Jesus: The King

I. The Ancient Idea of Kingship

Democracy as a political system has its roots in Greek thought, especially through the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Thus, it is no surprise that when we look back further into history, especially the history of the Old Testament world, we find no mention of a democratic system as we know it. By and large, governments were ruled by a monarchy, which means one ruler over all the people, generally in the form of a king or queen.

In the more powerful ancient empires that used monarchical rule, the subjects often saw their king as having the authority or even the nature of the gods themselves. Such is the case among the various Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed that the Pharaoh was a god. Not surprisingly, these kings used their power in abusive ways to increase their kingdom and secure their line for the future. Such pursuits often involved murder and rape.

A king who wanted his reign to last and his influence to be great had to do two things:

1) Establish a covenant with his subjects – Normally, kings gained their throne through a battle of some sort. After a victorious campaign, the new king would make a covenant (like a treaty) with the people he now ruled over. The covenant would state that he would reign over them justly and fairly, but they must be devoted to serving him in absolute allegiance and peace. If these people violated their agreement, the king could crush them. The weaker party (i.e. the subjects) was required to seal this covenant in blood as a symbol of their submission and a sign that disobedience to the covenant would cost them their blood. Archaeology has unearthed many such documents that give us a basic outline or template for these covenants:

I. Preamble – The opening statement from the king

II. Historical Prologue – Explains the situation surrounding the covenant

III. Stipulations – Explains how the people are to serve

IV. Curses/Blessings – Lists the consequences for obedience and disobedience

V. Succession Arrangements – Calls for witnesses and continued public reading so that the covenant will continue after the conquering king dies and is succeeded by a son

2) Create a unified kingdom – The only way a king’s reign could survive the threat of political coup from within and conquest from without was to establish a sense of kingdom. This involved making boundary markers that separated his kingdom from other kingdoms. It also required some sort of identity that marked off his people from other people. In short, a king without a kingdom was no king. These two concepts are essential to one another.

III. Yahweh as the King in the Old Testament

In stark contrast to a monarchy, when the Lord established his covenant with Abraham, he instituted a rule of theocracy, which meant that he alone would be the sovereign king of his people. Interestingly enough, we almost never find the Lord referring to himself as a king. I believe this is so because of the widespread atrocities of the pagan kings who used their power in tyrannical ways. The word was stained by the blood of past abuses. However, this lack of usage does not mean that Yahweh is not a king to his people. To suggest this would be to ignore the way in which he related to his people. In the Old Testament, it is undeniable that the Lord relates to his people as King in the ways similar to those listed above:

1) Covenant – Even a cursory reading of the Old Testament reveals the fact that Yahweh is a covenantal God. It is common to speak of the “covenant of life” which God entered into with Adam, a covenant which Adam broke upon disobeying God’s explicit commands. God also made covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, all of which must be seen as installments of an overarching “covenant of grace.” A good example of the gracious character of this covenant can be seen in God’s dealings with Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 & 15:1-21. In addition to this, if we look at the overall structure of Deuteronomy, it mirrors the ancient near-eastern template for a covenant. This entire book of the Bible cryptically alludes to the fact the Yahweh is to viewed as the king of Israel.

2) Kingdom – God does not call a people into a covenant relationship and then tell them to fly to the winds. God’s covenants are kingdom covenants, which mean that they establish a kingdom or a group of people that recognize the lordship or leadership of Yahweh. This much is clear in the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 and it provides the underpinnings for the oft repeated phrase throughout the OT, “And I will be their God and they shall be my people.” This is a statement about God’s kingdom.

There was a tragic day in Israel’s history when they petitioned Samuel, the prophet of God, for a human king to rule over them. God knew this desire and predicted it some time before the actual request was made (Deut. 17:14-15). In God’s grace, he knew the people’s weakness and allowed them to have such a ruler. Ideally, this earthly ruler was to serve as the vice-regent to the Lord and lead the people back to his sovereign rule. This position reached its zenith far too early in the history of Israel as David, the man after God’s own heart, ruled the way God desired. Those that followed him, by and large, led the people astray. The prophets of old saw this and began to prophesy about a king who would come a set right the throne of David (Isaiah 9:6-7).

V. Jesus as the King in the New Testament

The culture of the New Testament was not unlike the Old. Rome now ruled the world and she possessed some truly wicked leaders. With Israel being under her thumb, anyone claiming to be a king was seen as a threat to Caesar. Such a claim could easily cost someone their life. So too like the Old, in the NT, Jesus is very hesitant about calling himself the king for fear of being seen as a political despot. The New Testament depicts Jesus as a king in two ways:

1) An Eternal King – In John’s Prologue (1:1-14), he depicts the Word as being a co-agent of creation and dwelling with the Father. When he becomes flesh (1:14), his glory (i.e. heaviness) was seen by all. Other NT authors are not hesitant in ascribing eternal kingship to Jesus (see Colossians 1:15-20 & Philippians 2:6-11).

2) An Incarnate King – As aforementioned, Jesus would have been hesitant to stand up and publicly proclaim himself as king. This proclamation would have been radically misinterpreted by anyone who did not understand the exact nature of his kingship. The thing to realize is that Jesus’ incarnate kingship is a spiritual kingship. When Nathaniel proclaimed him “King of Israel” (John 1:49) and when he was heralded as such at the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:13), these people misunderstood. They wanted Jesus to take his supernatural powers and use them to achieve a physical victory. When he was arrested, beaten, and then mocked by the Romans soldiers who made fun of his kingship, they too expected his kingship to be manifested physically by the exertion of military force. Jesus Christ’s spiritual kingship was manifested most gloriously on the cross and this scandal was vindicated at the resurrection. This king came to achieve a victory, but not a victory over a political nation and not the use of force. He came to defeat sin and death through love.

It ought not to surprise us then that the kingship of Jesus (which is present not only in the Gospel of John, but the Synoptics as well) is accompanied by the two ideas that make up kingship in the ancient world:

Covenant: At the Last Supper, Jesus inaugurated the “New Covenant” in his blood. This new covenant was foreseen by Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31 f.) and Ezekiel (Ezek. 36:26 f.) as being the covenant by which God would fulfill the conditions of all other covenants. This covenant is what we enter into when we are “saved” by the blood of Christ. It is important for us to see that Jesus’ “New Covenant” does not stand in contrast to the Old Testament, because throughout the OT, God was gracious in continually relating to his people via covenant. The contrast is not between OT and NT; the contrast is between the covenant of grace and the covenant of life/works. We must rely on the former because we are incapable of fulfilling the obligations of the latter.

Kingdom: Jesus had a lot to say about the “Kingdom of God” and the “Kingdom of Heaven.” New Testament scholars have spent whole lifetimes studying these terms and there has yet been a definitive answer. I think we must think of this kingdom in at least two ways (that mirror the eternal/incarnate kingship distinction):

1) Kingdom of Power – The Creation: As Jesus is the eternal king who created everything and in whom all things hold together, everything we see falls under the jurisdiction of his kingship. Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch Reformed theologian and former prime minister of Holland, said this, “There is not one square inch of this creation of which Jesus does not say, ‘Mine!’” Being that Jesus created the universe, he has rightful rule over it.

2) Kingdom of Grace – The Church: As Jesus is the incarnate king who became flesh and offered himself up on the cross, so we owe our salvation and hope for eternal life to him alone. And we must constantly remind ourselves in this individualistic culture that we belong to a kingdom, which implies a people. We call this people “the church.” It is in this second sense that Jesus most frequently uses the phrase “kingdom of God/heaven.”

The best we can say is that this Kingdom is in a phase of “already-but-not-yet.” We can look around us and see the Kingdom of God at work through the visible church and yet we can look around us and see that the world is not like it ought to be. There is sickness, violence, oppression, greed, hate, envy, etc. These things do not exist in heaven, but right now, they exist on earth. We are called to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s kingdom has come already in the person of Jesus Christ and with the sending of the Holy Spirit to the church. And yet, it is not yet fully come because not all people recognize the kingship of Christ. Until that does occur, we are called to be obedient to our king and pray for his kingdom to come.