Year B

John 18:33-37

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The King of “Truth”

We have finally arrived to the last Sunday in the season of Pentecost and the last Sunday of the church year it is Christ the King Sunday. Pope Pius XI in 1925 instituted the feast of Christ the King to counter the destructive forces of the modern world by proclaiming the kingship of Christ as the “goal of human history, the center of humankind, the joy of all hearts, and the fulfillment of all aspirations.” The lessons today bear witness to this true king, who was anticipated in David, fully present in Jesus, and who finally will be revealed as ruler of all. Yet, as we are aware, his reign differs from that of earthly rulers. His kingdom is not of this world.

So the question posed by the readings today is: “Who shall finally reign? We live in the throes of history and have experienced rulers coming and going. It can be a temptation to cast Christ the King in the mold of the kings and kingdoms that are from this world, as though we have just another variety of power politics. But properly understood the rule of Christ as King is one established by the Servant Lord who comes to the throne by way of a cross. Won by love, the church lives under the gracious rule of Christ the King; a rule not yet completely visible and not yet acknowledged by the entire world. However, it is a rule that, while not from the world, concerns the world.

Which makes the concept of a king not from this world rather confusing; and today we hear a rather confusing conversation between Pilate and Jesus. This passage, one of the most dramatic in the entire New Testament, portrays the encounter of two rulers, one earthly and one heavenly and so allows us to contrast the nature of their rule. Pilate, a Roman governor, asks Jesus at his trial, if he claims to be a king. Pilates image of a king is a threat to his rule and to Rome but Jesus makes it clear that this is not who he is. His kingdom does not obtain its authority from this world or rely on the ways of this world to implement that authority. He was born …to testify to the “truth”.

Not giving any details about “the truth,” is it any wonder that Pilate responds, just after our text today, with the question “What is truth?”  Pilate could only get to the point of truth in finding no crime in Jesus. Beyond this, there is the deeper truth that the kingship of Jesus, his rule, is as real as Pilate’s, just on a different level…not of this world. “Truth”, and a kingdom not of this world, is not easy to visualize. We tend to think of truth in terms of facts, authenticity, reliability, and dependableness. In religious terms, it expands beyond this to mean an unwavering conformity with God’s will. In John’s gospel, the “truth” is the truth about God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

John begins his gospel with: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory: the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Truth is the life-giving power of God, graciously given to the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. It can be summarized, in John 3:16; “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” And Jesus tells his disciples on the night before he faced Pilate, “I am the way, the truth and the life”

His whole identity-his words, his works, his dying, his rising, his giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to his followers, everything was the embodiment of the truth found in God, who is love and grace. This makes Jesus’ kingship unlike any other. Instead of making laws, and fighting wars, Jesus reveals the awesome love of God to all people who are blind and bounded by sin. Even his deeds of power are simply “signs” meant to bring people to a new, saving relationship with God. This is the truth of what Jesus does and says and is. This is how he rules over creation that was his from before the world’s foundation.

This is the promise and plan for a certain sort of king that God began to articulate back in the days of David. Today, we hear David’s last words on how to be a ruler on earth. Although his conclusion is rather simple, it is not easily attained. His own life is a testimony to that. He does not stand as a stellar example of righteous rule from beginning to end. His history is marked by the faults and fears of any person who walks the earth. His honor is that through it all he learned how to walk in the ways of the Lord, seeking conformity with God’s will such that he became known as “a man after God’s own heart.”

David’s kingship was given him by God and he ascribes the authority of his rule, not to his own natural or achieved status, but to the word of God, which establishes the foundation for good government. Because of God’s everlasting covenant with David, it was believed, a just ruler would arise from David’s lineage to fulfill his legacy. The promise of God to David, the messianic hope that grew out of it, and Jesus’ identification as the “Son of David” all point toward this Christ the King Sunday. And the climax of the “truth” of this Sunday is declared in the opening verses of the last book of the bible, Revelation. 

The text today written by the visionary John on the island of Patmos, is a rich, hope-filled message that addresses the power of the “Almighty” God who stands at the beginning and end of history-the Alpha and the Omega, the significance of the Risen Christ-the king of kings for the church and the world, and in him, all the ends and purposes of life and history is brought together. Christ “the ruler of the kings of earth” who is the faithful witness to the lordship of God presents an urgent challenge in Revelation for us twenty-first century Christians. We are being asked: what does it mean to be a “faithful witness” to Christ’s lordship in a time of growing disparities of wealth and power?

When the powers of the world are shown to be pretenders-when the Lord of history, the sacrificed Lamb, is revealed for all to see-will we be among the “faithful witnesses” who, by our worship of the Lamb and resistance to pretenders, have been making this reality visible? Have we been living under the reign of Christ the King? We live this way by following Christ’s example as a faithful witness; by seeking to understand his will for us, by denying ourselves, and taking up our crosses and serving others; and by making it our life’s goal to bring others into his reign of love and praise, which will last forever.

Christ is not a tyrant: he is a lover. He is not a power-mad despot we are forced to serve or else; he is a servant witness. And he calls us to be the same sort of loving and serving witnesses to others. When we understand that calling, our lives become sources of praise for the “Alpha and the Omega…who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” These words from Revelation today draw our attention not only to the close of the Christian year, but also to the coming final consummation of all things in Christ. We look with hope to that day when Christ shall be all in all. Indeed, God is our beginning and our ending. He is Lord of All and King of Kings…”the way, the truth and the life” May we walk in truth led by our King all the days of our earthly life. Amen.