Kingdom Power

True greatness in Christ’s Kingdom is found in self-sacrificial service for others, not in exercising political power over them.

Too many Christians have exchanged the proclamation of the Gospel for the pursuit of one political agenda or another, especially in North America. Rather than calling men and women to repent and believe the same Gospel preached by Jesus and his Apostles, they prefer imposing their views and visions via the corrupt political systems of this fallen age. However, this is not the way of discipleship exemplified in the words and deeds of Jesus.

After predicting his trial and execution, two of his disciples approached Jesus to request positions of political power and prestige in his coming Kingdom. As he was approaching Jerusalem, the very center of the Jewish nation and religion, even his closest followers demonstrated their failure to grasp what it meant to follow Christ and serve his People.

[Photo by Jürgen Scheeff on Unsplash]

Jesus took the opportunity to teach the disciples that “greatness” in God’s Kingdom necessitates a life of self-sacrificial service on behalf of others, self-denial rather than self-promotion or dominion over others. James and John asked Christ to install them at his right and left when he came “in his glory.” They remained incapable of hearing his words and learning from his daily deeds of mercy.

Nevertheless, Jesus would soon show them just what it meant to become his disciple when he fulfilled the role of the ‘Suffering Servant’ described in the Book of Isaiah by giving his life as a “ransom for many” on a Roman cross.

Suffering and death must precede glory. As Jesus approached the city, the disciples expected the Messiah of Israel to manifest his royal glory for the world to see, and to impose his reign and overthrow the foreign overlords of Israel and their Jewish collaborators. They had yet to understand just what kind of Messiah the Nazarene was and remains to this day.

• (Mark 10:35-40) - “And approaching him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee are saying, ‘Rabbi, we desire that whatever we ask of you, you will do for us.’ Now he answered them, ‘What is it you are wishing me to do for you?’ Now they said to him, ‘Grant to us that we may sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You know not what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I, myself am drinking, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I, myself am being baptized?’ Yet they said to him, ‘We are able.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I, myself am drinking you will drink, and the baptism with which I, myself am being baptized you will be baptized, yet to sit on my right or left is not for me to give, but for those for whom it has been prepared.’”

The two disciples addressed Jesus as ‘Rabbi’ or “teacher,” a title of respect but one commonly used by Jews of the time for teachers of the Law of Moses. James and John did not yet understand who Christ was.

In the Hebrew Bible, the “cup” symbolized something given or allotted by God, and often in the negative sense of receiving judicial punishment. The idea of drinking this “cup” points to Christ partaking in the wrath of God on account of sin. Likewise, the context indicates the same negative sense for his metaphorical use of “baptism” - (Psalm 11:6, 16:5, Isaiah 57:17-22, Jeremiah 25:15-28).

When James and John declared that they were prepared to drink from this “cup,” the response of Jesus demonstrated they had no idea what they had just said. However, they would one day drink that same “cup” when they also suffered for the Kingdom.

In the translation above, “I, myself” represents the emphatic pronoun in the Greek text (‘egō’). It occurs four times in the passage. It stresses Christ’s messianic role. The death of the “Son of Man” is the event that inaugurated the Kingdom of God.

“Greatness” is measured in God’s Kingdom by self-sacrificial service to others, not by political power or economic success. In this realm, the one who wishes to be “great” must become the “servant” of all.

The term translated as “servant” represents the Greek noun ‘diakonos’, which is used elsewhere in the Greek New Testament as a general term for “servant” or “minister.”

• (Mark 10:41-45) - “And hearing this, the ten began to be indignant concerning James and John. And having summoned them, Jesus says to them, ‘You know that those considered rulers of the nations, lord it over them and their great ones tyrannize them. Yet not so is it among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, he will be your servant, and whoever desires to be chief among you will become the slave of all; For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his soul a ransom instead of many.”

In ancient Greek, ‘diakonos’ referred to servants who waited on tables, and it is the term from which the title ‘deacon’ is derived. The Gospel of Luke uses it in this manner - “For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? But I am among you as the one who serves,” as does the Book of Acts - (Luke 22:26-27, Acts 6:1-7).

Jesus thus defined his mission as the one who comes “not to be served, but to serve and to give his soul a ransom instead of many.” The Greek verb translated here as “served” is the verbal form of the noun diakoonos, and most often in the Greek New Testament, it is applied to slaves.

THE RANSOM PRICE

And so, the “Son of Man” became the servant and slave of all when he gave his “soul” to ransom others. Jesus used “soul” in the Old Testament sense for his entire person, both the physical and non-physical aspects. He sacrificed his entire being or “life” for others.

The Greek preposition translated as “instead of” is ‘anti’, meaning “instead of, on behalf of, for, in place of, in exchange for.” Behind Christ’s saying is the passage about the ‘Suffering Servant’ in the Book of Isaiah:

• (Isaiah 53:10-12) - “He will be satisfied with his knowledge, a setting right when set right himself will my Servant win for the many since of their iniquities he takes the burden. Therefore, I will give him a portion in the great, and the strong will he apportion as spoil because he poured out to death his own soul, and with transgressors let himself be numbered. Yea, he bore the sin of many, and for transgressors he interposes.”

Jesus referred to the “many.” This did not mean a limited or exclusive company. It provides a verbal link to the passage from Isaiah where “the many” refers to the “transgressors.” Moreover, the contrast is not between “many” and “all,” but between the one “Son of Man” who gave his life and the many beneficiaries of his self-denying act.

The passage in Isaiah also provides the term “soul” found on Christ’s lips. Just as Isaiah’s Suffering Servant “poured out his soul,” so the “Son of Man” offered his “soul” to ransom the “many,” namely, his entire being offered in death for others.

In first-century society, a monetary “ransom” was paid to purchase the freedom of a slave. And so, Jesus gave his life as the ransom price to free a great many others from slavery to sin and death.

While we as his disciples are not called to give our own lives as ransom prices to save sinners, Jesus summoned each of us to emulate his example of self-sacrificial service, especially for the sake of sinners and “enemies.” We are certainly not called to use the political powers of this sinful world to impose correct beliefs or proper conduct on others.

in his realm, sovereignty, and power are exercised in ways that are alien to the political systems and ideologies of this world, and only disciples who give their lives in service to others will become “great” in the Kingdom of God.

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SEE ALSO:

• Mercy and Enemies - (When we react to hostility with hostility, whether by government, society, or individuals, Satan triumphs)

• The Greater Lawgiver - (In Matthew, Jesus is the Greater Moses who interprets the Law and the Prophets and brings God’s promises to fulfillment)

• Law and Prophets - (Jesus came to fulfill all the things that were promised and foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets)

• Devenir Grand dans son Royaume - (La vraie grandeur dans le Royaume du Christ se trouve dans le service sacrificiel pour les autres, et non dans l'exercice du pouvoir politique sur eux)