It appears the earliest types of societal governance were through a variety of monarchy forms.

Empirically, the family most catalytic in the genesis of nationhood would be accorded the exclusive privilege to Royalty. There are however many instances throughout the history of monarchies where this privilege was usurped by another family.

The fascinating thing about the concept of Royalty was the exclusive retention of authority to rule within the Royal Family bloodline. Over time, this concept would collide with modernity, which questioned the endowment of authority to the royal family in perpetuity. It was partly this tension that fomented the European social revolutions.

However, centuries before the European social revolutions, at the pinnacle of the hegemonic Roman Empire, a humble Jewish Rabbi from a nation that had been ruled through a theistic monarchy since its inception, completely redefined what Royalty meant.

Ironically this was at the time when Jesus’ own nation’s Royalty had been usurped by Herod the Great. In fact, Jesus and his parents were exiled in Africa when Herod resolved to kill babies of the age of 2 years and under after his claim to the royal throne came under threat as rumors spread that the legitimate king of the Jews had been born.

So when Jesus declared his mission to preach about the Kingdom of God, many of his countrymen and women had their hopes raised that finally their legitimate Royal throne would be restored. After all their revered Prophets had prophesied of this time when God would restore the Royal throne of David. This is why the some of gospel writers ensured to outline in some great detail Jesus’ bloodline connection to Jewish Royalty.

It subsequently transpired, however, that Jesus had more than just his Jewish nation in mind when he preached about the restoration of the Kingdom of God. He would regularly venture out into foreign territories such as Samaria and the Decapolis to minister there.

By the time he ascended to heaven he had telegraphed an astonishingly counterintuitive truth about Royalty; first that God desired that all humanity, notwithstanding their social status, to be part of God’s Royal Family.

He called his disciples and anyone willing to do God’s will, friends, brothers, and sisters. In his now-famous sermon on Mount, he insinuated that everyone had a chance of being an heir in his Father’s kingdom, leaving his hearers utterly astonished. This would have surely been jarring to Jesus’ hearers. How could Royalty be, if it was no longer exclusive?

This may explain why to this day, Christianity positions following Christ as entailing joining some kind of an exclusive culture or club, instead of being a representation of God’s heart to humanity that continuously loves and invites all peoples to the Royal Family of God.

It almost seems that, to this day, Jesus’ Kingdom Royalty narrative was mistaken for humanity’s broken Royalty narratives.