Christ the King

Recently, the Lectionary has been looking at the kingdom of heaven.   Yesterday it culminated with the theme "Christ the King".   This is what happens the Sunday before Advent.

In John's Gospel the reading is the passage where Jesus is brought before Pilate to be questioned.   Pilate dives in with the $64,000 question - "Are you the King of the Jews?

I wonder why he asked this very pointed question.   Who put it into Pilate’s head that Jesus was claiming to be King of the Jews?  Even Jesus wanted to know the answer to this question.    If you read the four gospels you will find the word, king, appears 81 times.   Sometimes it is linked with David and sometimes a king was a main character in a story told by Jesus.   As for the rest, they are mostly references to the kingship of Jesus in one form or another.   We know that the people were, at one point, intending to make Jesus a king and   we can assume that it was in their minds to make him a political leader, King of the Jews.

 

Even though there are references to Jesus as King of the Jews, this is not what he ever claimed to be.   Remember the famous quotation from John chapter three:   “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life.   It was not to judge the world that God that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved.”   You can see from this that Jesus could not be King of the Jews because he claimed to have come to the world, not a small group of people within it.

At the very start of his ministry he rejected acclaim as being not the way of God.   He had come, not to claim kingship, but to tell people that God was in command.   He had come to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven.   As Christians seek to emulate Jesus in their lives, we are exhorted to remember “the first shall be last.”   We are to take the humble approach, not the assertive one.   Paradoxically, it is through the way of the “Suffering Servant” that we, like  Jesus, become assertive in our preaching of God’s message.

 

After Pilate further questioned him, Jesus gave his answer about kingship: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.   If it did, my followers would be fighting to save me from the clutches of the Jews.   My kingdom belongs elsewhere.”   Pilate sought to draw him out: “You are a king, then?”   “King is your word.   My task is to bear witness to the truth.   For this I was born; for this I came into the world, and all who are not deaf to truth listen to my voice.”   Of course, Pilate comes out with the usual put down line, “What is truth?” and dismisses Jesus’ words.   But there was a difference in that discussion which was not recorded as resolved.   It is that difference that matters.   We can best understand it by adding one small word.   When Jesus spoke of truth it was The Truth.   Pilate’s version of the word was truth in general, and that is a much different version to the truth of which Jesus spoke.

 

As for the Jews, generally, they had formed a picture of the promised Messiah (Anointed One) based on their fond recollection of their tales of King David.   So, the sort of king they expected was the very opposite of the king that Jesus was.   The people on Palm Sunday were treated to a spelling out of what sort of king Jesus was.   To their acclaim he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.   This was the traditional sign of a king coming in peace rather than war.   His ministry was very short when you think of the huge importance of lodging a vital message in the hearts of humankind.   However, during that time he continually demonstrated the value of the servant role.   Not only that but he spoke almost exclusively to the poor people at the bottom of society in that time.   His style was to work bottom up, not top down.   This latter method would have shortened his ministry even more!

 

He spoke to those who came to him hoping to gain position by telling them that the first would be last in the Kingdom of God of which he preached.   When people heard this sort of thing they obviously found it amazing and somewhat exciting.   They were used to being the last, and here they were hearing a promise that their roles would be reversed in the Kingdom.   I can just imagine them rushing off home after hearing Jesus and telling their families and friends what they had heard.   They were hearing a message that was just for them.   Dwelling at the bottom of society's ladder, they often experienced hurt as they were metaphorically trampled by those stationed above them.   At the bottom of that ladder they knew much suffering.   But now they were hearing encouraging words, healing words for those that hurt.

 

I feel sure that those at the top of the ladder, such as Annas and Caiaphas, saw Jesus as another nuisance but thought it best to play safe and have him removed by Pilate who had the power to do so.   Whilst Jesus claimed a quite different kingship to the one they knew, they had better play safe.   After all, give him an inch and he might take a mile!   But the Kingdom of which Jesus spoke offered them no threat at all.

 

The kingdom of heaven exists in a spiritual dimension.   Hopefully, it finds a place in our hearts.   We can’t take it out of our pockets or pull it out of a shopping bag.   It is not a physical entity but a spiritual realm.   Yet, paradoxically, it has a power that can seriously and positively affect our physical lives.   It is capable of supporting incredibly strong faith so that a person stands up for his or her beliefs and finds a way to make a difference in the world.   Its strength is capable of making important changes in life.

It is this kingdom in which we recognise Jesus as King.   We bow to him and no other.   Pilate, in his time, was unafraid of a poor Galilean standing before him.   Yet since that time the power of the risen Jesus has made an amazing difference in the lives of his followers.   This poor man, dragged before Pilate, was to become one of the most implacable enemies of this world’s dictators.   Within living memory we can state cases for the power of the risen Jesus defeating the power of some very strong despots.   Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler come to mind.   No matter how these people persecuted those prepared to stand up for their faith, the Christian faith continued.   That many who stood up to be counted as friends of Jesus were imprisoned and/or tortured by such despots is beyond dispute.   Why were they treated so badly?   It was because history had told the story of the supreme power of the king who is able to penetrate any barrier at all.   Those who have clung to power during history have all known that, ultimately, this king cannot be defeated.   The battles involved may be incredibly long but the victory is assured.

I was once preaching on the Book of Revelation, and I commented that the story told was to reassure persecuted Christians to be unafraid because ultimately God would win the day.   A senior minister in the United Reformed Church happened to be in the congregation.   After the service he thanked me for a sermon that he found helped him.   He told me that he was a member of an anti nuclear group and that he had found it helpful to be reminded that God’s victory is assured.

It is vitally important that we never forget that Jesus, our king, gives us the eventual victory through his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.   We stand now on the threshold of Advent, a time when we consider the coming of this great king.   Our first awareness is of a baby visited in a stable by, on the one hand, simple shepherds and, on the other, kings from the east.   We look at that tiny, fragile child and marvel that he grows to become our king, the saviour of the world.

 

 

 

 

Women Bishops

The recent failure of the Church of England Synod to pave the way for the ordination of women bishops is bemusing.

 

There still remain Christians who think that, because it was the way in Biblical times, it must remain the way in 2012.   Going back to the days of the Bible we see a chauvinistic society.   But this is no reason to declare it valid today.   It was part of the culture in those days, whereas today, secular society is showing some Christians how to express love and respect for each other.   To keep women excluded in this way is not a Christian activity.   There are echoes here of the days of the suffragettes.   Because of the activities of Mrs Pankhurst and her friends we, today, are much more able to respect and treasure the input of women in daily life in all spheres and at all levels.

 

My opinion, for what it is worth, is that women are generally better at empathy than men.   They can get closer to the victims of society.   These victimes are numbered among those to whom Jesus commissioned Peter to go.   In John Chapter 21 he said, "Simon Peter, do you love me?   Peter replied, "Yes, Lord.   You know I love you."   "Then feed my sheep." answered Jesus.   It is my contention that women priests are actually better equipped to do this than their male counterparts.   They possess the necessary qualities in abundance as part of theirt nature.

 

One clergyman is quoted as saying that in a family the roles of father and mother are not interchangeable.   My response is that society has seen it demonstrated that it is often the mother who proves equal to the task of being head of family when her husband is no longer there.   There is no case for preventing the ordination of women to any position in any church.   You might not like it or agree with it but the fact is that, in the eyes of God, all are equal.   This is what we preach and it is what we believe.

 

Get real.