Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity of
Christ the King

John 18: 33-37
Preface
Nov. 21, 2021
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.                   

“Pilate said to Jesus, ‘Are you the King of Jews?’” (John 18: 33).

What is a king?  In our country we’re not familiar with kings.  Even the monarch whom we may be most familiar with, Queen Elizabeth II, doesn’t really measure up to the kings and queens who ruled in the ancient and medieval worlds.  She has royal authority but practically no political power; she reigns, but she doesn’t rule.

Kings of old, however, usually wielded absolute power, much as the king of Saudi Arabia still does.  That was the power of taxation and liberality, of justice and corruption, of war and peace, of life and death.  Modern tyrants and dictators have exercised such power:  Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Putin, Kim Jong-un, Venezuela’s Maduro, Nicaragua’s Ortega.

Someone seeking that kind of power is what Pontius Pilate has in mind as he questions Jesus.  Jesus was turned over to the Roman governor by the Jewish leaders, accused of instigating a revolt against Rome.  Jesus has no such aspirations, and the Jewish leaders know that.  But they’re jealous of the following he’s attracted, which threatens their own authority; and they’re afraid that Jesus’ followers will be seen by Pilate as potential rebels and might bring down the Roman legions to crush the limited rights that the Jews still possess.

(Gebhard Fugel)

So Pilate is quite interested in who Jesus is and what he aims at.  Quickly he sees that Jesus is no threat to Rome.  Altho Jesus admits he’s a king, he’s a completely different sort of king than Pilate can imagine:  a king not of this world (18:36), an other-worldly king, a king whose followers won’t defend him because their interests and concerns have nothing to do with Rome or even Jerusalem.

In fact, Jesus’ followers have much wider interests, universal concerns.  Jesus isn’t king of the Jews but king of the universe:  “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” (18:37). 

Immediately after this exchange, Pilate will ask—perhaps skeptically, perhaps scornfully—“What is truth?” (18:38).  Politicians like him aren’t interested in truth, only in power.  In Western societies they tend to focus on re-election.  Jesus’ voice doesn’t carry much weight in politics (or in entertainment, the media, or academia), just as the voice of Pope Pius XII didn’t carry weight with Stalin, who asked derisively, “How many divisions does the Pope have?”

And what is the truth to which Jesus testifies?  Today’s preface tells us something:  he makes “all created things subject to his rule” (or his kingship), so that he might present to God his Father “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”  The truth is that God is creator and lord of the universe, and Jesus directs us toward his Father.  We’re not the lords, no matter how smart or wealthy or powerful we are.

The truth is that God created us to live forever.  Any sin against human life is an assault on God:  sins like domestic abuse, street muggings, drug abuse, euthanasia, and abortion.  “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The truth is that God made us for holiness and grace, i.e., to share in his own divine life.  He offers us forgiveness of sins, redemption, deliverance from everlasting hell with Satan and his demons.

The truth is that God wants “an eternal and universal kingdom” with every human being part of it.  Not only Jews, not only Romans; every nation and ethnic group, every color, every social class, every man and woman.  This message of Jesus was perhaps the main issue that got him in such trouble with the rulers of the Jews; they complained, “This man eats with tax collectors and sinners” (Mark 2:16), and he preached a major parable in which a Samaritan was the hero (Luke 10:29-37).  God loves everyone, and under his Fatherhood we’re all brothers and sisters—united in Jesus the only-begotten Son who became “a spotless sacrifice to bring us peace” (Preface), to reconcile us sinners with his Father.

Such truths are too much for Pontius Pilate.  So he’ll condemn Jesus to crucifixion.  They’re too much for so many people today, who figuratively crucify their fellow human beings thru many forms of violence and oppression, who tell the lie that an unborn human being is just a worthless lump of tissue, who tell the lie that a boy who imagines he’s a girl should be treated like a girl (and vice versa), who tell the lie that women should be subservient to men, who tell the lie that one race is superior to others, who tell the lie that the more money you have, the happier you’ll be, who tell the lie that sex is just for your own pleasure.  You probably can add to that catalog of lies.

So Jesus is a king.  Is he your king?  If so, what does that mean for how you’ll live?