Kingdoms / Based on John 18:33-37 / Delivered to CCH on
November 25, 2018
Hymns: Crown Him with Many Crowns, Love Divine All Loves
Excelling, Joy to the World
John 18:33-37
18:33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned
Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
18:34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or
did others tell you about me?"
18:35 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?"
18:36 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."
18:37 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."
Good morning and Happy Sunday to you. I am Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the Lay
Servants of the United Methodist Church which is just up the hill from
here. It is my joy to be with you all
here today. Today marks the final Sunday
of the liturgical year! It is known as
Christ the King Sunday or Reign of Christ Sunday. Happy New Year’s Eve!
The scripture from John is a great choice for a Sunday called
Christ the King. Pilate is struggling to
figure out just what kind of kingdom Jesus is king of.
My three ideas for today are:
Kingdom as a political system
Kingdom as a way to be
Kingdom as truth
Kingdom as a political system
Pilot has one question on his mind. Is Jesus a threat to the Roman Empire? He oversaw keeping the Jews complacent under
Roman rule. He wasn’t concerned about how
Jews treated each other but did get concerned about a possible uprising.
Jesus answered his question with a question.
18:33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned
Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
18:34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or
did others tell you about me?"
18:35 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 reply only prompted more questions.
18:36 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."
On one hand Jesus has confirmed that he is not the head of an
uprising against Rome. His followers
weren’t about to fight to keep him safe. Still it would have concerned Pilot to
hear him say he had a kingdom. He wasn’t
understanding that this kingdom was different from a political structure. It wasn’t a place to be fought over. Membership in this kingdom was based on
behavior.
Kingdom as a way to be
18:37a Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus
answered, "You say that I am a king.
Jesus is a servant leader.
He is called King of kings and Lord of lords in John’s Revelation, but
he doesn’t claim such titles here. “You
say that I am a king.” is his reply to Pilot.
It points to the fact Pilot is misunderstanding what Jesus impact
is. His leadership isn’t limited to a
plot of land. It covers the whole
earth. There are no city walls, or an
army needed to protect this kind of kingdom.
Membership in the kingdom is through listening to Jesus teaching and
following His example. There may be
battles still but they are battles of thoughts not swords.
In Luke, Jesus teaches the kingdom is within us.
Luke 17:20 - 21
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God
would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something
that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’
because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he gave them the
lines, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done.” I think those two lines are
redundant. Doing God’s Will establishes
the kingdom whether it is on earth or in heaven.
Kingdom as truth.
18:37b “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."
It isn’t listed as part of the reading today, but Pilot
responds to Jesus words on truth in verse 38 with, “What is truth?” Thinking of Kings and kingdom’s as earthly
political systems made him cynical. All
truth to him was relative. Justice was
given out at the whim of the people in power.
To him there was no absolute truth. Jesus didn’t name himself as a king, but he
did name himself as truth.
John 14:6 -12
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you
do know him and have seen him.” Philip
said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip,
even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has
seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father,
and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own
authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father
and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works
themselves. Very truly I tell you,
whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do
even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Jesus embodies truth. Therefore,
everyone who belongs to the truth listens to His voice.
Christ the King Sunday started as a response to rising nationalism. People were becoming divided over country
boundaries. Without even knowing the
people of a different country, citizens deemed them less than themselves or even
as an enemy. The commandment to love one
another was lost. This Sunday is a
reminder that above any rule of government our first allegiance is to God. Governments divide us. God’s truth, demonstrated by Jesus, is that
we are all one.
Government isn’t limited to countries. Church government can sadly divide us as
well. The church which was founded on
love and God’s acceptance can also become a power that condemns and withholds
love. I’m not saying that people who
harm others shouldn’t be prevented from doing so. However, in most cases we withhold love
because of difference in belief not because of a person causing another harm.
Jesus was crucified under the charge of treason against the
Roman empire. We see his crucifixion as
a sacrifice to atone for our sins. His
death on the cross reconciled all of humanity with God. Atonement can be separated to be “at one
ment”. We are joined to be one with God,
and because we are one with God, we are one with each other. We each have that spark of God within
us.
Poor Pilot! How could
he have wrapped his head around a kingdom without a place? How could he wrap his head around truth being
a person?
The challenge this brings to us is whether we can wrap our
head around these ideas ourselves. God’s
Kingdom is not a place we are going. It
is a state of being obtained when we do God’s will.
In this place we worship together despite being from
different denominations. I sometimes
lead hymns at the Catholic service at my father-in-law’s senior living
center. They know I’m not Catholic but
offer communion to everyone there. I asked
the volunteer about that once and he responded that he wished it was true
everywhere.
Imagine a world filled with people that showed their love
without bounds. Imagine a world filled
with people focused on healing and helping each other. Sounds lovely doesn’t it?! That would be Jesus kingdom. That is the home he is calling us to. I don’t recall him withholding his love from
anyone. His life from the beginning of
his ministry to the very end was one of forgiveness and valuing others. I think in our scripture today he was attempting
to teach Pilot about this sort of kingdom.
He was tough on the Pharisee, but I still believe it was tough-love. He didn’t lump them into one group and hate
them all. He attended dinner at a
Pharisee’s home when he was invited. He
answered questions when Nicodemus came to him at night, and it was that same
Nicodemus that helped burry Jesus after his crucifixion.
If you want to lump a group of people all together then the
best distinction to lump them into is as a Child of God worthy of Love with a
capital L. We are all created with the
spark of our creator within us. We are
each called to listen to the truth Jesus taught and displayed through His life. We bring the kingdom of God to earth when we become
so loving that we become love itself.
1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for
us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
We enter Advent next week and begin to prepare our hearts to
welcome the child who is to be king of our hearts. King of kings and Lord of lords but not the
political, earthly, kind. Instead Jesus is the one that is true. Love is the only truth.
It is my prayer that we can all bring Jesus kingdom to earth
a little more often by loving each other.
Love with a capital L.
Amen
