O Christ our King, guide us to seek your Truth:
come whence it may, cost what it will, lead where it might ✠ in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone in which, after a few minutes, you realize that you are talking about completely different things? Well, that’s exactly what we are witnessing in this conversation between Pontus Pilate and Jesus Christ. The setting is the middle of Jesus’ Passion on the morning of Good Friday. Jesus has been charged with a capital offense and has to go before the Roman authority to have his case decided. What we heard read from John is the interrogation scene – Pilate trying to ascertain whether or not Jesus is guilty of sedition, of claiming that he is a King in opposition to the Roman Emperor. Jesus though has no interest in claiming earthly kingship, as he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But where Pilate and Jesus are two ships passing in the night is that for Pilate, kingship is about power and for Jesus, it is about Truth.
This
conversation is an important one for us to eavesdrop into because it’s easy to think
about power and authority on Pilate’s terms with the result being that we end
up talking to Pilate instead of Jesus. The Sunday before Advent is known Christ
the King Sunday, a day to consider under whose authority we set. Perhaps more
than ever, we need the message that Christ is King so we might align our
allegiances with his rule, but we also desperately need to find the grace and
peace that comes in knowing that Christ is our King, and so we live under the
rule of one who loves and redeems us.
The
only reason why the name Pilate means anything today is that he is named in the
Creed; otherwise, he’s a footnote to history. The same goes for every single
king or ruler in history. Even the really famous, or infamous ones, are little
more than answers to Jeopardy questions. Sure, they made an impact on history,
but they have no more power, they exercise no authority, they have no dominion.
Those who occupy seats of power and influence today will soon be the same –
dead and impotent. And even the most powerful leaders today cannot give us
salvation, they are not willing to die for us, they cannot give us the peace
that passes all understanding. It is only in bowing down before Christ our King
that we find these things.
All
of the rulers that we have known are interested in a kingdom, even if they call
it something else. We all want there to be realms where our word is the law, where
we answer to no one, where we have total jurisdiction. For some people that domain
is their bodies or minds – they want to decide what is moral or not, they want
autonomy over their lives. Others want that sort of control over society, being
able to decide policies that arrange our common life. Still others care most
about the kingdom of attention, wanting to influence others, wanting to be the pattern
that others follow.
That’s
just human nature, no sense in trying to deny it. The issue for us as people of
faith is that we want to avoid giving our allegiance to such leaders and institutions.
Every single earthly kingdom has a boundary. As much as the Roman Empire or
Amazon wants to rule the entire world, they do not. Every kingdom and every
ruler is limited in scope and power. As Jesus cautioned us, we cannot serve two
masters. If our ultimate allegiance is to a party, a nation, a balance sheet,
or an idea, then we will be unable to follow Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus
says things like “Unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my
disciple.” The Kingdom of Jesus has no edges. There is no place where Jesus is
not sovereign.
And
this is why so many people reject Jesus and do not want to live under his
authority. We’ve been trained to think that our minds are ours to make up, that
our money is ours to spend, that our decisions are ours to make. But living
under the Kingship of Christ means that we are under his rule. Yes, it may well
be a gracious and life-giving rule, but it is still someone’s rule. All the way
back to Adam and Eve, we know that humans struggle with limits and want to
govern themselves. Sure, Jesus might be a good consultant, teacher, or guru,
but, because of Sin, we’d all rather be the lords of our lives.
Because
the Kingdom of Jesus has no geographic, categorical, or temporal boundaries, it
is a different kind of kingdom. And this is where Jesus and Pilate end up
talking past each other. “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.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’” Jesus, of course, doesn’t
offer a direct answer here. But he has previously told us and we have come to
know that Jesus is himself Truth. He does not point us to the truth, he does
not teach us the truth; he is the truth. And so that means that things like
mercy, forgiveness, compassion, humility, lowliness, and love are synonyms for “truth.”
It means that if we want to see a picture of the truth, we look to the Cross of
Christ, which is the throne of Christ the King.
This
is what makes Christ unique as a king. Sure, other rulers might have dominions
and armies, but none of their rules are about bringing us into the truth. Jesus
says that this truth is the very reason that he came into this world; his
kingdom is about living in truth. The word “truth” in the Greek of the New
Testament is a compound word that means “to not forget.” All of the kingdoms of
this world would have us to forget certain things: to forget the limits of
their power and knowledge, to forget the fact that all people are the beloved of
God and nothing can change that, to forget that love is the most important
thing, to forget that we are forgiven and redeemed. Under the most gracious
rule of King Jesus, we do not forget these things, but rather are embraced by
the truth of God’s love. Jesus not only has a kingdom, but he alone has this
truth.
The
question for us is whether or not we embrace this rule or if we insist on
living under the rule of tyrants of our own making. Part of what makes this
exchange between Jesus and Pilate so interesting is the way that Jesus reverses
the roles. He is supposed to be interrogated by Pilate, but it is Jesus who
asks the searing questions. When Pilate asks him if he is the King of Jews, Jesus
retorts with a question of his own, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others
tell you about me?”
This
might be the most important question that Jesus ever asked. It’s a question of
how we know what we know. The fancy word for this is “epistemology,” which is a
branch of theology and philosophy often described as the “theory of knowledge.”
We are in the midst of what can be described as an “epistemic crisis,” meaning
that we think things without much thought.
Think
about the issues that are the core of so many of our divisions right now – epidemiology
and a pandemic, critical race theory, economic practices, and climate change.
We all have opinions on these topics, often rather strong opinions. And, in
most every instance, none of us are experts on these issues. As the saying
goes, we know just enough to be dangerous. Yes, this is about fact-checkers,
social media, and the media, but it’s about so much more. The fact that there
are charlatans out there who are trying to influence people with lies is
nothing new. Rather, what is new is the way that so many of us are so easily
duped.
It
was a joke in the realm of political satire when Stephen Colbert coined the
word “truthiness” back in 2005. Truthiness is defined as “a belief or assertion
that a particular statement is true based on intuition or feelings, without
regard to evidence, logic, or facts.” In other words, if something seems true
or we would it to be true, that’s good enough. Whether we want to admit it or
not, every single one of us does this. There’s simply no way for us to research
every bit of information that comes our way.
For
example, I wake up in the morning and want to know whether I’ll need a light
jacket or a heavy jacket for the day. I simply trust the forecast that my phone
shows me – I don’t investigate to see where that data is coming from and what
the credential are of the person who input that data. The same is true for the
vaccine – I’ll admit that I really can’t explain how messenger RNA works, but have
put my trust in those who have given their lives to medical research. I’ll also
confess that I get rather frustrated when people dismiss my knowledge and
expertise when it comes to things like Scripture, ethics, and theology. We
always build on the knowledge of others, in no way am I suggesting that we shouldn’t
trust one another. In fact, I would say the opposite.
The
very alarming issue though is when we are ignorant of the fact that our minds
are being made up by others. The scary thing isn’t people who claim that they
don’t understand something, it’s those who claim that they understand something
but can’t tell you how or why they know it. Now, lest you think I’m just going
out of my way to talk about modern social issues, this is exactly the question
that Jesus asks Pilate – “Do you think that I’m really claiming to be a king,
or are you just believing what others have said?” It’s a question of how we
know what we claim to know.
The
truth is that Jesus has never sought to build an earthly kingdom to compete
with Rome, Jesus has not conscripted an army or plotted a coup attempt. Pilate,
on his own, did not have an open file on Jesus. But others told him that Jesus
was claiming to be a king. And this set off Pilate’s own fears and insecurities.
This is the same strategy used by the serpent at the beginning of Genesis, “Did
God really say you shouldn’t eat from that tree?” Gaslighting is nothing new. Our
concern is that if we exchange the truth for lies, then we turn away from Jesus
who is the Truth.
The
reason why this is such an important question for us as Christians is that all
of the other kingdoms out there want us to adopt their truths. They stay in
power when we believe that those people are to blame, or when we believe that
we need them to be good enough, or when we rely on them to protect us. In
certain cases, there may be elements of truth in some of those claims. To be
sure, I trust the Church a good bit. But we have to always ask the question “Why
do I trust this?” And if the answer is not very clearly “Because this points me
to Jesus,” then we need to be very cautious about giving over our fidelity.
It all goes back to this conversation between Jesus and Pilate. Which are we in conversation with: Jesus or Pilate? Are we talking about power, rights, influence, and authority? Those are the domain of Pilate. Instead, Jesus would have us be talking about mercy, peace, and love. Pilate stood there, face to face with the Truth Incarnate, and asked “What is truth?,” not able to see it right in front of him. God save us from making that same mistake.
