Reflection by The Rev'd Dr Deborah Broome, Ministry Educator.
Then Pilate entered the headquarters 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, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ 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.’ 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.’
John 18:33-37
This Sunday, the Sunday before Advent, is the feast of Christ the King, a celebration of the reign of Christ. As the church year ends, our readings point us towards the coming of Christ’s universal kingdom. And so we get the exchange between Jesus and Pontius Pilate that’s part of the Good Friday story. We hear Pilate ask Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” It’s a political question of course and not a religious one: are you challenging my power? Are you going to start a revolution to get rid of Caesar, and me as Caesar’s official?
We can see why Pilate wants to know this. He’s fixated on that word “king” and, like almost everyone else in John’s Gospel, he’s thinking literally, in political terms, in human-world terms. That’s only natural from someone who was the representative of the Roman Empire, of the kingdom of this world. But Jesus is talking metaphorically, in spiritual terms, in God’s-world terms – and he’s talking about a different kind of kingdom. Jesus doesn’t deny he’s a king, but he answers that his kingship isn’t from this world. He says he’s come to bear witness to the truth, and then he goes out to suffer and die – which is not what anyone would expect a king to do.
Jesus’ kingship looks different from what we expect. He doesn’t fight, he doesn’t use his power to save himself and throw the Romans out of Jerusalem. He goes out and he dies. And it’s one of the great ironies of John’s Gospel that Pilate uses his own authority to declare Jesus’ kingship. Pilate places an inscription over the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.” He overrides the protests of the chief priests, who wanted Pilate to clarify that this was only what Jesus claimed. But Pilate refuses with a solemn “What I have written, I have written.” In John, Jesus’ kingship becomes most visible in his crucifixion. The crucifixion is an enthronement as king, the moment at which the declaration of his kingship is up there for everyone to see. In John, Jesus dies with a shout of triumph: it is accomplished!
Jesus is the king of kings, “the ruler of the kings of the earth” – as the accompanying reading from Revelation 1:4-8 notes – and yet he exercises his power by loving us and dying to make us free people. This is how Jesus rules – in service, in self-giving, in sacrificial love. This is what “Christ the king” means. What might this say to us about our own use of power?
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