Monday; September 30
Most of us are familiar with the concept of the separation between church and state as guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Founding Fathers guaranteed, “ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...”. Simply put, our nation was not going to be known for a “national religion”. This concept of a freedom of religion may have been unique in the 18 th Century, but separation between church and state goes back a long way – but, maybe not in a way we might think. When Jesus was being tried by Pilate He was faced by an adversarial Jewish aristocracy which seemed to turn on a favorite son. This confused Pilate who thought He might have held Himself out as the king of the Jews, but Jesus quickly set the record straight by saying, “ My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jew