Christ the King Sunday        John 18:33-37          Nov. 23,2003

Rev. Roger N. Haugen

 

We have an interesting custom in our culture.  When we first meet someone, early in the conversation, we ask what it is that they do.  We expect to hear about an occupation, the way they spend their day.  Sometimes a person will not answer as we expect and we are not quite sure what to do with them.  It is uncomfortable if a person doesn’t fit well into our well-known categories or refuses to play the game.

 

In today’s gospel, Pilate is faced with Jesus.  He has heard so much about him and has many questions to ask him.  He is called King of the Jews, but what kind of a king is he?  He doesn’t appear like any king he has seen before.  He doesn’t act or live like a king, yet he does command a following.  Here is a Jew teaching in the synagogue, speaking about religious things, but the religious leaders seek to have him killed.  From where does his authority come?  Does he operate with violence, political intrigue and intimidation like the other kings around?  Why is there such anger aimed at him?  Where does he fit in?

 

It is only when Pilate has Jesus pegged into the political pecking order will Pilate be comfortable and know how to proceed.  Is this an opponent that must be reckoned with or is simply someone to be dismissed as a troublemaker?  Where does his authority come from?  Pilate must know.  He must pigeonhole this Jesus.

Yet, Jesus refuses to play the game.  Jesus turns the tables and asks Pilate about his authority and basis of power.  Where does Pilate get his information?  “Are these your own conclusions or are you dependent on someone else?”  Who is it that ultimately controls Pilate?  How does Pilate fit into his own system of pigeonholes?  Is his power shaky or it is secure?  How will this Pilate deal with the King of the Jews?  Rather than allow Pilate to define Jesus, Jesus asks Pilate to define himself.  “Pilate, where does your authority come from?”

 

I enjoy the television series The West Wing.  It chronicles the workings of the White House.  President Bartlett is a leader of brilliance and integrity who seeks to do the proper thing.  He is surrounded by a group of highly intelligent advisors who seek to help him understand what the right thing might look like in a variety of situations, which often require immediate decisions.  In a recent episode he was advised to act secretly in the name of national security, committing an act that was contrary to international law.  The president knows he has become a puppet of power forced to go against his moral integrity.  The truth of this comes home so clearly when one of the people close to him said, “Politicians who act in secret are thugs.”  President Bartlett may have had the power to act any way he wished, but he was unable to act independently of those who sought to advise him.  He was no longer his own man.

 

In the world of “power politics”, Pilate knew how to play the game.  The problem he had with Jesus was that this Jesus refused to play the game.  His kingdom is not and cannot be measured in terms with which we are comfortable.  Jesus will not be placed in a pigeon-hole which can then be ignored or filed somewhere out of the way.  Jesus does not operate by force, Jesus will not be manipulated by intimidation, influenced by the opinion of any person or group, no matter how important or influential they might think themselves.  Jesus Kingdom is based upon truth.  Jesus Kingdom is based upon being willing to endure whatever the opposition might throw at it because after the enemy has done its worst, victory belongs to the kingdom of which Jesus is King, the Kingdom of God.  Jesus’ kingdom is based upon that which is folly to the wise, a stumbling block to those who are not disciples.

 

Jesus said, “I came into the world to testify to the truth.”  Not only did he bear testimony to the truth, he was the truth.  His disciples are not measured by power, prestige, wealth or any other common measure.  His disciples are those who listen to his voice as it speaks the truth.  Truth, even if it is folly to the wise.  His disciples seek ways of living out God’s love to those in need even when there is no advantage for the disciple, simply because truth expects it.  Power, as the world knows it, has no power over such discipleship.

 

The Pope has declared Mother Theresa “Blessed” for her work among the poor.  There are countless stories of powerful people who have gone to visit Mother Theresa only to feel inadequate in her presence.  Her power is unmistakable to all who walk with her through the streets of Calcutta.  This is not political or economic power, but it is power that all around recognize.  It is power that comes from her conviction that God expects us to treat the less fortunate with love and respect.  This is power based upon truth.  It is power that comes from listening to Jesus’ voice.

 

All the political power and might of the Apartheid government of South Africa was unable to silence the power of Nelson Mandella.  He spoke for basic human rights in a country that made distinctions according to race.  The truth set him free, the truth won out as apartheid was dismantled.  This is the truth that Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke to the world from inside an apartheid South Africa, the truth that could not be silenced because it was God’s truth.  It brought with it a power that governments did not understand and were unable to silence.  It was the truth came with listening to Jesus’ voice.

 

Today is Christ the King Sunday when we worship a king who is unlike any king this world has ever known.  The king the world so desperately needs.  A king who brings “grace to you and peace.”  A king who comes to us in our turmoil and fear promising to show us the way out bringing grace and peace to those who find so little grace or peace in their lives.  A peace which is not dependent upon power, wealth, strength or intimidation.  A peace which comes to those who seek to hear his voice. 

 

Today, in the church calendar, we come to the end of the Pentecost Season, the season of growth and learning.  We have heard the truth as Jesus spoke to us.  Truth that is lasting, the only truth that can give us hope.  It has been a season of seeking to improve our hearing so that we might more clearly follow the truth, willing to live as disciples, according to Jesus’ leading rather than everything else that seeks to direct us.

 

Next week we enter the Advent season, a time of preparation, a time of expectation and longing for the coming of Christ’s kingdom on earth.  A kingdom that is folly to those who measure kingdoms as Pilate measured kingdoms.  We await and anticipate a kingdom of light rather than darkness, peace rather than conflict, justice rather than injustice.  We are invited to be disciples in this kingdom, ruled by Christ the King who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.