Christ the King
“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.” John 18.37An interesting letter caught my eye in the Independent yesterday: “Sir: I have just received my first invitation to a carol concert in which ‘Songs of a religious nature may be sung’. Can’t say I wasn’t warned.”
And of course MacDonald’s coffee cups warn us, sometimes optimistically, ‘contains hot liquid’.
It reminds me of the wonderful warning I saw when I was a boy in our local butcher’s shop. Mr Harmsworth was a bit of a wag and had written up: “Will mothers kindly refrain from sitting their babies on the bacon slicer as we are getting a little behind with our orders!”
The Feast of Christ the King reminds us that Christianity carries a life-time warning: becoming a follower of Jesus Christ requires the surrender of your will, your intellect, your money and possessions – in fact of everything.
In the stark words of our Lord himself: ‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.’ (Luke 14.26)
Jesus uses typical Jewish hyperbole here to show us that his Kingship is foundational to all other relationships and indeed to life itself. (Obviously, he doesn’t actually mean we should hate those close to us!)
But it all sounds a bit extreme. It smacks of fanaticism and it’s not very Church of England.
However, we need to understand what this Kingship of Christ means, and our unconditional surrender to him.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus has just explained what it doesn’t mean to Pilate. It is not a political kingdom; it is not the establishing of a Christian theocracy. It is not a bid to make Bishop Richard the Mayor of London.
So now, in our text, he finally tells Pontius Pilate what the Kingship of Christ does mean. In John’s theology, why the eternal King was born into the world. And it is simply this: that as King of the Cosmos, he came to testify to the truth – to testify to the truth. And truth, in this context in John’s Gospel, means ultimate reality.
In a world subject to unreality, illusion and self-delusion, Jesus has come to offer the reality of a personal relationship with the only true God, moment by moment and day by day; a truth that gives meaning to our deepest longings and hopes. And this truth sets us free; free to be ourselves and to know the love of God.
So here is a paradox. The prisoner, Jesus, offers his captor, Pilate freedom. But Pilate is too world weary and cynical to ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’.
As Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the Reformation philosopher put it: “‘What is truth?’ said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.” (Essays - Of Truth)
People often say they are looking for the truth, or for spiritual answers, but only want to listen to Jesus selectively – to pick the bits of his teaching that suit them. They don’t want to wait and listen – like Pilate they are too busy with the affairs of their own life.
Here in the United Kingdom, technically at least, we are not citizens; we are subjects of Her Majesty the Queen. We are not citizens with rights; we are subjects with privileges.
All good earthly monarchy is modeled on Divine monarchy. We have no ‘rights’ before the God who made us. But we have privileges that when we begin to grasp them, take our breath away.
In our text today, Jesus says ‘Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Jesus and John are reminding us of another image of Christ: the Good shepherd whose sheep hear his voice. Christ’s Kingship is always a gentle rule. He is both totally demanding, and totally understanding and sympathetic to us.
The promises which Laura will make in her baptism today and which we will echo, are promises of complete obedience to our heavenly King.
The money that we give and promise today on this Stewardship Sunday are part of that obedience; they are recognition that the deep truth and reality which we pursue in Christ, make the pursuit of possessions or the love of money, the ultimate folly. For we can’t take it with us, despite the misprint I once spotted in ‘Guide me O thou Great Redeemer… land my safe on Canaan’s side’.
So although the demands of King Jesus are absolute and comprehensive, his promises and privileges to us his subjects are boundless in their grace, mercy and love. His service is perfect freedom.
And here is another paradox of the Kingship of Christ that we will presently rehearse at the altar. Although he is enthroned above in glory, as we have sung in our hymns, here on earth he reigns from a cross. He is a King who lays down his life for his subjects. There is no proud triumphalism in Jesus, only the assurance of loving companionship now and through death into the eternal courts of our King. Let us worship him with glad obedience and the fealty of hearts full of love.
“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.” John 18.37
