Sermon - Christ the King

Daniel 7: 9-10 & 13-14 A vision of the kingdom of God being established

(Revelation 1: 4b-8) A vision of the coming of Christ as King

John 18:33b-37 Pilate questions Jesus about the Kingdom

Psalm 93

This Sunday is the end of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King today signifies that we have come to the end of another year – Next week we start our preparations for Christmas with a time of reflection building up to a time of celebration. We have followed Jesus for 12 months through the expectation of His birth, the nativity, the ministry of Jesus, the entry to Jerusalem, the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus, the ascension to heaven. After that we looked at the early church, the major players and the events. And today we finish the year by putting the cherry on top of the cake by celebrating the feast of Christ the King.

The core of Jesus’ message is the kingdom of God. We talk about the kingdom of God, because we know that God is not disinterested in humanity, quite the opposite – he has a word for us, and an involvement of human history.

The wonderful thing is that the God of the Bible does not stay in the book, like a fictional character of a rambling novel – God is with us, calling us, guiding us, encouraging us to build His kingdom and put Christ back on the throne where he belongs.

In the Gospel, John focuses on this kingship of Christ – This is what we have today, echoing the accusation of the Jews, Pilate asks Jesus, “are you the king of the Jews?” The accused prepares His answer with another question which shakes the Roman official’s ground “Do you ask this on your own, or did the others tell you about me?” Pilate’s ignorance does not intimidate Jesus, who then gives his own answer in the well-known words. “My kingdom is not of this world”. At once Jesus gives the reason: My kingdom does not use coercion – not like the kingdoms of this world.

Jesus isn’t saying that His kingdom is a sort of spiritual and religious kingdom, he is saying that the world operates values so different to the values of God, that the world is almost unrecognisable in heavenly terms.

Kingdoms of privilege, domination, oppression, injustice and fraud, are nothing to do with the kingdom of love, justice and service that Jesus showed us.

Pilate is astute at this point, and he says “so you are a king?” Jesus lets him off a little bit, because he recognises that Pilate is searching for answers. “you say that I am a king” he says “because I came into this world”.

It is really strange in itself that a ‘KING’ is on trial, this doesn’t usually happen, and they usually rule until they die. Although it is common in western scholarly literature to speak of Jesus as King, and this reading to be his ‘trail’ it is nothing of the sort. Even though the Bible mentions the “kingdom” many times, and Jesus is called ‘King’ before and after meeting Pilate, this is not really how it was meant.

Rigidly hierarchical societies such as those under Roman imperial rule in the ancient Mediterranean world did not allow for trials of social inferiors; instead they had accusations and punishments. There was no jury, no defence and prosecution, no right of appeal, and no right to speak. The word “Trial” was rather hopeful rather than factual. What about the KING?

“Jesus the King” – In all four Gospels this is mentioned, from the part where Jesus needed to leave because the crowd wanted to make him a king to the bit where the people put the sign above him on the cross.

The Kingdom of God had been started; Jesus has appeared in human history to enhance it, giving it the ability to grow. Throughout all history, we will all of us have the choice to change, to reflect the kingdom of God.

Do we build kingdoms of earth OR kingdoms of heaven? We have the choice now we KNOW what they look like – Jesus showed us.

The reading from Daniel is a wonderful image, Jesus (the one like a human being) is being brought before God sat on a throne, with fiery flames and thousands of servants – Jesus is given power and glory to last through all eternity. From readings such as this one, the name of GOD is a name that is synonymous with POWER - and this dare I say it – is where we can fail before God.

On the feast of Christ the King, let us all think about our king, and let us think of those things that are a sign of too much power in the hands of ‘earthly kings’. Prisoners are being held without charge, the poorest nations are becoming poorer, the environment is struggling under the weight of pollution, and the lust of power and wealth that is suffocating the light of God.

Finally, I want us to think about the people who bring us our readings for Sunday mornings, the composers of the lectionaries and the interpreters. These people tell us which scriptural passages they think are the most important. Unfortunately, they sometimes go further. They decide what we should read on the grounds of what they think is good for us. So it is with this Sunday’s Gospel reading.

The lectionary stipulates that we break off at verse 37, with Jesus’ claim that he is testifying to the truth. That provides a neat and satisfying ending as we come to the close of the church year. But where we are told to stop isn’t where John stops. The last line of this little scene, as John tells the story, is Pilate’s famous question: What is truth?

This is the real place to stop the readings for the year. This is the question that puts the whole scene (and dare I say it – the whole year) in context.

What is truth? The question of Pilate is a really philosophical one, I like to think that he is suggesting that it is the people with POWER create their own truth. I like to think that Pilate actually hates this as much as we do. How humanity creates truth in battles, the victors the write history. And this is where we need to be careful.

What is truth? – This isn’t the truth of Christ – This is the truth that creates justice and peace, not greed and wars. It is the TRUTH that flows from our care and concern. Jesus never used power to defend his truth, he just allowed others to judge for themselves.

And as we meet this morning at the end of the Church year, are we asking ourselves what TRUTH we have learned in our journey with Christ in the last year. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord once again, are we here today because we acknowledge the TRUTH of CHRIST? This year have we been able to share the TRUTH with others? And most importantly, have we allowed our TRUTH to be challenged, so that others may judge for themselves?