Sermon from Christ the King Sunday. I think I might have driven into what my preaching professor Dr. Loy refered to as my favorite driveway in this sermon...the driveway of Christian doctrine...I leave for your perusal and critique...Chrisy
Gospel: John 18:33-37 33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" 35 Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this 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." 37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "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."
Grace to you and peace from the one who is and who was and who is to come; and from the faithful witness, the ruler of kings on earth. Amen
Misunderstood Titles, conversations and situations can often lead to trouble. I have been doing some reading for fun and stumbled across this book called Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. In it readers learn that the Wicked Witch... well she really wasn’t all that Wicked. She has a name…Elphaba…She had a sister, Nessa, whom she looked out for and took care of…she was best friends with Glinda the Good Witch while they were in school. Elphaba stood up for her principles and thought the wizard wasn’t taking care of OZ well enough while Galinda did whatever the wizard told her to do in a effort to be popular. When Elphaba decided to turn the wizard down on his offer to join him of the ranks of those that were popular…and be independent and defy gravity…then the story began to change…then rumors abounded about Elphaba being mean and scary, and turning people into tin and straw on purpose when in reality she had just been trying to protect her friends. Glinda in an effort to be popular capitalized on the people of oz’s fear… she said all the right things and did all the right things and became more and more popular and it made everyone think that Elphaba was the exact opposite…She even told the people of oz when they asked her about Elphaba that she knew her but she wasn’t friends with her. Was Elphaba really wicked? Was Glinda really good? I can’t answer that…but stories like these really make one think
“Are you the king of the Jews” I really have to feel just as perplexed as Pilate at this moment. At least I imagine him to be very perplexed. Here is this man…Jesus…a man that did nothing wrong to Pilate’s knowledge, yet the Jewish people and all of the chief priests had handed Jesus over to be punished. Pilate had to be perplexed…and because of that Pilate was trying to figure out what Jesus could have done to upset his own people so much that they would hand him over. Perhaps in this conversation that is our text for today Pilate was trying to get Jesus to say he was a king so Pilate would have something to charge him with. In antiquity, only a person elevated to the level of a Caesar would be a position of power and wealth high enough to claim kingship. Jesus was obviously not a Roman official nor a Caesar. If Jesus admitted kingship then Pilate could actually do something. But Jesus did not admit kingship for if he was a King in this earthly world than all of his followers would be trying to save him…instead of denying him three times like we remember Peter doing in the passion story before Easter…
Jesus was not an earthly king…for if he had been surely someone would have stormed the gates of the headquarters on horseback; sword swinging, mounting a rescue…not betraying him to the guards with a kiss like Judas after the last supper
Jesus was not an earthly king… for if he had he would not have been mocked, beaten or offered a sponge of sour wine as he hung from a cross slowly loosing the strength to draw another breath
Nope…Jesus couldn’t be a king… cause that would mean well Jesus was the highest of the high, the be all and end all, the one calling all the shots and making all the decisions…and here he was captured by guards and handed over to Pilate by his own people who were calling for his death.
37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "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."
Jesus is and was and will be a King…King of the Jews, King of Creation, King of life everlasting. Jesus came into the world to be called King…and to testify to the truth of his Kingship! It is not of this world. He was not bound to this earth and to its limitations on titles or positions of power. Jesus was so above and beyond that that is not in the realm of our comprehension. Not mine, not yours, not Pilates.
Jesus is the Alpha…the beginning, the firstborn, the savior born in a manger. Jesus is the light and hope we look to and toward when we start our journey of preparation in advent.
Jesus is the Omega… the end…the man standing in front of Pilate knowing exactly what he was facing and facing it in spite of that knowledge. Jesus knowing that the end for him was literally a matter of hours away. Jesus the light that no darkness could over come; even the darkness of death. Jesus is life everlasting.
A question now for us in this time and world is not Are you the king of the Jews? But how will and how are we responding to the Lord’s kingship? How are we are part of the kingdom belonging to the truth and listening to his voice?
I was driving home from
As I listened to the Wicked soundtrack… I had always thought the Wicked Witch was just that… Wicked… I gave no thought or question to her being anything else…. And Glinda was always the beautiful lady in the pretty pink dress with the wand floating into munchkin land in a bubble…I didn’t question it….and even though I didn’t questions that, at the same time I was just like Pilate…day after day…I had been asking all this week… Jesus are you really a king? Jesus are you really that master and ruler all the earth? If you are king what does that mean that I should be doing….what does that make me? Did you really 2000 years ago die for me even though my sins are part of the reason you died on that cross?
I looked out over the water…I listened to the waves lap at the shore. And all of the sudden…sunlight burst thought the cloudy gray sky and enveloped me in light. Creation all around me…a creation that was beyond my comprehension in how it was made…nature in all its glory showing me that Jesus was, is and will be truly my king…my savior…my beginning and my end. Jesus who is, who was and who always will be King…my King, your King, Pilates King, King of the people condemning him to death….king….forever. Amen
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