Year B
John 18:33-37
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Everlasting King
On this last Sunday in the Pentecost season, also the last Sunday in the church year, we come face to face with Pontius Pilate. You may we thinking, as I did when I first read the gospel for today, doesn’t Pilate belong back in Holy Week? What on earth is he doing here at the end of November? Good question and the reason is that today is the Feast of Christ the King and Pilate by placing on the cross an inscription written in three languages, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, ironically paid Jesus the highest tribute. In an act of defiance directed at the religious authorities, Pilate unknowingly extended the kingship of Jesus to the ends of the earth.
Those who lay their claim to be governed by King Jesus, those who listen to his voice, in an alternate universe we might say, laud today the everlasting authority of the one who rules our kingdom. We have no illusions about the world we live in, one that mostly recognizes our king by title only, if at all. Yet, our true home as those who proclaim Christ as our Lord and savior is to be found in that universe where Christ reigns. All the texts today bear witness to the reign of our true king, who was anticipated in David, fully present in Jesus, whose reign differs from that of earthly rulers and who finally will be revealed one day as ruler of all the kings of the earth.
To portray Christ as King does not mean that we think of Christ as up in the sky controlling the world by invisible strings much as human kings might like to do on earth. To speak of Christ as King is a matter of faith. Through the eyes of faith we picture our whole world as ruled over by Christ, a kingdom of God ruled by Christ the King. In the gospels, Jesus talks more about the Kingdom of God than he does about anything else. Today, King David in the OT text shows us that God’s kingdom is God’s kingdom, for it belongs to no other. In his last words, David declares that God has made an everlasting covenant with him; God’s promise to establish and keep a descendent of David on an everlasting throne.
David expresses the hope that his house will be like the just rulers, the sun and the rain, who help people grow, rather than like the godless ones, the thorns, that prevent this. He assumes that his house will be in keeping with the everlasting covenant God has made with him and through him, the people of Israel; rulers, who return God’s faithfulness with David’s own faithfulness to God. Yet, even David’s descendants did not always return God’s faithfulness or see themselves as standing beneath a higher law. Nor did they always fulfill their duty to protect and defend the weakest members of society.
David’s song of praise today to celebrate the covenant invites us to find our way out of violence and injustice and it reminds us of the royal lineage of Jesus and points us ahead to Jesus’ new kind of royalty and claim upon the principalities and powers proclaimed by John of Revelation. Revelation today on Christ the King Sunday puts the lordship of God and Christ front and center of our faith. Its rich, hope-filled message addresses the power of God who stands at the beginning and end of history, the significance of the cross, and the realization one day of God’s purposes being fulfilled for creation.
John, the disciple of Jesus, while on the island of Patmos received visions into the heavenly realms of which he recorded in the book of Revelation. Patmos was about fifty miles to the southwest of Ephesus, where John had been pastor for the previous three decades. There is evidence there today that the island had been a quarry for extracting stones during Roman times, and that slave labor was used for this hard work. However, it came to be that John was on Patmos, he remained connected to the resurrected Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and to the congregation back on the mainland of Asia Minor, who were praying for him.
The book of Revelation and the text today begins like a letter from John with words that offer a blessing and a short hymn or doxology addressed to Jesus alone. The seven spirits are sometimes thought to be archangels gathered around God’s throne, or the fullness of the Holy Spirit. What John says about Jesus is that he is a faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth, that he loves us, and freed us from our sins by his blood, that he made us to be a kingdom of priests, serving God and that he is coming.
Christ’s rule as ruler of the kings of the earth as John alludes to today is not brought about through power but by the means of a cross. Which clearly shows his kingdom is not from this world. Today, Pilate, the representative of an earthly kingdom, asks Jesus if he is a king. Pilate’s image of a king is a threat to the Roman occupiers. Jesus declares that he is indeed a king but his kingdom is not of this world. Author N.T. Wright wrote in Simply Jesus, “Jesus was not the king they expected. He wasn’t like the monarchs of old who sat on their jeweled and ivory thrones, dispensing their justice and wisdom. Nor was he a great warrior-king some had wanted. He didn’t raise an army and ride into battle at its head.
He was riding on a donkey. And he was weeping, weeping for the dream that has to die, weeping for the sword that would pierce his supporters to the soul. Weeping for the kingdom that wasn’t coming, as well as for the kingdom that was….He was the king, all right, but he had come to redefine kingship itself around his own work, his own mission, his own fate.” The rule of Christ the King is one brought about by the Servant Lord who comes to the throne by way of the cross. Won by love, the church lives under the gracious rule of Christ the King; a rule not yet completely visible and not yet acknowledged by the entire world.
Yet, we know the kingdom is present wherever Jesus is present. It is present wherever we experience the reign of God through God’s invitation, healing and restoration. This is the truth that gives us hope. The texts today speak of a hope that lies very near the center of our faith, for a “once and future king” whose reign is not fully apparent, even to the eyes of faith, but who nevertheless rules over all. The hope that his reign will become more visible in our world through his people is the substance of the Advent season that begins next Sunday that this feast introduces today.
Let us commit to live under the reign of Christ, the divine Davidic king and our faithful savior. He was truly one who came not to be served, but to serve. Thus his entire life and ministry are an example to us of the true nature of God’s kingdom. God is love and God is calling us to love. The church is, at its best, the company of those who live under Christ’s rule, as the present manifestation of Christ’s rule of love on earth. We can trust that Christ will be with us today and always. He is the God who is and who was and who is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty. This understanding makes us feel more confident to carry on his work and in faith we are able to see beyond the hate and conflict and pain. Because Christ is King, this is our sure and certain hope. “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice.”