Jesus was condemned to death by both Caiaphas and Pilate for the same reason—he claimed to be a king. Not a “spiritual king” over a “spiritual kingdom” but a real king over a political kingdom—but a very different kind of political kingdom. It is a kingdom that you have to be born again to even perceive, as Jesus told Nicodemus. And as Jesus told Pilate, his kingdom would not come from the world system of empires. The kingdom of the Son of Man would not be based upon the coercive power of the beasts but upon the cosuffering love of a new humanity formed around Messiah.
