On this side of history, we see the folly it would have been to make Jesus kind.  But in the moment of the suffering of the people, they wanted deliverance from Rome and it’s heavy thumb on their lives.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Jesus.  The King.  A political ruler.  Meant to come and throw off the Romans who had brought so much bloodshed.

But Jesus was so much more.

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”  (John 18:36).

A political kingdom for the Jews to throw off the conflict with the Romans was not what he had in mind.  Such a kingdom would be temporary and it would come and go.  But we all know that Jesus wanted an eternal kingdom.  A kingdom of the heart.  A kingdom of heaven.  A kingdom that will last forever, through every political power and rule, whether good or evil.

I’m not sure this is believed much any more among the Christian world.  There is sufficiently more care about the kingdoms of this world than the kingdom of God.