Von Christian / N. T. Wright
In the seventh chapter of N.T. Wright’s book How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, Wright addresses a topic that is usually not discussed at all, even though the Gospels tell of it:
The fourth topic is the story of Jesus told as the story of the kingdom of God clashing with the kingdom of Caesar.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
God and Caesar
Before we can talk about this clash between the two kingdoms, it is important to understand that the Bible, the New Testament and even the Gospels themselves clearly state something that even many Christians today no longer believe:
Caesar. The gospels are very much aware of the dark forces that ultimately owe their origin and strength to the power sometimes called “the satan,” “the accuser.” The gospel writers have plenty to say about those dark forces, that dark power. They are quite clear where the ultimate enemy lies.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
We will discuss this in more detail later. For now, we would like to draw your attention to the temptations of Jesus. The devil could not offer Jesus less than all the kingdoms of this world, and Jesus did not dismiss this as a lie (Matthew 4:8-10).
In this respect, these words of Jesus may have a different meaning than we thought: “Do not be afraid of those who kill only the body but cannot harm the soul. But fear the one who can deliver soul and body to ruin in hell.” (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4-5) But soul, body and hell would take us too far away from the topic now.
When Jews of this period spoke about their history, they always did so with an eye to how their God would liberate them from the domination of the evil and powerful pagan empires – as in the Exodus from Egypt. And when the Old Testament speaks of the God of Israel fighting for his people against other powers, it always does so with an eye to their gods (see also Isaiah 40-55).
God and the Powers in Jewish Tradition
The Old Testament wastes no time. Right after the rebellion of the people, in the fourth chapter, it draws our attention to forces at work: Cain’s reaction to being convicted for the murder of his brother is to build a city (Genesis 4:17). This is followed by the description of the rebellion of the “sons of God” (Genesis 6:2) together with the humans, which God has to end with a flood. Then, in chapter 11, the third rebellion is described in Babel, which God fights by confusing the languages.
In chapter 12, we learn that God calls Abram to do in His grace what people with their arrogant power want to achieve themselves. Before the account of the Exodus, we find in Exodus 1:11 that the ruler of the mighty Egyptian empire forces the Israelites to build something: cities. If you take a closer look at the 10 plagues and the devastating defeat of the attacking Egyptian army at sea, you will see that each one was also a blow against one of the Egyptian gods. Including the god-like Pharaoh.
The rest of Israel’s history until David and Solomon is characterized by the fact that Israel repeatedly comes under the rule of other powers until Yahweh frees them. It is only during this time that there is a safe place for the Ark of the Covenant and the Tent of Meeting in the Temple in Jerusalem, so that God can dwell in the midst of His people.
However, as we can read in Isaiah 40-55 and Daniel – both books from which the early Christians drew a lot – the ‚climax‘ of this clash between the kingdom of God and the powers that be is that God’s people go into exile. And even when Israel returns from exile, they are still under the rule of the other powers. So that couldn’t be the end of the story:
He will vindicate his people, rescuing them from their exile (Isa. 52; Dan. 9), exalting them to his right hand (Dan. 7), setting up a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Dan. 2), the true Davidic kingdom, which, built on the renewal of the covenant, will be nothing less than new creation (Isa. 54–55). In Isaiah this will be accomplished through the work of the “servant of the LORD”; in Daniel it will be accomplished through the suffering and faithfulness of God’s people. It’s the same story all the way through. And there is no doubt that this is the story the gospel writers intend, in their different ways, to retell in the basic story of Jesus himself.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
Other texts such as Psalm 2 and Psalm 89 also reinforced the Jews in the knowledge that they had not yet reached the end of their story. This is the context in which the Gospels occurred and were written.
God and Caesar in the Gospels
“But the gospels do contain a peaceful message, don’t they?” you might think. ‘And didn’t Jesus himself say, ’Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God‘?” (Matthew 22:21 NEÜ). However, the issue here is not the behavior of each individual, but the relationship between God and the powers. Perhaps our view is based on a few verses, while other parts of the Gospels receive little attention?
In fact, the Gospel of Luke begins by mentioning the emperor:
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Luke 2:1,2 NASB
Is Luke just mentioning this to record the historical moment? Or to explain why Joseph and Mary are in Bethlehem? Aren’t we overlooking something? “Tax rolls” – everyone knew what that meant. For us, paying taxes is so routine that we hardly think about it. For any Jewish person hearing this, it meant registration as subjects in a kingdom ruled by a foreign power. Far-fetched? Josephus reports on several uprisings due to such registrations. And at the end of Luke, we find this indictment:
The whole crowd of them got up and took Jesus to Pilate. They began to accuse him. “We found this fellow,” they said, “deceiving our nation! He was forbidding people to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he is the Messiah—a king!”
Luke 23:2 N.T. Wright
So it is also about the question of who is the rightful king of Israel. And it is therefore not surprising that Luke has his second volume – the Acts of the Apostles – end with: “[Paul] proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about Jesus Christ, the Lord, openly and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31).
Matthew contains similar references, only his focus in the second chapter is on “King Herod”, Herod the Great, and his dynasty. Herod Antipas appears repeatedly during Jesus‘ public ministry and even kills his cousin John. And so at the end of Luke, we find that Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate, as representatives of the powers of this world, even become friends through their dealings with Jesus: “Now Pilate and Herod Antipas, who had been at enmity until then, became friends that day.” (Luke 23:12)
In Mark 10:35-45 we also find a concise passage on this topic:
“You know how it is in the pagan nations,” he said. “Think how their so-called rulers act. They lord it over their subjects. The high and mighty ones boss the rest around. But that’s not how it’s going to be with you. Anyone who wants to be great among you must become your servant. Anyone who wants to be first must be everyone’s slave. Don’t you see? The son of man didn’t come to be waited on. He came to be the servant, to give his life ‘as a ransom for many.’”
Mark 10:42-45 N. T. Writght
In Mark’s account, we are reminded of the “deacon of Yahweh” from Isaiah 40-55 and we have the “son of man” from Daniel. And thus the listeners are reminded that the God of Israel will return and claim sovereignty over his people and even all nations.
There is, in other words, a clear line all the way from Genesis 11, via Isaiah 40–55 and Daniel 7, to Mark 10, and thereby in turn to Mark 14–15, where Jesus meets his captors, his judges, and his death. He not only theorizes about the difference between pagan power and the kind of power he is claiming; he enacts it. The passage just quoted is not a “political” statement (about different types of power) followed by an “atonement” statement (about how sins would be forgiven), as though the two were entirely separate things. As we shall see in the next part of the book, when we put together “kingdom” and “cross” in a way few readers of the gospels have even tried to do, Jesus establishes the new kind of power—God’s kingdom as opposed to Caesar’s, on earth as in heaven—precisely through his (scripturally interpreted) death. And, to put it the other way around, God rescues his people from their sins, through the work of the Isaianic “servant,” precisely in order to establish his rule, his own very different kind of power, in all the world.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
A similar train of thought can be found in the Gospel of John:
“That voice came for your sake, not mine,” replied Jesus. “Now comes the judgment of this world! Now this world’s ruler is going to be thrown out! And when I’ve been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” He said this in order to point to the kind of death he was going to die.
John 12:30-33 N.T. Wright
Later, he emphasizes again that the victory of the kingdom of God will be achieved, surprisingly, not by war but by his death:
And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in regard to Me, but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let’s gofrom here.
John 14:29-31 NASB
N.T. Wright is fully aware that for many, this connection is outside their usual environment:
This, no doubt, will already take many modern Western Christians way outside their normal backyard. But there is more. In chapter 16, Jesus declares that when the “helper” comes, the “spirit of truth” of whom he has been speaking, this Spirit will have an extraordinary, complex, and dangerous-sounding task to perform. The Spirit, says Jesus, “will prove the world to be in the wrong on three counts: sin, justice, and judgment” (16:8).
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
And this is what Jesus says according to the Gospel of John:
“In relation to sin—because they don’t believe in me. In relation to justice—because I’m going to the father, and you won’t see me anymore. In relation to judgment—because the ruler of this world is judged.”
John 16:9-11 N.T. Wright
What does that mean?
We can perhaps add our own brief further explanations. First, the world (which includes, tragically, most of Jesus’s fellow Jews at the time) doesn’t believe in Jesus. It is therefore heading off on the wrong track, missing the mark. The technical term for that is “sin.” Second, Jesus is going to be vindicated, dramatically proven to be in the right. This will be God’s great act of “justice,” putting everything right and so showing up the injustice, the not putting right or the active putting wrong, of the rest of the world. The world, in other words, is deeply and radically out of joint, with all sorts of things going wrong; God will put it all right. Third, God will pass a sentence of condemnation on the “ruler of this world” (“judgment”).
How will all this happen? Through the work of the Spirit, whom Jesus is promising to send to his disciples. In other words, it will happen through the Spirit-led work of Jesus’s followers.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
N.T. Wright expands on this in the book, but a book is needed for such a large amount of material.
Finally, Jesus explains that his kingdom, though for this world, is not of this world (18:36). It comes from heaven, from God. John also draws our attention to God and Caesar:
The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, because He made Himself out to be the Son of God!“ Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid;
John 19:7,8a NASB
Was Pilate even more frightened because the Mosaic Law was at stake? Hardly, because in his world, “Son of God” means nothing less than Caesar! So it is about power, in Greek exousia, which also carries the meaning of authority and authorization. Jesus‘ answer is enlightening:
So Pilate said to Him, “Are you not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above; for this reason the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.”
John 19:10,11 NASB
Pilate’s power, the rulers of the world, do they have their power and authority from God? In the Jewish context of the time, this follows from the idea that God, as creator, intended for humans to take care of the world, even if the humans called to do so prove to be selfish brutes. God does not just let things happen, but will hold everyone accountable for how they live out this calling. And this is shown in the rest of the gospel.
In a striking parallel to 1 Samuel 8:4, 20, the religious leaders want to be “like the nations.” They are tired of waiting for the “Son of Man”: “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15) That Pilate had Jesus killed with a sign saying “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” was both a slap in the face of the Pharisees and a mockery of Jesus. But, as with Caiaphas, it was also much more true than they realized. Jesus is not only King of the Jews, but at his death and resurrection he becomes King of the whole world, through an act of love (13:1).
Render unto Caesar?
And how should we act now? Perhaps we should still think of this incident with the coin (Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:20-36; Matthew 22:15-22). The idea that Jesus is speaking here of a separation of church and state is one that did not arise until the end of the 18th century.
First of all, we have to realize that this was an extremely dangerous question in the time of Jesus. Everyone knew that people had been crucified for inciting rebellion against these taxes. In view of this, and in the face of a hostile mob, we should hardly expect a long, detailed explanation from Jesus. Nevertheless, there are some interesting details:
When I translated the New Testament, I didn’t quite have the courage to let this verse say what I suspect it says: “So, you’d better pay Caesar back in his own coin—and pay God back in his own coin!” This saying would then echo a saying that had already become famous in Jewish circles following the Maccabean revolt two centuries earlier. “Pay back the Gentiles in full,” said old Mattathias to Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, “and obey the commands of the law” (1 Macc. 2:68). And he wasn’t telling them to pay the Gentile taxes. The Greek in question uses the same root word for “pay back,” antapodote, cognate with the apodote we find in all three synoptic gospels at this point. I suspect that Mattathias’s double command may already have been proverbial. Jesus may well have been deliberately echoing it.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
It is also not the case that Jesus cleverly avoided the problem by saying that he was either for the rebellion or for Rome. His answer is more aimed at showing them that the answer is quite different:
human being and whose “inscription” is written across the pages of creation and the story of Israel—to receive his due. This is the message of God’s kingdom, all right, but it doesn’t play out in either of the obvious, simplistic ways, either as an “otherworldly” kingdom completely separate from that of Caesar or as a straightforward, old-fashioned violent revolution. For Matthew, Mark, and Luke the story is one of the key pointers, following Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and prior to his arrest and death, to what is “going on” throughout: this is the story of how God truly became king, as Jesus offered back to God what was his own, in his obedient suffering and death. And within the new world that was thereby created, the question of Caesar, his power, and his coins looks completely different. There may be a time for confrontation; there may be a time for appropriate collaboration.
N.T. Wright How God Became King, chapter 7
All four aspects of the gospels together
At this point, we should briefly summarize the four aspects of the gospels that we discussed in parts 4 to 7:
- The long story of Israel, with the Exodus in terms of salvation and the journey. This long story, the evangelists say, has come to its end, has reached its goal.
- The Exodus is also the story of the God of Israel, Yahweh, the living God, who shows his people his identity in a new way and dwells with them. First in the tent of meeting or tabernacle, then in the temple. In the person of Jesus, the living God has come into their midst again as the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel.
- The Gospels also tell the story of the renewed people of God, which reminds us of two elements of the Exodus story: Israel’s calling as a royal priesthood and the gift of the Torah, through which the calling could become reality.
- And like the Exodus, it is about the powers of this world and God’s kingdom. The story of the Exodus is the story of “how God became king,” as Moses and the Israelites sang (Exodus 15:1-3,18). The story of Jesus is the new and ultimate Exodus.
Next, we will tie together the threads of our argument as we address the central challenge that the gospel presents, the dramatic and explosive combination of the kingdom and the cross.
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