world, to be what they were meant to be, what we were meant to be, from the beginning of creation. When we are what we are meant to be, that changes everything.
The Cost of Restoring Us to a Big Purpose
As part of this process of restoring us to our purpose in life, there is a cost to be paid for overcoming our sin, a cost that is far beyond our ability to pay, a cost that only the perfect Son of God can pay. Jesus is about to pay this cost, and the corrupt Pontius Pilate is unwittingly about to help him do so.
Jesus remains perfectly righteous through an agonizing death on the cross and therefore is qualified to cover our sin with his righteousness while we are, step by step, degree by degree, being restored to what we were meant to be.
We do not and cannot earn our own salvation. Jesus alone can provide our salvation. Our job is simply to receive our salvation and to respond to it with gratitude and obedience.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about this. The misunderstanding comes when we look at salvation from the human perspective and think that the purpose of salvation is our escaping hell and going to heaven. That is too small a purpose for what God had in mind.
To understand salvation correctly, we need to understand it from God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, the point is to restore human beings and all creation to the divinely intended purpose. When the purpose is fully realized, we will, with our resurrected bodies, glorify and serve our Creator eternally in a perfect and united new heaven and new earth.
For all of us who will let Jesus be our Savior and our Lord, letting him pay the cost of our sin and letting him rule our lives—in other words, for all who will set themselves to trust and obey Jesus—the future is guaranteed.
Some of us may live mere seconds beyond our initial commitment to Jesus and some of us may live close to a century beyond our initial commitment to Jesus. The point is not how long we live. No matter how short or long we live, we will still fail to achieve perfection, but the point is not how much we achieve. The point is whether we are to the best of our ability trusting and obeying, whether we are moving from where we are ever closer to Jesus. It is not how far we have come, but it is the direction we are moving. If we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, if we have indeed been saved, then the overall direction of our movement will be toward him and his likeness.
Tonight, as we remember Jesus’ death, let us remember why he died.
Jesus remains perfectly righteous through an agonizing death on the cross and therefore is qualified to cover our sin with his righteousness while we are, step by step, degree by degree, being restored to what we were meant to be.
We do not and cannot earn our own salvation. Jesus alone can provide our salvation. Our job is simply to receive our salvation and to respond to it with gratitude and obedience.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about this. The misunderstanding comes when we look at salvation from the human perspective and think that the purpose of salvation is our escaping hell and going to heaven. That is too small a purpose for what God had in mind.
To understand salvation correctly, we need to understand it from God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, the point is to restore human beings and all creation to the divinely intended purpose. When the purpose is fully realized, we will, with our resurrected bodies, glorify and serve our Creator eternally in a perfect and united new heaven and new earth.
For all of us who will let Jesus be our Savior and our Lord, letting him pay the cost of our sin and letting him rule our lives—in other words, for all who will set themselves to trust and obey Jesus—the future is guaranteed.
Some of us may live mere seconds beyond our initial commitment to Jesus and some of us may live close to a century beyond our initial commitment to Jesus. The point is not how long we live. No matter how short or long we live, we will still fail to achieve perfection, but the point is not how much we achieve. The point is whether we are to the best of our ability trusting and obeying, whether we are moving from where we are ever closer to Jesus. It is not how far we have come, but it is the direction we are moving. If we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, if we have indeed been saved, then the overall direction of our movement will be toward him and his likeness.
Tonight, as we remember Jesus’ death, let us remember why he died.
Remember that his purpose is to restore us to the image of God so that we can live eternally for the glory of God. Let his purpose be fulfilled. Do not let his death for us be in vain. As we often sing and will sing tonight, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands our souls, our lives, our all.”
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