Lent day 39 - a new kind of power

If there is one thing I hate, it is an excarnate Christianity that speaks of spiritual things as if they had nothing to do with the world, with bodies, with the things of life.

One place where this is done based on a poor understanding of Greek (and therefore a sin for theology graduates is the trial of Jesus by Pilate in John 18. Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews, and points out his own people have handed him over. Jesus then says

"My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." (NASB)

What is usually read (sometimes translated as)

"My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of here." 

Of and from imply two different things. Of implies that Jesus' kingdom has nothing to do with the world, politics, economics, ecology and so on. It's all about heaven - meaning heaven as opposed to Earth, the place we go to when we die, not heaven the rule of God.

From implies where the authority comes from, and hence what it looks like. Recall Jesus prays that his disciples will be in but not of the world. The fact that the kingdom is not from this world means its ideas on authority and violence are different to the Roman empire, indeed all empires.

Christianity, or more particularly the church, is the community of God, not an empire. It does not resort to coercion, though it has solid arguments and internal discipline. It does not use violence to advance itself. Well it should not do either, though it has. In doing so, it has not been true to where it is from.

In post Christendom, we are called to continue to be a voice in the world, a presence. We do so without expecting, or more properly, demanding to be heard. But let us be worth listening to; just not in the way of empires, but in the way of an innocent man who was unfairly executed.