“Hail King Jesus”
By Richard P. Joseph
When Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem people were so impressed with his power, his authority, and his miracles that they were planning on seizing him and forcing him to take the throne and save them from the grip of the Romans. In fact the Devil himself offered the throne to Jesus if he would just fall down and worship him.
John 6:15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
Luke 4:5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him[d] all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
We all know that Jesus rejected man’s plan to place him on the throne of David, but why? Putting ourselves in their shoes I would be one of those that would be zealous for Israel and would want a righteous king to rule just like we long for a righteous president in our own time. Fortunately, God had a plan that was much more effective than what us mere men can concoct. Since Jesus was a descendant of David, he had legal standing to challenge the throne of Israel. This was taken so seriously by the Sanhedrin that they plotted to kill him in order to avert this action from ever taking place. All rulers fear the toppling of their throne. That is one reason that people were absolutely shocked when George Washington did not seek a third term. The rest of the world could not understand that a leader of a nation would give up his rule by choice(term limits were not imposed at that time). The world was even more shocked that the United States had a constitution that did not allow one to become a king or a tyrant over the people and even worse yet, no caste system! All men were created equal according the the United States Constitution.
Getting back to ancient Israel, Jesus had a right to challenge the throne. The fear in King Herod (a vassal king to Rome), feared the birth of Jesus so much that he ordered the slaughter of every male child in Bethlehem, two years old and younger. However, when Jesus was an adult, Caesar did not appoint a king in Jerusalem as he deemed no one fit at the time but rather appointed a procurator. That allowed the High Priest to yield a considerable amount of power. The High Priesthood was established by Moses, not as a political office but rather one that was a shadow of the Messiah. The High Priest is the one who entered the Holy of Holies each year to atone for the sins of Israel. However, starting at the time that the Persians ruled over Israel after the first temple was destroyed, the High Priesthood became a political office and the priest who could offer the most money to the king of Persia would become ruler in Israel. Of course the only way to get more money is to rape the people of taxes until they were ground into the dust. That type of system continued even throughout the Roman occupation period. Not too much different than us today. Therefore, when the leadership of the Jews finally determined that this Jewish Carpenter from some out of the way slum town was gaining a massive following, they panicked and brought him before Pilot. When Pilate asked him if he was indeed a king Jesus answered in the affirmative.
Then Jesus asked Pilot a funny question;
John 18:34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”
You don’t hear many sermons about this passage because it is subjective and obscure but I have an idea what he might be getting at. It appears that Jesus was asking Pilot if he was afraid of losing his position to him or if the Priests were afraid for themselves. Obviously, it was the priests that were afraid of losing their luxurious lifestyle to this common man. Then Jesus assured Pilot that he was not after his earthly throne.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world.
Jesus had no intention of becoming an earthly king even though many people wanted him to be one. Jesus’ plan from the beginning was to rule from heaven where he could spread his gospel in every part of the earth with no physical restrictions at all. This brings us to the question of the millennial reign. People back then were attempting to make him a physical king and those that are still waiting for the millennial reign to occur are doing the exact same thing that they were doing back then; trying to force Jesus to become a physical king on this earth. That is where the preterist doctrine is useful.
Taking the bible in context it appears that the millennial reign of Christ was the forty year period from 30-70 AD, not some future event. The millennial reign was something that already occurred when Jesus put down his enemies (the unfaithful Jews) and then began his eternal earthly kingdom where he rules from heaven. His kingdom on earth will have no end and his heavenly kingdom doesn’t either. Most ancient Jews used the term “1,000 years” to denote an epic event of an undetermined amount of time. Looking back we now can determine that it was a 40 year transition period where Jesus and his resurrected elect ruled over Satan's earth and finally put Satan and the unbelievers down. The futurist doctrine is prone to repeat the exact same mistakes they made in the first century (those that do not know history are bound to repeat it). That is why I encourage all Christians to engage in studying the historical setting of the bible times in order to be able to interpret scripture in its proper context. A good historical understanding will help you not make the same mistakes that previous generations made. It will also make all of the pieces of the biblical puzzle fit together properly without forcing them.
