So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. John 6:15
When Jesus fed the multitude, the people wanted to make Him king. To do this would require force. They would have to “seize” Jesus, because He wanted no part in their nationalistic aspirations. How times have not changed!
Unfortunately, John’s account is timeless and warns against what is happening today. So it has always been: many want to turn Jesus into an earthly ruler who will legitimize their own ambitions. Everyone wants the legitimacy of God on their side.
When we see people trying to recruit Jesus as a mascot for their political, national, and earthly agendas, we need to recognize this as a distortion of who Christ is. To align Him with our kingdoms rather than surrender ourselves to His, is to take Him once again and nail Him to a government cross.
To make Jesus king, in a way other than how He is king, is to do violence to Jesus. One must use force to remake Jesus into a leader who is complicit with earthly power, to create a version of Christ that is not of God, to recast Him as one who will approve of the sword and consecrate the rule which is not from above.
We must learn to respond as Jesus did; to withdraw to where we are alone, away from the would-be kingmakers. In our aloneness we are renewed in our relationship with God. Jesus was never apart from His Father (John 16:32). His solitude was only separation from those who had in mind, as He told Peter (Mark 8:33), the things of man and not of God. His aloneness was never total, but an entering into His Father’s presence without distraction.
The church is captive to the kingdoms of this world to the degree that it knows not to flee from those who would make Jesus king. Too many are drawn to the marriage of not Christ and the church, but of Christ and country. The ceremony tries to join the flag to the cross.
This is to diminish Christ by making him King of only one nation rather than of the whole world. He is not ours; we are his. Everyone. Every nation and people.
Do we not realize that we are bowing down to Satan to receive the kingdoms of this world when Jesus would not? Will we make Jesus do what he refused and sin where he remained faithful?
If we know Jesus, we will not make him party to violence and war, to greed and exploitation, to oppression, arrogance, prejudice, apathy, and the mistreatment of vulnerable people. In his name, we will repudiate evil, not sanctify it.
Christ’s reign is vibrantly and prophetically in the world, as a contrast and the judge of its ways. Jesus slips away from those who would make him king. He will not join in their project.
But from the mountain, God has repeatedly made himself known. He will again, but on his terms and not according to worldly power. We can be sure that Jesus is not with those who seek to make him king. We will not find him there.