By: Pastor Isaac Collins
Christ the King Sunday is an incredibly important day, but also an incredibly dangerous one. It is impossible to read these texts from Daniel and the book of Revelation without thinking of the many ways that empires have used Holy Scripture to justify the murder of innocent people from non-Christian nations. In the Middle Ages, Crusaders cried out, “Jesus is Lord!” as they plunged their swords into Muslim bodies. In 1493, after Columbus returned to Spain with news of his “discovery,” Pope Alexander VI issued a Papal bull declaring that all lands that he discovered now belonged to the Spanish, and that the people in those countries should be forced to adopt the Christian faith willingly or not. The doctrine of Discovery led to the genocide of Indigenous people all over the Americas. In more modern times, George W. Bush said that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, and a recent study by Columbia University estimates that over a million civilians in those two countries have died as a result. Those in power have never shied away from claiming that the Christian God gave them the right to impose their will upon the people of the Earth. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how our passages from Daniel and Revelation could be used to support the domination of others.
The discomfort we feel when hearing those texts is matched by Jesus’ discomfort with the language of power and kingdom in the gospel lesson. Our text starts at the beginning of Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus. Pilate is trying to figure out if Jesus poses a threat to the Roman Empire. He asks him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” If Jesus was really claiming the title of King, he would be actively thwarting the will of the Empire, which had made Herod Antipas the regional “king” of Palestine. Jesus rejects Pilate’s question. Jesus responds that his kingdom is not “from this world.” We often take Jesus’ words to mean that his kingdom isn’t political, as if Jesus was referencing heaven. The conclusion is that Jesus doesn’t care about what happens in the world. He is here to help us escape it and go to a paradise in the sky. That’s not what Jesus means. By saying that his kingdom is not “from this world,” he means that his kingdom doesn’t function under the same type of imperial power as empires like Rome. If he was a king, like the kind that Pilate accuses him of being, his disciples would be fighting to free him. As it is, they aren’t because his kingdom is not of this world.
Pilate responds, ‘So you are a king?’ His suspicions have been confirmed. Jesus is a threat to Rome. Jesus just admitted that he is a part of a kingdom, however obliquely. Is Pilate right to see Jesus as a threat? Jesus’ relationship with power is complicated. He is not ambivalent about worldly power. Jesus’ message has serious consequences for people in power like Pilate. Jesus preaches the end of their authority, the end of their domination. If Pilate had asked Jesus, ‘Are you a threat to Roman rule?’ rather than ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ then Jesus could not have dodged Pilate’s questions so easily. The Kingdom of God does mean the end of the type of oppressive power that fueled the Roman Empire. Yet, at the same time, he does not have any intention of replacing Rome’s empire with one of his own. He does not accept Pilate’s use of the word King because he knows that Pilate means, So are you a king like Caesar? He does not want to replace oppressive power with another monarchical authority. This isn’t the first time that Jesus has had world domination dangled in front of him. At the beginning of his ministry, Satan, the tempter, offers Jesus lordship over all the kingdoms of the earth, and Jesus rejects his offer, reminding Satan that he does not have the authority to give what he offers.
To say no to domination is a crucial lesson that Jesus tries to teach his followers, and yet, as we heard from the history I shared a few minutes ago, it’s a lesson we still fail to grasp. Pilate’s “So you are a king?” is echoed in the history of Christendom’s wars and genocide. We’ve always insisted that there has to be another Caesar. We create laws and histories to justify our dominance of the world, insisting that we are the most benevolent option on the table. We rationalize our will-to-dominate by insisting that war is just a part of the world, and we have no other options. The world is a chaotic mess, and there has to be order imposed upon it. We insist that the truth about power is that our use of power must always be power over others. We must bend the world to our will because we have been appointed the proper caretakers of it by God. When we think about kingship in this way, Christ becomes a dictator… a benevolent one, perhaps, but a dictator nonetheless. The ministry of the gospel is all about getting in line and submitting.
Jesus deflects Pilate’s question a second time, just like he deflects our attempts to use him as justification for creating new Romes. “You say that I am a king. But, I was born for one thing, to testify to the truth. Everyone who listens to my voice belongs to the truth.” Pilate snaps back at Jesus, “What is truth?” This is the question we have been building toward for an entire year. What is the truth about Christ’s kingdom? What is the truth about power and our form of life together on this planet? What is the truth about Kingdoms in this world? Jesus doesn’t answer the question. At least, he doesn’t with words. After Pilate asks his question, he doesn’t wait for Jesus to respond. He leaves the room, and a few hours later has Jesus dressed in purple robes and a crown of thorns. Jesus is beaten, scourged, and crucified. Pilate has a plaque put above his head that reads, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This is not the image of kingship that we are used to. A crucified king is not the picture of authority we crave as we live at the heart of the deadliest empire in the history of the planet. Pilate shows strength. Jesus responds with weakness. Christ is just another casualty under the boot of Roman ideology.
Yet, in a deeply subversive way, Jesus’s crucifixion is his response to Pilate’s question. The weakness of Jesus, his refusal to play Pilate’s game of thrones, it is his testimony to the truth of his kingdom. Jesus dies not for the sake of gaining power over the earth, but in service to all of creation that languishes under the dominion of sin and death. By becoming the victim of domination, of power over, Jesus undoes that power and defeats it. In his crucifixion, death, and resurrection, we learn that the truth isn’t an idea, it’s a person. The truth about Jesus of Nazareth is that he is also the Word made Flesh, come to dwell among us. The King of the Jews is also the Creator of the Cosmos. All things exist through his sustaining love, were formed in his image, and are given life by his wisdom. Christ’s power as Creator is what gives him the power to be our Redeemer. But, he doesn’t come to set up another totalitarian dominion, Christ comes to liberate us because the power of the Kingdom of God is a power for life. Where death holds sway, Christ comes to bring life. Where sin kills relationships, Christ comes to resurrect our communal bonds. Where individualism has created isolation and loneliness, Christ comes to build bridges of love and trust.
Christ’s power then is not a power over, it is a power for life because he is the truth about all life in Creation. Jesus is the King who serves, not the one who is served. He is the one whose power is made perfect in weakness, not domination. Christ’s kingdom is not upheld by a totalitarian ideology. Rather, life in the Kingdom of God is characterized by giving power away. Christ’s power for life is also a power with us, his creation. Power with us means that Christ has given his power away to us. By seeing how our king serves us, we see that his service reveals his truth. Thus, we who want to be citizens of Christ’s kingdom are called to use our power to serve with others for the sake of life that liberates those who are in bondage.
The Kingdom of God is not a place with a capitol, borders, or assets. Christ’s kingdom isn’t something that we should be tempted to protect. The truth about the kingdom of God is that its truth is a person. The beauty of the incarnation is that by making truth a person rather than a contested boundary or ideology, we are invited to participate in that kingdom by being the people we were created to be. We aren’t called to be loyal subjects to a divinely-appointed king, obedient slaves to cruel masters, adherents to a religion that was forced upon us. Rather, by rejecting power over creation, and using power with others for the sake of life, we find our true identities and we witness to the Crucified One who is the truth of all creation. Amen.