Where Is Your Kingdom?

7/30/2019 Where Is Your Kingdom?

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November 25, 2012 II Samuel 23: 17

Culver City Presbyterian Church John 18: 33 37

WHERE IS YOUR KINGDOM?

QUESTION: If Jesus is the one who is supposed to be on trial here, why is it

that Pilate appears to be the one who is squirming with discomfort over the

proceedings?

ANSWER: Politics!

We come to the end of another year on the church calendar with the celebration

of Christ the King Sunday. The reading from Second Samuel is a hymn of praise

reportedly, the last words of a dying King Davidas he depicts how Gods favor

blesses and idealized just ruler and his people. This is the Old Testament view of what

a king should strive for. The scripture lesson from the Gospel of John invites us to join

with Pilate in puzzling over just what sort of a king this Jesus of Nazareth might be.

We look back over the clues about that and the various titles of honor we have

encountered over the course of a year while considering the ministry of Jesus. Soon we

will be plunging once again into preparing to joyously welcome the decisive action of

God breaking into history in the form of the Christ child born in a manger. King of

kings, Lord of lords,choir voices rang out victoriously at Easter. Alpha and Omega,

the Beginning and the End, Ruler of all History, Judge of All People.

So what is he doing in handcuffs, standing like a common criminal in front of the

Roman prefect of Judea? The trial before Pilate has been referred to as the most

dramatic political confrontation in all of Scripture. Perhaps we ourselves squirm a bit

along with Pilate over what may be the most grandiose title of all the Truth,as in I

am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Pontius Pilate, the local embodiment of all the wealth and power of imperial

Rome, is no match for this serene Galilean preacher. In more ways than one, the two

speak entirely different languages. In spite of whatever education Pilate may haveaccumulated over the course of his life, he is ill-equipped to even begin to understand

what in the world Jesus is saying to him. What Pilate understands is politics and the

law of the Romanvariety, that is. Like every good Roman, Pilate knows that there is

no real king but Caesar. But seriously this Galilean? A king? You have to be kidding

me!


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wheels in motion for the crucifixion of Jesus. It is Matthews gospel that adds the detail

of Pilate ritually washing his hands of responsibility for the verdict in front of the insistent

and bloodthirsty crowd.

He would permit the act to go forward against his better judgment. It was the

only pragmatic and politically astute thing to do, Pilate decided. For the rest of his life

he would live with that decision. One grim legend about Pilate tells of him regularly

rising to the surface of a mountain lake, repeatedly going through the motions of

washing his hands, trying to cleanse himself of what he might have done but chose not

to do.

Although the story of a trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate is unquestionably a

tangled and disreputable political process, there is a sense in which the Gospel itself

bears a message which is beyond politics.

Jesus is not engaged in Pilates game of calculating who is up and who is down

or even how to escape judgment by the authorities. He means what he says when he

states that his purpose is to bear witness to the truth. The kingdom not of this world that

he claims as his own is nothing more than what life would be like on earth here and now

if God were king and the rulers of this world were not. . It is truth beyond Pilates

comprehension because it refuses to follow any accepted political rules or strategies.

Christ the King Sunday was established by the church in recent times to

emphasize a Gospel that claims allegiance over and above all earthly rulers. In 1925

Pope Pius XI instituted Christ the King Sunday, a celebration of heavenly authority overbelievers, as a direct challenge to the expanding claims by the Italian dictator Benito

Mussolini on the loyalty of his people. The political origins of the day itself offer yet

another example of how an orientation over and above all politics can often be risky and

highly political.

King of kings, Lord of lords.

Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

Ruler of all history, Judge of all people.

The Way, the Truth and the Life.

What istruth?, Pilate asked. The answer had come from Jesus on an earlier

occasion when he proclaimed, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The truth is, Pilate, that you may just need to arrest all of us. The king to whom

we owe our first allegiance is not Caesar! We bow before a humble carpenter from


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Nazareth who washed his disciples feet. He preferred the company of despised tax

collectors, prostitutes and all manner of sinners at his dinner table over those who were

well-off and comfortable. He fed a multitude of five thousand with a single loaf of bread

and six fish. He drove the money changers out of Gods holy temple.

Figure that one out if you can, Pilate. Then, yes, go ahead and arrest us all if

thats what it takes to assure that they smile on you in Rome. The kingdom to which we

belong is not of this world.

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Where Is Your Kingdom?