Christ the King

Read John 18:33-37

Christ the King is a relatively new festival in the church year. Its roots go back only to the late 1800's, when the world's great empires - British, American, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese - were all at war or about to go to war somewhere. After World War I, in 1925, Pope Pius XI designated the last Sunday in October as Christ the King Sunday. The Second Vatican Council moved Christ the King Sunday to the last Sunday of the church year.

It is fitting that this year the festival coincides with the “16 days of activism” against domestic violence.

In the published diaries of Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi Propagandist, there are a few references to Mahatma Gandhi his contemporary. Goebbels believed that Gandhi was a fool and a fanatic. If Gandhi had the sense to organize militarily, Goebbels thought, he might hope to win the freedom of India. He was certain that Gandhi couldn’t succeed following a path of non-violent direct action. Yet as history played itself out, India peacefully won her independence while the Nazi military machine was destroyed. What Goebbels regarded as weakness actually turned out to be strength. What he thought of as strength turned out to be weakness.

The same ideological differences characterised the contemporaries of our Bible story today. In this courtroom drama we have Pilate and Jesus sparring in a life and death struggle with words that ring out over history. One wonders if anyone - save perhaps Jesus - grasped the magnitude of that battle.

For sure, we often assume that Jesus was misunderstood, and indeed he was. But one person understood Jesus only too well. It is for this reason that Pilate allowed Jesus to be executed. He knew without a doubt after this duel of words that Jesus was dangerous to everything that the Roman Governor was tasked to protect.

Like Gandhi, Jesus refused to use the methods of Pilate and of Goebbels. Jesus’ way – a method which Gandhi incidentally learned from – was far more powerful than any military empire. It is a method that to this day is not fully appreciated nor understood.

Jesus’ method excludes all other methods. It cannot be adopted as one strategy amongst many, as one arrow in a quiver of tactics. It requires total allegiance. One cannot love one’s enemy and plot against them at the same time.

Jesus’ method is all consuming. It cannot be applied to only one area of one’s life. To have compassion on only one’s friends and family while ignoring the plight of the rest of the world is not compassion but self-interest.

Jesus’ method is ultimately powerful. Assume it, and you may very well lose your life. Reject it, and authentic life will forever be beyond your grasp. Jesus method is so radically new it requires the end of life as we know it and the creation of something so radically new we cannot imagine it from any “old-life” perspective. It is for this reason we celebrate Christ as King at the end of the Christian year – for we acknowledge that everything comes to an end in Christ’s new beginning.

All of this is quite apocalyptic and rightly so. Jesus framed his theology in an apocalyptic mindset. He saw his adventure on this earth as heralding the end of time but let us not confuse Jesus’ apocalyptic with the sensationalised Armageddon of modern doomsday prophets ala Hal Lindsay, “Left Behind” and co.

Jesus’ method did not and does not predict or require the end of the earth, only the end of the world. There is a difference. The earth is “good” (Genesis) and so is all life on it. The covenant with Noah guaranteed that God would never again cause the destruction of earth. Where such destruction is happening today, it is human fault, not God’s design. Jesus’ method does require that the systems of the world come to an end and for the past two thousand years that process has been ongoing. Dictatorships and empires have crumbled and democracies are rising, global efforts to redress poverty have mobilised, prejudice is being dismantled from our systems of governance as well as our hearts and more and more revolutions are won through non-violence rather than sword or gun.

The world – as it once was - is ending.
The world – as it once was - is ending. The earth rejoices.
The earth rejoices.

This is not to say that we don’t still have a long way to go. Poverty and war have seen their premium century in the last hundred years, as has prejudice. But there is a global consensus and a global ability, for the first time in history that has the potential to end human suffering. That consensus is gaining strength, not losing strength.

Christ the King Sunday reminds us that we are called to celebrate the Reign of God that is arriving and has arrived all over the world. Wherever Christ’s Reign is being made manifest, let us add our voices and efforts to the furtherance of compassion, justice and freedom for all people.

Pilate has reason to be nervous. So should all modern powers, especially those that in any way impinge on human dignity and freedom for Christ will Reign over all.

Oh, and here's an interesting riddle...