The festival of the Reign of Christ

Sermon by Geoff Serpell on the gospel of John 18:33-37

Material has been extensively used from a sermon by Rev Nathan Nettleton, Baptist Minister at South Yarra, extracts from With Love to the World and a Lectionary workbook by Russell Anderson.

Each year towards the end of November, the calendar of the church closes the year with the festival of Christ the King.

The theme running through this sermon is: At the end of the church year we pay homage to Christ as our king through his cross.

John’s gospel reading today relates to Pilate and Jesus’ tussle over whether or not Jesus can be charged and convicted with setting himself up as a king. “Are you a king? “Pilate asks. Jesus doesn’t say no but he also doesn’t say yes.

Back in 1922, Pope Pius the eleventh negotiated some treaties with the fascist, Mussolini to shore up the independence of the Vatican in the heart of Rome. As a result, the Vatican was granted wide-ranging favours in exchange for political silence in Italy and Germany.

The Feast of Christ the King was created with a political agenda, to reinforce the message that the Catholic church wanted obedient subjects shoring up the Vatican’s power and the power of those fascist regimes coming to power leading up to world war two without much opposition from the church.

Today we may not be happy with the above circumstances but maybe it is a warning that we should be challenged and re-educated.

Although the feast day may only have been created in 1922, the need to get our heads around thinking of Jesus as a king puts us in the same company as the very first followers of Jesus. The likes of Peter, James and John kept thinking that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to overthrow the Romans and re-establish the throne of King David. His failure to do so was probably the largest cause of Judas’ loss of faith. The crowds following Jesus were wrapped in what Jesus said and did so much that they tried to make him a king. He had to run away and hide to avoid his own coronation.

When Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews during his interrogation, there is already quite a history to this, and the question is more serious than just a trumped-up allegation by his religious opponents. In many instances since then people have tried to have Jesus a s a king so that he can lead us into battles and knock off our enemies. Every time we proclaim Jesus as king, we have been sucked into thereby thinking of him as a powerful ruling figure with a crown and spectre and a raised sword, triumphing over every opponent and crushing enemies under his feet.

We may not be asking Jesus to crush our enemies but now and again we would relish him to overcome politicians we don’t agree with and or just conquer the bad guys in our lives. A donkey riding, crown of thorns wearing, political prisoner does not cut it. But that is exactly what we have to come to terms with. That may have been what lay behind Pilates’ question. He may have been looking incredulously less than a regal figure before him and saying, “Are you the king of the Jews?’

Jesus did not claim to be a king, but “King of the Jews” was on Pilate’s lips and since this was treason, Jesus fate was sealed. Pilate did not need a jury; he could condemn Jesus to death of his own accord. Jesus central message was however, about the kingdom of God, both coming and already here. It was about  a transformed earth here and now, a radical makeover of society and domination systems. John Dominic Crossan, a historian, said “Heaven is in great shape, earth is where the problems are”. The kingdom of God is what life would be like on earth if God were in charge and the domination systems of this world were not.

Jesus was accused by the Jewish leaders of treason, a capital offence. They said that he wanted to usurp the power of Rome and rule the Jews as their king. But who was the real traitor? The chief priests and scribes had betrayed their faith by making religion a host of rules and regulations. They were the ones playing footsy with the Romans for their own political advantage. Then there’s Pilate, called to uphold the most advanced justice system the world has ever known. Yet he bowed to expediency rather than upholding the truth. He too betrayed that which was entrusted to him, to fairly administer Roman Justice.

Being a king was not in itself a crime so far as the Roman Emperor was concerned. King Herod was a Jewish king, and he was allowed to continue his reign if he brought his realm under the rule of Rome. Anyone calling himself a king in those days was required to come under the umbrella of Roman rule or else.

But Jesus insists on defining himself in quite different terms “You say that I am a king, For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice”.

Now we are in deep trouble. “Truth” Pilate sneers. What is that? We are talking about power here. We are talking about who rule over who and who gets to call the shots. Truth is something to be managed and controlled and regulated. Not something you base your reign upon. If Jesus is going to be a king who answers to the truth, then he is certainly not going to be compliant to Caeser and his fate is sealed.

If today is the feast of Christ the King, it is not the feast of a powerful king seated triumphantly on a throne with his enemies under his feet.

It is not the feast of an authoritarian king who makes laws and enforces them and dispenses punishment. This king is being held hostage and being interrogated. Our Lord is the innocent victim of violence, a king who absorbs all the hatred and hostility and violence that a bitter world can heap upon him and returns only love and forgiveness and generous blessings.

So let us keep the” Feast of Christ the King” for if we belong to the truth and listen to his voice and go with him as he gives a new meaning to the concept of kingship and calls us to follow.

If we give our allegiance to him as king on those terms, we and the world we live in might never be the same again.

Let us pray that the kingdom of Christ may come in our hearts and come into our world and free all the world to rejoice in his peace, to glory in his justice, to live in his love.