In the courtyard of the governor's palace, Peter is warming himself by the fire. You were with him, someone says, you are one of them - I can tell by your accent, you're a Galilean. Will Peter pass the test?
Inside the palace, Pilate is pacing the pavement - and considers what to do with this strange prisoner. A silent one, yet somehow compelling - could he possibly be a threat to the Roman order? Could he turn it over, cause its demise? Will he pass the test? Will Pilate pass the test?
And then, he asks, incredulous or sarcastic - 'You?! Are you the king of the Jews?'
Are you the One? Are you the one who is supposed to be the big threat to me, the one who calls for ultimate allegiance to something other than Rome?
'I came into this world for judgment', Jesus said, 'so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.' (John 9:39) and his witness to the truth, his revelation of truth to all humanity, effects judgment. His Word brings judgment to the World.
'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.' (John 14:6)
He is the embodiment of truth; what he says and does, his words and deeds, testify to the truth.
When Pilate asks, 'Are you the king of the Jews?'
He is asking the real question, but does he realize it, does he realize the consequences?
Does he realize what he is dealing with? Who is facing him?
Jesus asks him, is this question really yours - or were you fed it (by some other group with a larger agenda)? Do you know what you are asking? Or is it just some sort of gambit in a game? Are you being played?
No. Pilate does not realize what he is asking.
'I came into this world for judgment', Jesus said, 'so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.' (John 9:39)
Then Pilate asks another question: "What have you done?"
Jesus answers the first question, after hearing the second:
My kingship is not from this world; I do not derive my authority from its practices, its powers. My kingship is given me from above, not from this world.
Pilate asks again, 'So you are a king?' Pilate is practicing due diligence, an interrogator giving the silent prisoner another chance, before condemning him. Are you?
Then Jesus replies to the second question: you say that I am a king; those are your words.
And finally he lays his cards on the table, exposing the paradoxical, not-of-this-world nature of his authority: for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.
My testimony brings judgment upon this world. But for everyone who hears my voice - everyone who belongs to me - there is salvation.
For everyone who belongs to the truth belongs to me -- and belongs to the Father who sent me.
The eternal Word has come into the world, the very One through whom it came into being, and yet the world does not recognize Him.
The light has come into the world, and yet everywhere people remain in the darkness, until that light shines upon them, and they turn to it and live. (We are called, to turn to that Light, and live.)
Throughout the encounter of Jesus with Pilate, and Pilate with the truth, the innocence and the kingship of Jesus are revealed:
He is the true judge who tries his adversaries; he is the truth come into the world.
The truth stands before Pilate - and Pilate turns away. He does not listen; and so he ends by serving the world's purposes. He is the means to the end. He who would rule becomes the servant - he is just the hand, the factotum, of a larger purpose.
The world would condemn Jesus, - 'it hates me,' he says, 'because I testify against it that its works are evil' (John 7:7) - but yet its judgment is not final, and its purpose is not ultimately successful. At the moment of his condemnation, he is crowned; in the triumph of the cross Jesus is exalted.
This is paradox - not a king as the world would have him king, but as the one who rules from below - a position of service.
For Christ Jesus,
though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death-
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
These are words Paul wrote down in his letter to the Philippians (2:6-11).
Jesus asks questions of Pilate as if he were the judge, the one on the throne. From the moment Jesus opens his mouth, Pilate is the one on trial. Does Pilate belong to the truth? Will he respond to it? Will he listen? (Do we belong to the truth? Will we listen?)
Truth! What is that??
He casts aside the question, and turns away from the Truth. He does not recognize it -
Indeed, he has asked the wrong question - the question really is, who is truth?
"For Christ is the truth, in such a sense that to be the truth, to be its embodiment in the world, is the only true explanation of what truth is," (Søren Kierkegaard) and its only genuine testimony.
The truth as revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate revelation of the Father in this world, comes to us not as a set of propositions seeking assent, nor as an argument to win us over, but as a person - an invitation to faith, that is, to trust in him.
God through Christ calls us into relationship - a relationship with the ultimate reality, that is revealed through this man, betrayed, accused, beaten, mocked, tried, condemned, and yet triumphant, compassionate, merciful to those who show no mercy, wise to fools, offering freedom even to those who condemn - for here he is before Pilate, supposedly a prisoner in chains and yet he is calling to Pilate to be free - to respond to the truth.
Jesus is the one offering freedom. Who is in charge here, indeed?
Christ is the king of life and love - the one who challenges the destructive powers of this age, offering life and light, love and hope, to all who have faith, all who believe in him.
At last the prophecy of Isaiah, release to the captives, eyesight to the blind, has come true.
The king has come at last - and he has come to set his people free.
The very concept of king, as the world once knew it, may seem obsolete in our world - nobody embodies the sovereignty of our nation or many nations anymore - and so the kingship of Jesus so unlike it we express his compelling authenticity in other terms - and yet God remains, sovereign, one, personal, active. He is active in our lives, calling each of us to him, and calling all of us to follow him.
He is calling us to turn to the Light, the Light of the World; to listen to His voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd; to belong to the Truth; to follow his Way.
The king has come at last - and he has come to set his people free.
When he calls us he is calling us forward to freedom, to live into our ultimate identity. And his call to us, to give of ourselves in his service, is a call to our true home; to receive the gift of Life in his Kingdom; and then, living in that Kingdom, to bear its reality into the World.
* * *
You are the King of Glory, O Christ: you are the everlasting Son of the Father.
We give you our love and offer you our lives.
Come, Lord, and rule in our hearts,
until your kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
Come, Christ our King, and reign over us, as you reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever. Amen.
--David Adam, Traces of Glory (SPCK, 1999) 149.
OFFERTORY
All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. (1 Chronicles 29:14b)
PEACE
Grace to you and peace from God, from him who is, who was, and who is to come. The peace of the Lord be always with you.
--David Adam, Traces of Glory (SPCK, 1999) 148.
BLESSING
To him who sits upon the throne, to the One true and Living God, be praise and glory, for ever and ever, and the blessing of God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be amongst you and remain with you always. Amen.
--David Adam, Traces of Glory (SPCK, 1999) 149.
Christ the King 2009
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Sources and Resources
The Gospel According to John (18:33-38a).
New Revised Standard Version Bible, 1989.
Michael D. Coogan, ed., The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) NT 177-178.
David Adam, Traces of Glory (SPCK, 1999) 149-151.
Leonard Beechy, “Living The Word: Reflections on the lectionary”, The Christian Century, November 17, 2009, Vol. 126, No. 23, 20.
Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (xiii-xxi), The Anchor Bible, Volume 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970) 843-872. “Indeed he is the embodiment of truth.” (854)
Richard A. Burridge, John, The People’s Bible Commentary (Abingdon, OX, UK: The Bible Reading Fellowship, 1998, 2008) 214-215.
Fred B. Craddock et al., Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year B, (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1993) Karoline M. Lewis, “Christ the King”, 474-481.
Scott M. Lewis, The Gospel According to John and the Johannine Letters, New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005) 90-92.
David B. Lott, ed., New Proclamation, Year B, 2009, Easter to Christ the King (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008) “Christ the King”, 281-289.
Lesslie Newbigin, The Light Has Come (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1982) 245-246.
Herbert O’Driscoll, The Word Today, Year B, Volume 3, (Toronto, ON: Anglican Book Centre, 2001) 158-162.
Scott Gambrill Sinclair, The Past from God’s Perspective (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2004) 316-319.
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