John 18:33-37

Christ the King (Proper 29, Ordinary 34) [B] | 21 November 2021 | Sermon on John 18:33-37 | by Paul Bieber |

John 18:33-37 Revised Standard Version

³³ Pilate entered the praetorium 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 handed you over to me; what have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” ³⁷ Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”

also

Daniel 7:9-10

Psalm 93

Revelation 1:4b-8

 Firstborn of the Dead

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

You may be forgiven if, upon hearing today’s Gospel, you thought for a moment that we were gathered on Good Friday, not Christ the King Sunday. We enter the Passion According to St. John in the midst of Jesus’ trial before Pilate. Pilate has decided to investigate the charge against Jesus by interrogating him in the Praetorium. Jesus’ accusers allege that he has claimed to be “the king of the Jews.” This was how they interpreted to the secular Roman authority Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah of the house of David, the great shepherd-king of Israel. Pilate calls on him to plead guilty or not guilty to this charge. If the allegation is true, then Jesus has denied the sovereignty of Caesar. He is guilty of sedition.

Jesus explains that the kind of kingship he claims is not like the authority of any secular government in this world. Had Jesus been a king in that sense, there would have been a battle when the temple police and Roman soldiers came to the garden to arrest him. Pilate senses, though, that Jesus is claiming some kind of kingship. But now Jesus says that “king” is Pilate’s word, his accusers’ word. If Jesus is to be called a king, then it must be understood that his kingdom is the kingdom of truth. The citizens of that kingdom are those who love truth, who listen to Jesus because they recognize him as the One who bears witness to the truth.

Now we recognize this snippet of trial testimony as the Gospel for Christ the King Sunday. This is the incarnate Logos speaking, the One who in the beginning was with God, and was God, and then was revealed and enfleshed in the particular time and place of first century Galilee and Judea, but who makes a claim that cannot be confined by this particularity, a claim about universally valid eternal truth.

In the world in which we live, this is a far more subversive claim than any claim to political authority. And this is so even though those who claim political authority regard any challenge to their claim of sovereignty to be seditious. The kings of old had no such power as those who rule today, with technology and economic power coupled with control of information and patronage.

But all this might be in completely different hands tomorrow and it would be only a matter of, in the words of the twentieth century pop philosopher Pete Townshend, “Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss.” The enemy of truth is not mere political power. It is the postmodern denial of the very existence of truth, a truth beyond “my truth” and “your truth,” which may pass like ships in the epistemological night, never even encountering each other, much less engaging in battle. What could happen, of course, is the accusation of having failed to bow down to one of the ever-evolving shibboleths of the postmodern pantheon, such accusations apparently made most scathingly on Twitter.

Over against all this the Church proclaims the Father, the ancient One who was and who is and who is to come, the Alpha and Omega who sits on his throne but with ten thousand times ten thousand attending him. And Jesus Christ, the human being and divine Son, whose kingship shall never be destroyed. He is the faithful witness to the truth, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of this world. He was born and came into this world to bear witness to the truth about God. For his trouble he was pierced and crucified. But he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him.

This Jesus, who proclaimed a kingdom drawing near like seeds growing, bread rising, treasure found, a pearl acquired—who always slipped away when people tried to make him king—as he approaches crucifixion, reveals himself as who he is: the origin and goal of the creation. Christ came into the world to bear faithful witness to the truth of the Father’s love for the world, the love shown in the Son’s life, death, and resurrection.

It would seem that nothing could be more different from the kingdom Jesus proclaimed, growing from the word sown in the world, than Daniel’s vision of the Father bestowing the dignity of the eternal kingdom on the Son in a timeless moment. But God’s truth is his faithfulness to his promises. The kingdom not of this world that draws near in Jesus as he walks the roads of first century Galilee and Judea draws near to us now as we hear Jesus’ proclamation about why he came and about the One who sent him. The eternal promises bear fruit as the kingdom grows in our lives.

This kingdom is in conflict with the rulers of the present wicked age, but not on their level. Pilate failed to comprehend the essence of Jesus’ kingship, and so will all who merely seek power over others. That power may seem like it can go on for a very long time, but from the eternal point of view it is fleeting. The real conflict is between Jesus’ faithful witness to the truth of God’s promises, and the denial of this eternal and universal truth by those who would construct their own quite separate truths.

We, the peoples of the earth, are divided and enslaved by sin, as the Prayer of the Day says. How can we be freed and brought together? Not by more control, more authority, more coercion. Rather by the grace of the true shepherd-king, great David’s greater Son, who said back in chapter 10 of St. John’s story that the sheep of his flock listen to the voice of their good shepherd because they know his voice. We, his sheep, trust him to tell the truth, and by this truth to free and bring together all who hear his voice sounding through the proclamation today of his teaching, his passion, his resurrection, his promise to come again, and his presence with us even now, our faithful witness and shepherd-king.

Even further back in St. John’s account, in chapter 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born again from above to see and enter his kingdom. Our Baptism into the death and resurrection of the firstborn of the dead is our citizenship in his kingdom, both now as it grows and bears fruit in our lives and then, when he comes again in glory with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, even they who pierced him, his wounds glorified and our wounds healed.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net