Christ the King

Christ the King

This Sunday is the end of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King today signifies that we have come to the end of another year – Next week we start our preparations for Christmas with a time of reflection building up to a time of celebration.  We have followed Jesus for 12 months through the expectation of His birth, the nativity, the ministry of Jesus, the entry to Jerusalem, the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus, the ascension to heaven.  After that we looked at the early church, the major players and the events.  And today we finish the year by putting the cherry on top of the cake by celebrating the feast of Christ the King. 

The core of Jesus’ message is the kingdom of God.  We talk about the kingdom of God, because we know that God is not disinterested in humanity, quite the opposite – he has a word for us, and an involvement of human history. 

The wonderful thing is that the God of the Bible does not stay in the book, like a fictional character of a rambling novel – God is with us, calling us, guiding us, encouraging us to build His kingdom and put Christ back on the throne where he belongs. 

In the Gospel, John focuses on this kingship of Christ – This is what we have today, echoing the accusation of the Jews, Pilate asks Jesus, “are you the king of the Jews?”  The accused prepares His answer with another question which shakes the Roman official’s ground “Do you ask this on your own, or did the others tell you about me?”  Pilate’s ignorance does not intimidate Jesus, who then gives his own answer in the well-known words.  “My kingdom is not of this world”.  At once Jesus gives the reason:  My kingdom does not use coercion – not like the kingdoms of this world.

Jesus isn’t saying that His kingdom is a sort of spiritual and religious kingdom, he is saying that the world operates values so different to the values of God, that the world is almost unrecognisable in heavenly terms. 

Kingdoms of privilege, domination, oppression, injustice and fraud, are nothing to do with the kingdom of love, justice and service that Jesus showed us.

Pilate is astute at this point, and he says “so you are a king?”  Jesus lets him off a little bit, because he recognises that Pilate is searching for answers.  “you say that I am a king” he says “because I came into this world”. 

Jesus at this point is giving us a treasure map – an idea of how to find heaven.

It is really strange in itself that a ‘KING’ is on trial, this doesn’t usually happen, and they usually rule until they die.  Although it is common in western scholarly literature to speak of Jesus as King, and this reading to be his ‘trial’ it is nothing of the sort.  Even though the Bible mentions the “kingdom” many times, and Jesus is called ‘King’ before and after meeting Pilate, this is not really how it was meant.

Rigidly hierarchical societies such as those under Roman imperial rule in the ancient Mediterranean world did not allow for trials of social inferiors; instead they had accusations and punishments.  There was no jury, no defence and prosecution, no right of appeal, and no right to speak.  The word “Trial” was rather hopeful rather than factual.  What about the KING?

“Jesus the King” – In all four Gospels this is mentioned, from the part where Jesus needed to leave because the crowd wanted to make him a king to the bit where the people put the sign above him on the cross.

Jesus is the king of what?  Well this week, as I watched the events the world unfolding, I couldn’t help thinking that he was the King of chaos and pain, the king of tragedy – as I see people suffering. 

I wondered about the King, when there is another tragedy, I ask myself where was he in this, what is his message for his subjects?

        

When I am dragged into the battles over ‘all too human’ things, I wonder why our King doesn’t make things clearer about heavenly things, and show his people the important things in life?

The feast of Christ the King!!!, I was thinking about all I have learned during the year – hopefully being able to put it into a nutshell, but the first thing I was wondering about was how we could change the name of this Sunday.

The lectionary stipulates that we break off at verse 37, with Jesus’ claim that he is testifying to the truth.  That provides a neat and satisfying ending as we come to the close of the church year.  But where we are told to stop isn’t where John stops.  The last line of this little scene, as John tells the story, is Pilate’s famous question:  What is truth?

This is the real place to stop the readings for the year.  This is the question that puts the whole scene (and dare I say it – the whole year) in context. 

What is truth? The question of Pilate is a really philosophical one, I like to think that he is suggesting that it is the people with POWER who create their own truth.  I like to think that Pilate actually hates this as much as we do.  How humanity creates truth in battles, the victors the write history.  And this is where we need to be careful.

What is truth? – One thing I I have realised is that I am not looking for a KING, I am looking for the TRUTH, small glimmers of light in otherwise dark places.

The term KING doesn’t really work, because it is wrapped up with earthly power and my expectations of people who propose to rule over others. 

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord once again, are we here today because we acknowledge the TRUTH of CHRIST?  This year have we been able to share the TRUTH with others?  And most importantly, have we allowed our TRUTH to be challenged, so that others may judge for themselves?

SO today, I propose renaming this festival to CHRIST THE TRUTH, because at the end of my days, I don’t want to be met by a KING, but by someone with the answers to the questions in my life, someone who can put the realities of life into context, someone who can BE the TRUTH to me.