54 Cornelis Bennema also for their spiritual liberation. Jesus’ word of rebuke in 18,11 aimed to liberate Peter from militant activism (60). In his dialogue with Pilate in 18,33–19,11, Jesus implicitly offers political liberation from oppressive rules such as Rome since his non-violent kingdom is not “from this world”. However, although Jesus’ kingdom is not from this world — its source is not “from below” — yet it exists and operates in this world, and the demand for an exclusive allegiance to Jesus and his rule will inevitably clash with loyalties to regimes and ideologies “from this world” (61). At whom is Jesus’ “sword” aimed, i.e., who are the recipients of Jesus’ teaching, and for which purpose? Jesus’ teaching is not merely for the Jewish nation but for the world at large (8,26; 18,20). This is not surprising if one remembers that Jesus’ entire mission was geared towards the world (1,9; 3,16-17; 10,16; 11,51-52; 12,47; 16,28; 17,18), and that everyone is in need of spiritual liberation. Moreover, Jesus’ interaction with so-called “outsiders”, such as the Samaritans, “the Greeks” in 12,20-23 and Pilate, also reveals that his liberating mission goes beyond Israel’s physical and ethnic borders (cf. 10,16). In fact, the purpose of Jesus’ “sword” is to sift the world and to constitute a new “Israel”, a new community that is liberated from spiritual oppression and that demonstrates an exclusive allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. 3. The Transference of the Messiah’s Sword to the Disciples After his departure, Jesus will send to his disciples the Spirit- Paraclete to continue his mission in this world. As “the Spirit of truth”, the Paraclete will mediate the liberating truth present in Jesus’ words to the disciples to inform and empower their liberating witness to the world (14,26; 15,26-27; 16,12-15). Moreover, connecting 16,8-11 with 16,12-15, the Paraclete will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment in order to liberate the world precisely through the disciples’ witness because the world cannot see or know the Paraclete (14,17). People who are confronted with the disciples’ Paraclete-imbued witness of truth are in fact confronted with Jesus’ Spirit-imbued word itself and hence this witness is expected to have the same liberating effects. That is, the correlated witness of the (60) Cf. HOWARD-BROOK, Children, 378. (61) Cf. RENSBERGER, Faith, 96-100, 116-118; HOWARD-BROOK, Children, 399-400; HENGEL, “Kingdom”, 340-341, 355.