We read on Sunday that Jesus is the king of kings. When the beings who are in power get together, Jesus is the one who has the most power. Jesus is the ultimate authority.

Though he tells Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world, that doesn’t mean that his kingdom doesn’t have anything to do with this world. He wasn’t saying, “you are in charge of the National Football League and I’m in charge of the world federation of soccer. Separate and equally important sports.” He wasn’t saying, there are kings in charge of humans and armies, and then there are kings in charge of spiritual feelings and nice sayings.

Jesus was saying that the political system that Pilate was part of, with Roman emperors and invading armies that occupied Israel were one kind of authority.

But that authority will not last. Though the people running things can cause death, they themselves will still die. They will come and go. Their kingdoms have beginnings and have ends.

-But the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Jesus lasts. And, John the writer of Revelation says, we are part of the kingdom and are priests in it.

I’ve been trying to understand what that means. What does it mean for how I live for the rest of today that I am a resident of the Kingdom of Jesus, and that you and I are priests, are people who can offer hope and healing to people?

One thing it means is that if we are part of a kingdom, then what the king thinks of us matters. It’s what we strive for, it’s what we live up to.

And in the kingdom of Jesus, the king thinks we are to die for.

Literally.

We are so loved in our doubts and despair, in our mistakes and our false starts, that Jesus gave up everything to welcome us into the kingdom, to make things right.

We didn’t do it. We couldn’t do it. We couldn’t figure it out.

But Jesus died and rose again and said that we could come in.

So, if nothing else, we are loved.