November 22, 2009 – Christ the King

“So, You Are a King?”
John 18:33-37

So, how many shopping days do we have ‘til Christmas? If you look around in the stores, you might guess “NOT MANY” -- even though our Christian Season of Advent doesn’t begin until next Sunday. Some of us have been Christmas shopping for a couple months already, in anticipation of the big day. Thanksgiving is just a quick stop along the way, a little reminder that we might have Someone to thank for everything we’re about to receive, and then we’re off and running toward December 25th as fast as we can get there.

Then how is it that our Gospel lesson talks about Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate? That doesn’t make sense, does it? Surely, this passage belongs sometime in Lent. But, here it is in the lectionary, a passage about the hours leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion.

Before we can anticipate the birth of the Christ child again, we need to take a moment to pause, a moment to remind ourselves where this path is ultimately leading us. No matter how many times we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, we can’t seem to get away from the reminders of his death. The story always ends up in the same place, with the same trial, the same cross.

Today we celebrate the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but we also celebrate the Sunday of Christ the King. Today is the last Sunday of the Christian calendar year. Next week when Advent begins, we start a whole new church year. But today, before we turn our attention more fully to the hustle and bustle of the holidays, let’s look at this passage, and see what it means for us, what it means to celebrate Christ’s reign.
Our passage begins in the middle of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate. Jesus had been brought to Pilate because the Jewish leaders, under Roman occupation, were unable to make some legal decisions on their own authority, such as carrying out a death sentence. They had to go to the Imperial procurator for final approval.

So, Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He has probably heard rumors that Jesus was some sort of messiah. But Pilate wants to know if Jesus is a seditionist, a revolutionary leader, someone who will try to take the position of King by force.

Jesus answers Pilate’s question with another question. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate responds, “I am not a Jew am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Pilate thinks there must be some reason Jesus has turned up in his court. What has Jesus done?

Jesus turns back to Pilate’s original question and gives him an answer. “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

All Pilate hears is that Jesus does indeed admit to having a kingdom – therefore he must be claiming kingship. “So you are a king.” Jesus responds, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Our reading ends here, and we can identify with Pilate’s frustration over Jesus’ response. What is he talking about? Jesus seems to be summing up the purpose of his whole ministry in this scene with Pilate: he came to testify to the truth. Unfortunately, that response doesn’t clear things up for us, or give us the answer to what Jesus is all about.
Our passage stops short of Pilate’s next question, but we still ask it anyway: “What is truth?” Truth, we know, is a word that’s tossed around pretty easily today. We all want to get our corner on the truth. But what is Jesus’ truth? Is Jesus the truth himself? And if Jesus is the truth, what does that mean? In a shrinking post-modern world, we can’t ignore the other religious traditions around us. Don’t they think they have the truth too, or can we claim that we are the only ones who know what we’re talking about?

As people of faith, we seem to be pretty interested in “truth.” We want to know if we’re getting it right. We want to know if we believe the right things. True or false, right or wrong. But what truth does Jesus want us to know?

If we look at the Gospels, we find surprisingly few times when Jesus tells what we are and aren’t supposed to believe. Jesus never lays out a systematic set of beliefs for us. Jesus tells us to listen to his voice, the voice of truth. And what his voice tells us is not so much what to believe, but what to do. Jesus’ teachings involve a lot of actions, a lot of stories about what we are to do to live into the truth that Jesus presents. Jesus taught in parables, telling stories about how to include the ones who usually were unwelcome, about how to love the unlovable, about how to prioritize life so that God and not money or possessions was at the center.

Through all these teachings, Jesus came to tell us the truth, and the truth is that the kingdom of God is at hand – God’s kingdom is here, with us, right now, on this earth. But the kingdom of God is only here inasmuch as we embrace the truth that Jesus shares with us – we must love, we must live, we must serve, we must do in order to see how God’s kingdom is all around us.

Presbyterian minister and author Frederick Buechner writes that the Kingdom of God is “not a place, of course, but a condition, insofar as here and there, and now and then, God’s kingly will is being done in various odd ways among us even at this moment; the kingdom has come already. Insofar as all the odd ways we do [God’s] will at the moment [are] at best half-baked and half-hearted, the kingdom is still a long way off.”

As we move from one Christian year to the next, as we stand at the brink of Advent, as we eagerly draw up our Christmas lists and prepare to hit the stores, let’s stop a minute, and get our bearings. Advent is the beginning of the story, but today’s Gospel reminds us to keep the end in sight as well.

Truth: God loved us so much that God came to us in Christ.

Truth: God loves us so much that grace is extended to all.

Truth: God’s Kingdom can be right here on earth with us.

Truth: we help to usher in the kingdom, not by the details of right belief, but by the heart of right action, as we seek to love others, help our neighbors, and heal the broken ones.

“You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”