“Christ the King”
John 18:33-37
This Sunday, the Last Sunday in the Church Year, is observed
by some, especially in the last 50-60 years, as “Christ the King Sunday”. And while you see we haven’t called it that
on our bulletin, the idea of Christ as King is clear in the cover art – There
he is, seated on his throne, with angels attending him, and the caption is from
our Gospel reading, “The Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and
glory.”
Even if we don’t formally call it “Christ the King Sunday”,
there is good reason on this day at the end of the church year, to not only
focus on the end of this world and Christ’s second coming – but to remember
that Christ is our king. For he reigns
in glory in heaven now – and when he returns it will be as triumphant and
glorious as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So a bit of a topical sermon this morning – as we consider Christ the
King.
The alternate Gospel reading for Christ the King Sunday will
serve as my text this morning. Here we
have Jesus discussing the nature of his kingship and his kingdom with Pontius
Pilate. We read from John 18:
33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said
to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of
your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am
I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me.
What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my
kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might
not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” 37
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I
am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into
the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to
my voice.”
There are many places you could go in the Bible, especially
the Old Testament, to learn about kings.
At the end of the time of the Judges, the people no longer wanted God as
their king, but rebelliously demanded a king “like the other nations”. So God relented and gave them what they asked
for, though warning them having a king isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. A king will tax you heavily, force your
labor, and take your sons off to war.
Saul was the first of Israel’s kings. A tall and handsome man who turned out to be
a coward, and rotten on the inside. But
he did serve well as a foil for the next king, David, who is called “a man
after God’s own heart”.
David was mostly faithful, though his great sin with
Bathsheba had consequences that reverberated throughout his family and his
kingdom for generations.
Solomon, David’s son and heir, also reigned in a time of
peace and prosperity, built the temple, but it seems fell away from faith late
in life.
And his heirs divided the kingdom into two, and their
successors were mere shadows of David and Solomon. Mostly pagan kings (with a few faithful ones
thrown in), the time of Israel’s kingdom came to an end at the hands of
marauding world empires.
Later, came Jesus.
The Son of David who would sit on David’s throne forever. The one called both in mockery and in truth,
the “King of the Jews”.
What a strange king he is.
His kingdom is not of or from this world. It is other-worldly. His servants don’t fight to save him from
death, like the soldiers of an earthly king are pledged to do. In fact when Peter draws his sword and begins
slicing ears to defend Jesus – Jesus quickly rebukes him.
While this king did make a grand and royal entrance to his
city not a week before, he still showed great humility – coming in peace and
riding a lowly donkey.
And now, this king from another world stands before the
closest thing to a king the Jews would know – an earthly ruler with the
singular power over life and death.
Pilate represented Caesar, and in terms of earthly power, kingly power,
there was no rival.
What an irony that the King of Kings stands before this
earthly ruler. Who is putting whom on
trial here? Who has the authority over
whom? But Jesus stands humbly before
Pilate, and will even submit silently to the sentence Pilate delivers.
Pilate wants to know if Jesus is the King of the Jews. And of course he is. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise to
David that his throne would endure forever.
He is the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews, the anointed one. But he is, of course, much more than the king
of one tribe or nation. He is also the
heavenly King. He is God.
And we must admit -
Pilate isn’t the only human ever to get too big for his britches before
God. From the first sin of the first
sinner, we humans have always sought to take God’s place on the throne. To make ourselves the king, the one to set
the rules. “You’re not the boss of me”
our rebellious nature would say, as a petulant child on the playground
might. We want the throne and the crown
for ourselves. We want the power, the glory, the worship. Sinful man gets it upside down as usual, just
as Pilate did.
Pilate should have been on trial before the true King
here. Pilate should have had to answer
to him. And the righteous Judge, Jesus
Christ, could have passed a just verdict of death upon Pilate and any other
sinner.
But this strange king from another world doesn’t. One day he will judge the living and the
dead. But for now, he had another
task. A kingly task. He came to die.
Not in glorious battle as the kings of the earth might do –
charging the field with sword brandished and war cry fierce. Rather, this king fights by not fighting, he
wins the day by losing everything. He
conquers death by dying.
His crown is not a golden, jewel-encrusted decoration of
great riches and honor, but a crown of thorns, twisted together by the mockery
of soldiers and meant to add to his suffering.
His throne is not some high and grand and regal perch from
which he hands down pronouncements and decrees.
But rather, his throne is the cross, from which issues forth his blood –
shed to atone for sin. From there he
prays for our forgiveness. There he
offers the once-and-for-all sacrifice to win that forgiveness.
And his kingly title is not sounded by a herald and trumpet,
with a long list of earthly honors – but a wooden sign that says, “king of the
Jews”. And even that, meant in sarcasm
and insult. But that title written in
Hebrew, Latin and Greek so that all nations could read it – confesses that his
kingship is over all nations, and his kingly activity is meant for all.
Finally, Jesus teaches Pilate that his kingdom and kingship
have to do with the truth. That the
reason Jesus was born was to proclaim the truth. And that everyone who is of the truth listens
to his voice.
So much of earthly kingship, and human exercise of power,
has to do with lies, half-truths, and political spin. Pilate himself was guilty of it – though he
admitted Jesus was without fault, condemned him as a criminal. Though he alone gave the word of order, he
symbolically washed his hands as if to deny the responsibility for it.
But Christ our King is all about the truth. And his truth is like no other. The truth is
we are guilty, but he comes to satisfy justice for us. The truth is we want to be our own king, but
he shows us the truth of our sin. The
truth is he is not just a king, but our king, our loving and merciful king.
And he, like all kings, rules. But that’s not the most notable thing about
this king who is no from this world. A
good king not only rules, but also protects his subjects, even fights for them
in the thick of the battle. And our good
and great king does so like no other. He
defeats our old evil foe and holds the field forever. He gives us the victory, even his victory
over death. And he gives us our own
crown of righteousness. When he comes
again in glory, our heavenly king, we receive a share in his eternal reign –
thrones and crowns and glorified, resurrected bodies – and an eternal place in
his heavenly courts.
All hail Christ the King!
The King of the Jews. The King of
the Universe. The King who rules with
power and might and yet shows great mercy. The king who always speaks truth,
and whose truth sets us free. The king
who will come again in glory, and whose kingdom will never end.
No comments:
Post a Comment