John 18:33-37 | Proper 29, Christ the King Sunday | Christopher Miner
I have a habit of remembering obscure quotes from movies that often have far more famous quotes. One example of this comes from the 1995 movie Braveheart. If you have not seen it, it is a historically questionable telling of the life story of William Wallace, a Scottish commoner who fought for his nation's independence from England in the 13th and 14th centuries. The movie is known for its epic and grisly battle scenes, and for William Wallace yelling "They can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!" while riding a horse that freaked out every time he yelled. But the quote that I remember comes later than that. At this point, Wallace has been captured by the English. His fate is already sealed, but before his execution he is brought before a magistrate to be presented with charges and to allow him to offer a defense. This is all just for show, and everyone knows it. The charge against Wallace is treason against the English king. When asked to give his defense, Wallace says:
"Never, in all my life, did I swear allegiance to him."
To which the magistrate replies:
"It matters not. He is your king."
I do not know why this quote has stuck in my mind, but it came up as I listened to some things about this Sunday in the liturgical calendar. Today is Christ the King Sunday, and marks the end of the liturgical year. It is one of the newer dates on the liturgical calendar, having been added in the 1920s. In my tradition (Wesleyan evangelical) the idea of Christ as king has not come up much. Talking about kings at all is strange in our political context, and even stranger when we think of how ensconced the separation of church and state are in the US. If the idea kingship or lordship and Jesus does come up, it usually sounds something like this:
Jesus wants to be king of your life and heart. If you accept him as your lord and savior, and let him rule your life, he can make you better, faster, stronger. (OK, that last part was from the 6 Million Dollar Man.)
You can hear, in the background of that, the thought that Jesus as king depends on whether I want him to be or not, and really only has to do with my life. But I do not think Scripture backs up that thought.
The passage listed in John is the scene where Pilate questions Jesus. If you use your historical imagination you can understand why Pilate asked the questions he did. Here's a Roman magistrate, ruling over a backwater part of the empire, being tossed a local religious squabble and asked to deal with it. Pilate likely does not understand Judaism, and probably does not care about the details of their religious strife so long as it does not interfere with Rome's rule. True, the idea that this Jesus guy is calling himself a king is problematic, as there is already a Jewish king, but maybe it is some kind of misunderstanding. So he asks Jesus about it, and in John's semi-cryptic way, Jesus is shown as saying that, indeed, he is a king, but his kingdom is from a different place.
The idea that Jesus is king or Lord goes back to the beginning of his ministry and the church - it's even in the Apostle's Creed ("...and in Jesus Christ his only begotten son, our Lord..."). The phrase itself, Jesus is Lord, is a parody of a phrase said in the Roman Empire - Caesar is Lord. The church, and even Jesus himself, have said from the beginning that Jesus is King and Lord. This kingship is not dependent on anyone acknowledging or accepting it as truth to be valid - it is presented by Jesus as a simple fact. Whatever you or I may think, do, or say, Jesus is King. And this kingship is not a metaphorical or 'spiritual' thing, meaning we can set it aside or minimize it when inconvenient or challenging. Jesus as king means king, with all the political and power implications that word brings. It means he is claiming to be the real ruler of an actual kingdom with actual people and actual expectations, and that he is calling for our allegiance to this kingdom above our allegiances to other kingdoms, be they the US, the church, or anything else. But whether you align yourself with Jesus kingdom or not, his kingship is, according to scripture, reality.
It is admittedly hard to wrap my mind around the idea of Jesus as king, and especially as my king. I think one of the reasons why is because his kingdom simply does not make sense. It operates like no other kingdom I have ever seen or heard of. It has no national borders, no defense policy, no law enforcement, or many of the other things I expect to see from kingdoms. Like William Wallace, I expect the agents of the kingdom I live in to come after me if I break the laws or rebel. I expect to be forced to comply with the rules and regulations of the kingdom, whether I agree with them or not. Kingdoms look to their own safety and security before anything else, and seek to squash things that threaten that. That's what kingdoms, states, countries, empires, democracies, theocracies, and every other form of government do, across all of human history. Even the kingdom of Israel, set up and ruled by God's very own people, maintained order and peace by coercion and force!
A kingdom ruled and directed by Jesus breaks these categories apart. He as ruler demonstrates lordship and power, not with a sword and a warhorse, but with a towel and a donkey. His kingdom dispatches its subjects to their enemies, not to make war on them, but to love and serve them as friends and allies. When attacked, the armies of Jesus' kingdom draw no sword or shield. They simply stare their enemies in the eye and offer them another cheek to strike. When people take advantage of Jesus' kingdom and then come back asking for more, the authorities work doubly hard to determine how to help the one who extorted them. If people outside the kingdom are found destitute, sick, broken, and hopeless, Jesus kingdom people gather them up and bring them in, care for them, and befriend them - without asking how they got there in the first place. No one is coerced, forced, tried or executed for failing to fulfill the rules and expectations of Jesus' kingdom. Instead they are loved and accepted right as they are, and welcomed back with joy. Evil, pain, and hate are not met with more of the same - no one fights fire with fire in Jesus' kingdom. Evil, pain, and hate are instead met with mercy, love, acceptance, and hope. Jesus' subjects are not utopian dreamers - they are all well acquainted with the sorrow and suffering of life, even to the point of death, just like Jesus. They simply have submitted themselves to the reality of Jesus kingdom here and now, and the hope of his Kingdom to come, and now live first in obedience to its laws and expectations above all others.
If you claim to be a follower of Jesus, this is the kingdom you now belong to. (And this description is far from perfect or complete.) It is, it exists, and Jesus is its king. But because it operates like no other kingdom the world has ever seen, no one will force you to live under its rule. Christ the King Sunday presents us with two opposing options for kingship, and offers us a choice. Do we want to bet on the way that Jesus does kingdom? Or do we want to bet on the way that we do empire? (Credit here to Bishop Rob Wright and the For People podcast.) But no matter our choice, Jesus is king, and his kingdom is here.
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