The Feast of Christ the King
The Rev. George Pejakovich, Assistant to the Dean
Grace Cathedral
11/22/09

John 18:33-37

IN THE DARKEST DAYS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, WHEN UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE INDUSTRIAL NATIONS WAS WELL OVER FIFTY PER CENT AND IT TOOK A WHEEL BORROW OF CASH TO BY A LOAF OF BREAD IN EUROPE, WHEN THINGS WERE SO BAD IT SEEMED AS IF THEY COULD NOT GET WORSE, THINGS DID GET WORSE. FASCISM WAS ON THE RISE IN ITALY AND GERMANY, AND, IN RUSSIA, MILLIONS WERE BEING SYTEMATICALLY STARVED TO ENFORCE A COMMUNIST DREAM OF THE FUTURE. IN THE FAR EAST, THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN WAS ARMING AND CASTING ITS EYES ON CHINA AND ELSEWHERE. IN SPAIN, A VICIOUS WAR WAS TEARING APART THE COUNTRY, AND THE WORLD WAS GIFTED WITH THE FIRST MASS BOMBING OF CIVILIAN POPULATIONS. IN THE FACE OF THIS UNMITIGATED MISERY AND HORROR, UNLIKE ANYTHING THE WORLD HAD YET SEEN, AND WHICH PROMISED WORSE MISERY AND HORROR IN THE FUTURE, THE POPE DIRECTED A CHANGE IN THE LECTIONARY. HE DECREED THAT THE LAST SUNDAY OF THE CHURCH YEAR WILL BE KNOWN AS THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING. SHORTY THEREAFTER, ALL LITURGICAL CHURCHES CHANGED THEIR LECTIONARIES TO COMPLY WITH THAT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. WHILE THIS MIGHT SEEM TO BE A PITIFUL GESTURE IN THE FACE OF THE REALITIES OF THE TIME, IT WAS, IN FACT, A PROFOUND THEOLOGIAL STATEMENT OF WHAT THE CHURCH IS AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CHRISTIAN.

TODAY IS THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING. ON THIS, THE LAST SUNDAY IN THE CHURCH YEAR, BEFORE WE MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT, WE PAUSE TO REMEMBER AND REFLECT ON THE FACT THAT LORD WHOSE NAME WE BEAR IS, INDEED, THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO IS, IN FACT, THE ONLY KING WHOSE LEGITIMACY CAN NOT BE QUESTIONED AND WHOSE POWER AND AUTHORITY COMES NOT FROM THE FORCE OF ARMS, BUT FROM LOVE.
 
OUR GOSPEL READING FOR TODAY SEEMS, AT FIRST, A STRANGE SELECTION TO CELEBRATE THE KINGSHIP OF THE CHRIST, YET, IN THIS BRIEF ACCOUNT OF JESUS BEFORE PILATE WE SEE THE TRUTH OF WHO JESUS IS, AND WHAT THE POPE WAS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE TO A WORLD WRITHING IN TORMENT.
 
WHEN ASKED DIRECTLY BY THE SANHEDRIN IF HE WAS THE MESSIAH, JESUS ANSWERED DIRECTLY THAT HE WAS. FOR THIS TRUTH, THEY CONDEMNED HIM TO DEATH. WHILE THEY COULD PASS JUDGEMENT ON HIM, THEY COULD NOT KILL HIM, MUCH AS THEY WANTED TO DO, BECAUSE THE POWER TO DO THAT WAS HELD BY ROME. SO THEY TOOK HIM TO PONTIUS PILATE, WHO HELD THE AUTHORITY OF THE EMPEROR FOR LIFE OR DEATH OVER ANYONE UNDER HIS JURISDICTION. PILATE WAS WORRIED ABOUT INSURRECTION AND REVOLUTION IN HIS DOMAIN, SO HE HAD TO HEAR THE CHARGES AND MAKE A JUDGEMENT. THE CHARGE OF THE SANHEDRIN WAS NOT THAT JESUS CLAIMED TO BE THE MESSIAH, BUT THAT HE CALLED HIMSELF THE KING OF THE JEWS. THIS WAS, OF COURSE, DUPLICITIOUS, BUT THEY JUSTIFIED IT TO THEIR SELVES SINCE THE MESSIAH WOULD BE THE KING OF THE JEWS, AS WELL AS THE KING OF ALL HUMANITY. IF PILATE THOUGHT JESUS WAS CLAIMING TO BE A KING, HE WOULD HAVE TO PUT HIM TO DEATH BECAUSE ROME TOLERATED NO KING BUT CAESAR, OR THOSE WHOM CAESAR MADE KINGS AS CLIENTS.

PILATE CLEARED THE ROOM TO TALK TO JESUS ALONE, AND ASKED HIM DIRECTLY, AND SARCASTICLY, “ARE YOU THE KING OF THE JEWS?” INSTEAD OF THE TERROR OF A PRISONER OR THE RAVINGS OF A MADMAN, THE RESPONSE PILATE GETS GIVES HIM SOME CONCERN. “ARE YOU ASKING THIS ON YOUR OWN, OR DID OTHERS TELL YOU ABOUT ME?” TO THIS CALM RESPONSE, PILATE RETORTS HEATEDLY, “I AM NOT A JEW, AM I? YOUR OWN NATION AND THE CHIEF PRIESTS HAVE HANDED YOU OVER TO ME. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” OF ALL THE ANSWERS PILATE MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED, HE WAS SURELY UNPREPARED FOR WHAT JESUS TELLS HIM. “MY KINGDOM IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD. IF MY KINGDOM WAS FROMTHIS WORLD, MY FOLLOWERS WOULD BE FIGHTING TO KEEP ME FROM BEING HANDED OVER TO THE JEWS. BUT AS IT IS, MY KINGDOM IS NOT FROM HERE.” THIS MADE NO SENSE TO PILATE; HOW CAN THERE BE A KINGDOM NOT FROM THIS WORLD? HOW CAN THERE BE A KINGDOM WHICH IS NOT FROM THE POWER AND AUTHORITY OF ROME, THE ONLY REAL POWER IN THE KNOWN WORLD? “SO,” PILATE SAYS, FOCUSING ON THE ONLY POINT HE CAN UNDERSTAND, “YOU ARE A KING?” TO THIS DIRECT QUESTION, JESUS ANSWERS DIRECTLY; “YOU SAY THAT I AM,” OR, IN OTHER WORDS, YOU ARE CORRECT IN SAYING THAT. “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.”

UNFORTUNATELY, OUR TEXT FOR TODAY DOES NOT INCLUDE PILATE’S RESPONSE WHICH CLEARLY ILLUSTRATES HOW HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. PILATE AKS RHETORICALLY, “WHAT IS TRUTH?”
 
THE TRUTH IS THAT ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE BUILT ON THE FOUNDATION OF POWER OF ARMS OR ECONOMICS, OR BOTH. SOME KINGDOMS, OR NATIONS, ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS, IN TERMS OF THE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES ACCORDED TO THEIR CITIZENS, AND OTHERS ARE WORSE. SOME ARE VERY BAD, INDEED. WHETHER BETTER OR WORSE, ALL ARE FOUNDED ON THE EXERCISE OF POWER, AND ARE, THEREFORE, ENGAGED IN A CONSTANT STRUGGLE FOR MILITARY, ECONOMIC, IDEOLOGICAL OR EVEN RELIGIOUS DOMINANCE OVER EACH OTHER. THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD ARE IN CONSTANT STRUGGLE AND TURMOIL, AS THEY ALWAYS HAVE BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE BECAUSE THEY ARE OF THIS WORLD. THE TRUTH IS THAT JESUS BRINGS INTO THIS WORLD A NEW KINGDOM THAT IS NOT OF THIS WORLD; A KINGDOM WHOSE ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY COMES FROM THE THRONE OF THE ONE ETERNAL GOD, AND WHOSE FOUNDATION AND POWER RESTS SOLELY ON THE LOVE OF THE GOD WHO CREATED ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH.

ALL WHO BELONG TO THE TRUTH HEAR THE VOICE OF JESUS, AND, IN RESPONSE TO HIS VOICE, BECOME A PART OF THAT NEW KINGDOM WHICH IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD. THOSE WHO HEAR THE CALL OF JESUS BECOME CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND OF HIS CHRIST. FOR THIS HE CAME INTO THE WORLD; OUR GOD AND KING WAS BORN AS A MAN, SUFFERED THE FALSE JUDGMENT OF THE POWERS OF THE WORLD TO DIE FOR US, AND BY HIS BLOOD HAS MADE US TO BE A PART OF HIS KINGDOM. BY HIS SACRIFICE HE MADE US NOT JUST CITIZENS, BUT PRIESTS OF HIS KINGDOM TO BE THE REPRESENTATIVES OF OUR GOD AND KING TO THE POWERS AND KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD. WE LIVE IN THIS WORLD AS STRANGERS AND AMBASSADORS TO THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD OF THE ONE TRUE KING OF ALL. WE LIVE IN THIS WORLD, BUT WE LIVE AS CITIZENS AND PRIESTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. BY OUR LIVES, BY LIVING THE LIFE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE MIDST OF THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD, WE TESTIFY TO THE TRUTH THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE KING WORTHY OF THE NAME, AND TO WHOM WE GIVE DOMINION AND POWER OVER OUR LIVES. GOD ALONE IS KING, AND WE HAVE SEEN HIS GLORY IN THE FACE OF THE CRUCIFIED AND RISEN CHRIST.

IN THE DARK DAYS BEFORE WORLD WAR II, THIS WAS THE MESSAGE THE POPE TRIED TO SEND TO THE WORLD BY A SIMPLE CHANGE IN THE LECTIONARY. THIS IS THE MESSAGE WE PROCLAIM, AND GIVE TO THE WORLD, EACH YEAR AS WE CLOSE THE YEAR WITH OUR FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING. NO MATTER HOW BAD THINGS SEEM, NO MATTER HOW TERRIBLE THE WORLD LOOKS TO YOU, KNOW THAT THERE IS MORE TO ALL THIS THAN YOU CAN SEE FROM THE TELEVISION OR NEWSPAPERS OR THE WEB. THE TRUTH IS THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND OF HIS LOVE, IS AND WAS AND WILL BE ALWAYS SHINING ITS LIGHT AND TRUTH INTO THIS WORLD, AND THAT WE ARE THE PRIESTS AND WITNESSES TO GOD’S KINGSHIP AND LOVE BECAUSE WE HAVE HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS IN OUR HEARTS AND OUR LIVES AND LOYALTY BELONG TO HIM.

NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WORLD, REJOICE, BECAUSE THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD WILL, ONE DAY, BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR GOD AND OF HIS CHRIST. THIS WE KNOW WITH CERTAINTY, BECAUSE IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN WITH US.