CHRIST CHURCH: Nov 21, 2004

6.00pm

John 18:33-37 (Christ the King)

 

    

 < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">A feature of the Common Worship lectionary is the naming of this last Sunday in the Church’s year as the feast of ‘Christ the King’. But: What does it mean for us to name Jesus Christ as ‘King’? For the idea was have today of king (or queen) is very different from what it meant a few centuries ago. Let alone in the Middle East of the first century!
Being a king really meant something in Jesus' day.  A king was the most powerful human being on earth.  When a king spoke, common people trembled.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
A king was the only means of securing order and peace.  The king was, civilization and domestic tranquillity personified in one person.   He was to be honoured and respected and served.  He was to be revered and feared and obeyed. And Romans 13 tells us that the kings authority was God-give < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
A king was everything and everybody rolled up into one.He was of upmost importance, so much in the Bible, we find that time itself was calculated on the basis of when the King began his reign. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
In the fifth year of the reign of Julius Caesar,
In the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King David,
In the year of our Lord, two thousand... < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

Today, a king is just a figure-head, with no real authority. There is thus no honour, there is no reverence in us for the sovereign. Those with power and authority are the politicians. There is no supreme authority. We regard no-one as better than us; no-one is ultimate more important than us, In reality there is no-one worthy of our unquestioning obedience and our unflagging dedication.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">So, the idea of Jesus as King is hard to get hold of, or to take seriously. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
What then does it, or should it mean to call Jesus King? < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

In reading from John 18, Pontius Pilate clearly wondered this. Pilate, who served the most powerful king in the world, knew what a king was.  He knew about the power that a King has, the authority that he wielded, the unquestioning obedience that he demanded, and the power that he had to compel that obedience should it not be volunteered. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
One of the rules that Pilate was called to enforce was the rule that anyone who claimed to be a king, anyone who dared to set themselves up as an authority over and against the lawful authority of Caesar, was to be executed.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">It was a rule that Pilate had no scruples about enforcing. It was a rule that he had enforced thousands of times throughout Galilee. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
So, when Jesus is brought before Pilate the charge that is laid against him is that he claimed to be the Messiah, the King of the Jew  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">The very idea that the bruised and beleaguered man that stood before him could be taken for a king must have seemed ridiculous to Pilate.  He knew what Kings acted like.  He knew what they looked like.  He knew what even those who pretended to be kings acted like and looked like. Nevertheless Pilate does his duty.  He asks Jesus if the charge against him is true.  He asks Jesus if he is, or if he claims to be, King of the Jews. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

Jesus answers Pilate that he is a king - but that his kingdom is not of this world, and then he says: < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
Pilate understands this, and so tells Jesus' accusers that he finds there is no case against him. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
And so - while in the end Pilate allows Jesus to be crucified with the word's "King of the Jews" posted over his head in three different languages, Pilate himself does not believe what he has caused to be written. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

All this sets a question before us: If we, like Pilate, name Jesus as King, do we really believe it, do we take it seriously, do we understand what it means?  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">It is possible to take those words of Jesus, words that were meant to describe the nature and the source of his authority, and twist them so that his kingdom ends up being "other-worldly". We can accept and believe that Jesus is a King, but regard his kingdom as being something we hope to experience someday, but not as being something NOW for us, or if it is NOW - it is now only in some vague "spiritual sense", and it is not meant to have real impact on how we conduct.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

We can make excuses for our behaviour,
- we can withhold from Christ the obedience he asks of us in witnessing to others about him because we do not want to offend;
- we may refuse to obey his command to love and forgive others as he loves and forgives us because the other person doesn't deserve to be loved or forgiven;
-or we may accept and believe that Jesus is King and misunderstand, by trying to force Christ's teachings upon others, as if his kingdom was from this world. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">    

What does it mean for us to name Jesus King? Well, it certainly doesn't mean any of the above.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
Jesus is not a worldly king.  His power is not from this world, nor is it meant to be exercised in the way that the world exercises power.   < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Jesus exercised his power by serving others, by forgiving others, by healing others, by giving to others, by sacrificing himself for others. His power is the power of truth, the power of faith, the power of hope, the power of love - the power of life itself. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
On the other hand Jesus' kingdom is not something for when we are called to ‘glory’.  It is real, it is present, and it makes demands upon us.   < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">Jesus calls us to obedience, to faith, and to love here and now.  ButJesus does not force or compel us.  He calls us to allow God to enter into our lives and to rule our lives.  He invites us to walk by the light he himself has shed.  And he shows us in his own person and in the lives of those who follow him that when we turn to him that there is healing and wholeness to be found. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

Pilate found Jesus not guilty of being a King like the kings we normally think of.  But he executed him anyway - to please the crowd which had assembled before him. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
But Pilate's question to Jesus - are you a king - remains as an important question - a fundamental question.  < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">It is a question about sovereignty, about rule,
-about who is in charge when it is dark and the world is falling apart,
-about who we can turn to when we are in need or when others are in need,
-about who we should go to when we seek justice for others and when we look for mercy for ourselves. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
Jesus answered that he is in charge
- not in the way of the world - not with force and violence, but with love and with life. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 
He answers that he has control over the darkness - that he is the one that, because of the faithfulness of God to him, vanquishes death and brings healing and peace to all who follow him. < style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> 

Such is king that we name today when we celebrate ‘Christ the King’