The Basis of Our Freedom

This week in our study we will examine Jesus’ interaction with Pontius Pilate in Mark 15.   In Mark 15:10, we read that Pilate understood the game they were playing, he wasn’t naïve.  “For he perceived that it was out of envy that the priest had brought Jesus to him.” 

In John 18:31, we read that Pilate told them to “take him and judge him by your own law.”   Pilate was not only trying to side step responsibility, but was declaring to the Jewish leadership that they had their own laws, while Rome had theirs.  Truth and justice had nothing to do with what was guiding Pilate’s decision.

What mattered to Pilate was not truth, but whatever was expedient to the group of people before him.  Another word for this is tribalism.  Tribalism basically says that a person’s loyalty is first to their race, religious sect or political party.   Tribalism limits its view of truth to the culture and laws of men, rather than the truth of God’s word.  It is horizontal in its scope.

Now if you think that America and the West is immune to this kind of thinking, think again.  Let me give you a few examples of the rise of tribalism in our own culture.   A few years ago a group of Muslims petitioned the Canadian government in Ontario to institute Sharia law.  Sharia law are laws that flow from the Koran and Islam and are responsible for laws like women having to cover themselves, execution for speaking against Islam, and anti-conversion laws.

Here is the interesting thing.  The Ontario state government voted to approve an act that gave credence to some of their requests,  Fortunately the act was overturned by Canada’s national government the following year, but it was initially approved on the state level.   As Islam grows as a force in Europe and North America, we are seeing more and more local governments capitulate to the Muslim lobbyists for Sharia law.

The rationale is you have your laws and we have yours.  Absolute and ultimate truth no longer rests on God’s word, but rather it flows from one’s culture and society.  More and more lawmakers and judges in the west go forward with this kind of thinking.

Another example that shows tribalism in our culture today is the issue of homosexuality and gender equality.  The appeal here has again more to do with what is true to the group or tribe and no longer has a basis in the principles found in the truth of God’s word.

In John 18:36, which is a parallel account of Jesus before Pilate, Jesus responded this way to Pilate’s tribalism, “My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.”

The genius of Jesus’ appeal to Pilate is not horizontal, but basically Jesus is saying that ultimately the justice that will be done is of heaven not earth.  This is vertical and Godward.  In Mark Jesus only has one thing to say, “Yes, I am indeed king of the Jews!”  But it is John’s account where we find that Jesus is helping Pilate understand that He is not talking about a geopolitical kingship.

A few weeks ago as a nation, we celebrated Independence Day.  What our nation is slowly forgetting is that our independence against the tyranny of a government was an appeal to God for justice.  The reason the British Crown became excessive in its taxation was because they no longer served the people based on the dictates of God’s word, but pursued their own gain.

If you read the introduction to our declaration of independence, you see our founders appeal to God, not man.  “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands…  which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them…   We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The heart of our constitution is an appeal to principles and laws that are beyond men and point to God Himself.   That is exactly what Jesus did here with Pilate.  “My kingdom is from another place.”    It is important for us to have burned in our hearts and our minds that that guides our personal lives is not of this world.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is not an invention of man, but of God, “my kingdom is from another place.”

It is important for us as Christians to remember that this is what guides our understanding of what is true and just.  It is important for us as citizens of one of the freest nations in the world to remember our nation and laws have their foundation in God not man.   The day that we forget this will be the day we descend into tyranny and totalitarianism.