Our Sunday Message

Kingdoms, Powers and Principalities: John 18:33-37
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
November 26, 2006
Christ the King Sunday

  I want you to have the picture firmly in your mind. Pilate comes into the room where Jesus is waiting. He is impressively dressed in full regalia representing the power of the Roman Government. It was intended to be a visible demonstration of who’s in charge. Pilate wears his authority in order to intimidate.
  The Scripture says that it is early in the morning and Pilate is irritated to have to deal with this pesky nuisance before his second cup of coffee. As best he can tell from the accusations, the issue is a Jewish religious dispute, an issue for which he has little patience and even less expertise, not the kind of thing he wants to deal with this early in the morning. But Pilate’s job is to keep the peace, especially during the Passover, and it is for this very reason that he has moved his headquarters from his home in Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem during Passover week and he has full authority to deal with controversial issues before they erupt in civil unrest. He will do whatever it takes to keep control.
  It is all about control, power, and domination. Pilate cannot afford to lose control. He has to make sure that everyone knows who is in charge, especially during religious festivals, so that no one dares to step out of line.
  And so, bleary-eyed, impatient, and annoyed, he takes his seat of power in order to solve this dispute as quickly as possible and get back to whatever it was that he wants to do on this Friday morning.   “Are you the King of the Jews?”
  And here is Jesus, an itinerant, peasant preacher from Galilee whose followers can’t be found anywhere. There is no one to testify in his behalf. They have all abandoned him. His own religious leaders are calling for his death. He stands before Pilate in his peasant robe, haggard from a long night, a little bloodied from his first interrogation. Strangely, he seems unable or unwilling to defend himself against these charges that even Pilate can recognize as bogus. With one word and one flick of his little finger, Pilate can end this whole drama and get back to whatever it is that he would rather be doing. Let’s not kid ourselves. In this drama, Jesus is a pathetic, lonely figure and Pilate has all the power.
  Today is Christ the King Sunday. Kings and kingdoms are anachronisms for us. We can’t relate to talk about kingdoms, but we can relate to talk about power. We live in a culture that values power. Whether we are talking about our favorite football team or political party, we want to be on the side of power. Power means winning, controlling, dominating, and silencing our opponents. We learn it as early as Red Rover, Red Rover. Do you remember when you played Red Rover, you never called Brutus right over. He would break through the line and take your people. You called Sally right over. Power means strength. Strength means winning.
  We see this attitude every day. We want more police on the streets and stiffer penalties for crimes; we want a stronger military and a bigger arsenal of weapons; we want politicians who know how to get things done and religious leaders who condemn sinners. Give us winners because we value power. We value power because power gives us the illusion of security.
  And so on this Christ the King Sunday, we are asked to reflect on this strange text that challenges our conventional ideas about power. It takes a vivid imagination to see Jesus as King in this text. He has no power. He has no security. He will be crucified by the forces of evil. The disciples understand that he has no power. That is the reason that they deserted him.
  It takes a vivid imagination to see God’s kingdom in a world that is out of control. What did we hear last Sunday? There are 34,000 children that die of starvation every night. The AIDS epidemic is devastating the continent of Africa. Children are being kidnapped and traumatized in order to fight a civil war in Uganda. Radical Islam is dedicated to destroying our Western civilization. The Palestinian-Israeli crisis has no apparent diplomatic solution. Crime is on the increase. Poverty is on the increase. Gangs are on the increase. Public education is failing. Healthcare costs are out of control. It takes a vivid imagination to see God’s kingdom, God’s rule, God’s sovereignty in a world that is out of control. And we want to be on the side of power. A young adult, committed to social change, left the church because he said, “I want to be a part of something that can make a real difference.”
  Who are we kidding? Are we kidding only ourselves? It is Christ the King Sunday. What does that mean in a culture like ours? Look at this text again.
  Pilate, in his full regalia, seems to have all the power. But look again. Pilate’s power is an insidious, empty illusion. Pilate has no power at all. Against his own better judgment, he condemns Jesus at the bidding of the religious leaders that he clearly despises. He is the consummate company man that goes along because he knows that if he does not, he will lose his power, which he does not have. Pilate is the lonely, pathetic figure in this story. In his commentary on this text, Charles Cousar observes, “Pilate, like most power brokers . . . is mocked by his ultimate lack of power.”1 The only power that Pilate has is the power of force.
  Jesus refused to buy into that kind of power. He says, “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.” The kingdom of God does not take its ideas of power from this world. Otherwise, the disciples would use force to control and to dominate.
  But that is not what power means in God’s kingdom. In God’s kingdom, the last are first. In God’s kingdom, the one who would be master must become the servant. In God’s kingdom, those who are most like children inherit the kingdom. In God’s kingdom, the poor are blessed. In God’s kingdom, the peacemakers are called children of God. In God’s kingdom, all our ideas about power are turned around and upside down. But it takes a vivid imagination to believe it.
Actually, not even the most vivid imagination can conceive of this kingdom. It requires a sacred imagination; one that is spirit inspired. It requires a future-directed imagination; one that can see not what is but what will be. It requires an Easter imagination; one that sees the future through the lens of the resurrection. The resurrection is the one thing that Pilate could not anticipate.
  If we believe in the resurrection, we don’t have to win, to control, to dominate, or to defeat in order to be secure. If we believe in the resurrection, we know that God wins in the end, regardless of who is in control now. If we believe in the resurrection, we can give ourselves completely to Christ in hope that God’s kingdom will come, on earth, as it is in heaven. And that is what we celebrate on Christ the King Sunday.

1 Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching: Year B, p. 604.