Readings
Psalm 24 The
King of glory
The earth is the
Lord's, and all that is in it,
The world, and those who live in it.
For he has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
Who may ascend the
hill of the Lord?
And who may stand in his holy place?
Those who have clean hands and pure hearts;
Who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
And do not swear deceitfully.
They will receive blessing from the Lord,
And vindication from the God of their salvation.
Such is the company of those who seek him,
Who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Lift up your
heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors!
That the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
The Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors!
That the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of Hosts--he is the King of Glory!
John 12:12-15 The
triumphal entry into Jerusalem
The next day
the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus
was coming to Jerusalem. So they took palm branches and went out
to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!"
Jesus found a
young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: "Do not be
afraid, daughter of Zion. Look! Your king is coming, seated on a
donkey's colt."
John 18:28-37 The
King of truth
Then they took
Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early in the
morning. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so as to
avoid ceremonial uncleanness and to be able to eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said, "What charges are you
bringing against this man?"
They answered,
"If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed
him over to you."
Pilate said to
them, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your law."
The Jews
replied, "We are not permitted to execute anyone." (This
was to fulfill what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of
death he was to die.)
Then Pilate
entered the praetorium again, summoned Jesus, and asked him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
Jesus answered,
"Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about
me?"
Pilate replied,
"Am I a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who
handed you over to me. What have you done?"
Jesus answered,
"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers
would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But my kingdom is
from another place."
You are
a king, then!" said Pilate
Jesus answered,
"You say that I am a king. For this reason 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."
Arcana
Coelestia #29.2 The Kingdom of God
In the broadest
sense, "the kingdom of God" means all of heaven. In a
less broad sense, it means the Lord's genuine church [or spiritual
community], and in an individual sense, it means every person who
has real faith--that is, every person who has been spiritually
reborn through the type of life that goes with faith. So
individual people are also called a "heaven," since
heaven is within us. Individual people are called "the
kingdom of God" as well, since that is also within us.
Sermon
You say that
I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into
the world: to testify to the truth. (John 18:37)
Pilate had no
idea what Jesus was talking about.
Here was a man
whom the Jewish leaders had brought to him to be executed, and
Pilate was trying to figure out what the charges were. When he
asked the Jews what charges were being brought against Jesus, they
evaded the question. "If this man were not a criminal,"
they said, "we would not have handed him over to you."
Pilate smelled a rat. "Take him yourselves and judge him by
your law," he replied. But the Jews answered, "We are
not permitted to execute anyone." Now, this could be serious.
Apparently the Jews were accusing him of a capital offense.
So Pilate
summoned Jesus into the Praetorium. "Are you the king of the
Jews?" he asked. Now it was Jesus' turn to put Pilate off
balance. "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you
about me?" By now, Pilate must have been wondering whether he
would ever get a straight answer out of these people!
"Am I a Jew?" he retorted. We can hear the biting
sarcasm in his voice. "It was your own people and the chief
priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?" We
can imagine the busy Pilate impatient to get this nuisance over
with so he could attend to other, more pressing concerns.
Once again,
Jesus did not answer the question Pilate thought he was asking.
But at least he said something Pilate could understand.
"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my followers
would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But my kingdom is
from another place." Now Pilate was probably thinking,
"Well, at least this guy is not completely crazy. He does
seem to be saying that he is not a claimant to the throne."
This would make Pilate's job easier, since as the Roman governor
in that province, one of Pilate's jobs was to suppress any
potential rivals to Roman power. Still, Jesus' answer was not
crystal clear.
"You are
a king, then!" said Pilate. "You say that I am a
king," Jesus replied. "For this reason 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' reply
reassured Pilate that this man was a harmless visionary, not a
political threat. If we continue reading, we find Pilate's famous
words, "What is truth?" Whereupon he went outside to the
Jews and tried to release Jesus, since he found no case against
him--certainly nothing punishable by death.
And so, in
understated yet evocative words, the Gospel presents to our view
two entirely different views of power: the worldly power embodied
by Pilate, and the spiritual power embodied by Jesus. It is clear
from Jesus' words that he fully understood worldly power. Pilate,
on the other hand, could not understand spiritual power. As far as
Pilate was concerned, power was measured by how many soldiers and
weapons he had at his disposal to back up the commands that he
gave. By this measure, Pilate was secure in his power; he had all
the force of the reigning power on earth--the Roman Empire--behind
him.
This view of
power certainly didn't die with Pilate. It has continued
throughout all the centuries since then. The United States is now
considered to be the most powerful nation on earth. And the main
measure of that power is the size of our armed forces and the
power and sophistication of our weaponry, together with the
economic power to support our military and project it into
conflicts around the world. Today, no country in its right mind
would attempt to conquer the United States. Like Pilate, we sit
secure in our power, knowing that while there may be local
disturbances here and there, our country reigns supreme.
Pilate was not
impressed by Jesus' kind of power. Bearing witness to the truth?
What is truth? And more to the point, what is truth compared to an
army that is willing to fight for what the Roman Empire
says is the truth?
Jesus, on the
other hand, was not impressed with Pilate's kind of power. He knew
how temporary such power is. In his prophecies he looked ahead to
times when the great powers of the earth would be overthrown. When
not one stone of their great monuments would be left on top of
another. He knew that real and lasting power had nothing to do
with armies, but was "from another place."
When Pilate saw
Jesus, and his Jewish accusers, before him, he saw only a local
disturbance. Some rabble-rouser had angered the local religious
authorities. Pilate could not possibly have comprehended that the
religion that began with this Jesus would eventually take over the
Roman Empire itself; that when the Roman Empire had long since
collapsed into the dustbin of history, this religion--the
"kingdom" of Jesus--would continue to expand until it
covered a geographical area far vaster that Pilate even knew
existed; until it encompassed, not the mere millions of people in
the Roman Empire, but over a billion people--far more human beings
than even existed in Pilate's day.
Yet even this
is not the true measure of Jesus' power and kingship. For these
are still worldly measurements. As impressive as the Christian
numbers may be, counting heads and geographical distribution is
merely looking at the surface of the true power of Jesus.
"For this
reason I was born, and for this I came into the world: to testify
to the truth." This is where the real power and greatness of
Jesus lies. Far beyond the power of swords or machine guns or
nuclear warheads there lies an infinitely more powerful force:
divine truth. All the swords of the Roman Empire could not outlast
the truth that Jesus taught and lived. The might of the British
Empire could not withstand the truth that Gandhi taught. The might
of the Soviet Union could not stand against the truth that human
beings must be free. Even the might of the United States could not
withstand the truth that Martin Luther King taught: that all
human beings must be free.
Truth has
always been, and will always be, far stronger than the strongest
army. Oh, an army can hold sway for a time. But eventually, if it
stands in the way of the truth, its power will be broken, and it
will become a chapter, or a paragraph, or a sentence in a history
book--while the truth only gains in strength and power and
influence.
Jesus stood in
front of Pilate unmoved because he had behind him the greatest
power the world has ever known--the greatest power the world will
ever know. "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my
voice."
Yes, Jesus was
a king. Jesus is a king. Not a king of worldly wealth and
power, of gold and of weapons. No, Jesus Christ is the king of our
souls. History, as well as our own hearts, tells us that whatever
rules in our souls will eventually rule the world. Let us each,
then, crown the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal king of our
souls. Amen.
Music: How Great
Thou Art
