The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the last Sunday after Pentecost or The Reign of Divine Love — with food for thought about the nature of Jesus’ kin-dom. Gnaw away!
The Reign of Divine Love – John 18:33-38
Pilate entered the Praetorium and summoned Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?” asked Pilate. Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or have others told you about me?” Pilate replied, “Am I Jewish? Your own people and the chief priests hand you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My realm is not of this world; if it belonged to this world, my people would have fought to keep me out of the hands of the Temple authorities. No, my realm is not of this world.” Pilate said, “So you are a King?” Jesus replied, “You say I am a King. I was born and came into the world for one purpose–to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice.”
Pilate said, “What is truth?”
The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?
This is a Sunday where we celebrate “The Reign of Divine Love” (elsewhere it is called “Christ the King” Sunday, however we have made the shift because of the gender and imperialistic implications of that name.) In any case, it is the last Sunday of the church year. The lectionary shifts to this scene in John’s Gospel where Jesus is brought before Pilate. Of the four Gospels, John has the greatest emphasis on Jesus’ divinity, and so it’s no surprise that John has the most detailed account of the interrogation. Unlike in Mark, where Jesus is silent (“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is mute” – Isaiah 53:7), or in Matthew and Luke where Jesus responds “It is as you say,” in John, Jesus talks in detail about his kingship and the nature of his kin-dom. Jesus’ kin-dom is not of this world, it is the Kin-dom of the one who was the Word who existed in the beginning (John 1:1).
You can see the different gospels stories of this moment laid side to side by clicking here: (https://biblehub.com/parallelgospels/The_First_Appearance_of_Jesus_before_Pilate_in_the_Palace_Early_Friday_Morning.htm). Jesus confrontation with Pilate is a key part of John’s Gospel. To John’s readers (90-100 C.E.), the Romans are not only their oppressors but they have destroyed the Temple, the place where God resided. Jesus’ assertion that his kindom is not of this world is a bold statement that the Roman authorities (as with the Temple authorities in the passage before) have no authority over him. God now resides in a place the Romans cannot touch … in the community of the faithful, John’s community. They are at once in this world but not of this world, followers of the one who is “the way, the truth and the life.” After this scene, the action moves swiftly toward the crucifixion, which in John’s Gospel is the moment of Jesus’ glorification.
A few things to chew on:
*Jesus’ confrontation with Pilate is an example of the power of civil disobedience at its best. Civil disobedience is about believing in the rightness of standing up against an unjust law to the point where you welcome the punishment for violating it, knowing that the power of your conviction and willingness to sacrifice for it will demonstrate most effectively the injustice of the law. In the past century great, faithful leaders such as Dolores Huerta, Rosa Parks, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Diane Nash and Martin Luther King, Jr. have followed Jesus’ model and welcomed imprisonment for violating laws they believed were contrary to the laws of God. In fact, most substantive changes in the world have involved jail sentences or martyrdom. Our very nation exists because its founders were willing to commit treason against the crown … saying in effect to George “your kingship has no power over us.”[3] James Madison even writes about the “Right to Revolution.” As a follower of Jesus and as an American, what causes would you be willing to go to jail for? To die for?
* The conversation between Jesus and Pilate is one of great power. Each is owning their own authority beautifully … Pilate his temporal authority as a Roman official and Jesus his cosmic authority as the Son of God. And for this brief passage, before Pilate’s cowardice does him in, they meet in this amazing place where they are each using their power to try to grasp the truth. Pilate is trying to discover it and Jesus is trying to share it.
In America, we are all people of power and privilege … some of us having more than others. How do we use that power? Do we use it to protect and grow our own power (as Pilate eventually did washing his hands of Jesus’ fate) or do we use it to seek and share a greater wisdom?
Try This:
This week, take a few minutes at the beginning of each day to think about the power relationships in your life. Where are the places where you have power over others … and how can exercise that power in ways that seek and serve Christ in them? Where are the places where others have power over you … and how can you offer truth in those places in ways that open up the eyes and hearts of the powerful to Christ’s love. Then in prayer ask God to give you the wisdom and courage to claim and use those relationships to honor God best.
YOU say I am a King
After a long conversation with the leadership team at a previous congregation I served, I summed up the feelings of the group this way:
“So basically, what you’re saying is that everyone wants me to provide the vision, but nobody wants me to tell them what to do.”
We all had a good laugh … because we all knew it was true. And it wasn’t just us.
You’ve gotta love the humans – particularly we American humans. We need leadership. We even crave leadership. Almost as much as we crave autonomy. We want the grand, visionary leader … right up until the point where they tell us what to do.
Cue up the Gospel.
The people try to make Jesus a King (remember the triumphal entry we re-enact on Palm Sunday).
The Temple authorities accuse Jesus of trying to be a King.
Pilate tries to make Jesus admit he is a King.
And Jesus will have none of it.
Why?
Well, I can’t see inside Jesus’ head, but I wonder if it wasn’t because being King is a kind of a set-up.
Everyone wants you to provide the vision … but nobody wants you to tell them what to do.
So what is the alternative?
Jesus lays it out.
“You say I am a King. I was born and came into the world for one purpose – to bear witness to the truth.”
Then Pilate asks the key question “What is truth?”
Jesus rejects Kingship in the way we understand it. Instead, he is all about truth. It is the content of the message, the content of the life of Christ, that is the key … not the edicts of some ruler we try to make Jesus to be.
We run off the rails when we make Jesus a King.
First off, it sets up an empire dynamic where we try to believe that our King is bigger, better and badder than your King. How much energy and blood has been spilled over that one!
And … even more … we lose the focus that Jesus actually says we need to be about.
What is the vision?
Look at the life of Jesus.
See love continually given.
See joy continually sought.
See justice continually fought for.
That’s the vision. We’ve got it. We don’t need a king.
What we need is to go and do likewise.
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Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings
The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every
Sunday – click here for this Sunday’s readings.
Collect for Sunday
Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in
your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully
grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be
freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Want to read more?
“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource for anyone who
wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.
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