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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, we’re looking at the gospel reading for today, Jesus before Pilate, for our text. Please be seated. It’s true, I’m guilty of quoting movies and sermons and in teachings. Today is no exception. Sorry. But for Christ the King Sunday, I couldn’t help but think of a scene from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you haven’t seen it, that’s okay. Nobody’s perfect. But here’s what happens in part of it. King Arthur is traveling throughout England looking for knights to be at his round table, and he stops and talks to some commoners, and they ask who he is, and he says, “I’m Arthur, king of the Britons.” A woman replies, “King of the who?” And he says, “The Britons.” And she says back, “Who are the Britons?” And he says, “We all are, and I am your king.” And she says, “I didn’t know we had a king. I didn’t vote for you.” And Arthur says back, “You don’t vote for a king.” And how true that is. You don’t vote for a king. Kings aren’t voted into position. Right?
But the concept of a king isn’t really all that familiar these days in the world. There are a few places that still have a king, but America is not one of them. In fact, we’ve never had a king. And it was partly a revolt against a king that sparked our desire for independence. Really, in America, the only kings that we have are people that are given that title as sort of an honorary sort of thing, like for Elvis Presley or LeBron James. Oh, and the Burger King guy, I suppose. He’s kind of scary.
And that’s a concern about kings. They’re kind of scary because they have supreme power. Kings have the power to tax people, to force people into service, to make laws, enforce them, and even punish those who disobey them, including punishment to death. This power doesn’t come by vote; it’s either taken by force or you’re born into that power. I guess the modern-day version of a king really is a dictator—not something that people would vote for today.
Well, the people of Israel knew this all too well. They had had many kings, many of them very abusive of their power. At one time in the period of Israel’s history, the best way to describe Israel’s kings was that they were either bad or really bad. There was nothing good about them at all. The Israelites had plenty of kings that they would not have voted for. But here we are, stuck with this image of Jesus as a king. Okay, it’s Christ the King Sunday, and the gospel talked about Jesus talking about his kingdom. So how do we deal with that? How do we deal with this power that Christ the King has? Maybe that power can even scare us.
Well, the people of Israel in Jesus’ time had not had a king for nearly 600 years, and they wanted one. They were looking for a king to come and use his power to lead them in revolt over the Roman Empire that was occupying their land at that time. But that’s not why Jesus had come. Jesus didn’t come to be a king with that kind of power. He didn’t have the power of conquest or the power of being a dictator. Throughout his life, Jesus taught and showed the power of God, but not in the way that people necessarily were looking for or necessarily wanted. It’s not the kind of kingly power that they would have voted for, I don’t think, at that time. In fact, as we see later with Jesus, they kind of voted him down because eventually Jesus was accused of being a king, and that’s kind of what got him killed.
Well, in the Gospel reading today, Pontius Pilate seems convinced that Jesus is a king. You notice that he asked Jesus flat out, “Are you a king?” And I love how Jesus answers. He doesn’t answer with yes or no. It’s a yes or no question: Are you a king? Yes or no. He doesn’t answer with that. In fact, he did that a lot in his ministry because Jesus wants to teach something deeper. Jesus was really smart. He could have been a king, but…
Well, Jesus tells Pilate that his answer is, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Twice, in fact, he says this—basically saying that he’s God. And maybe that’s what can be scary about Jesus’ power as a king: he’s God. He’s not only king, but he’s God. He has the highest authority. He has the ultimate say in things. His kingdom is the entire universe. It’s not just this world, this earth. It’s everything. He is the king of kings. He has power over everything. And that can be scary because, in his supremacy as a God-king, Jesus has the power to judge us for our sinfulness and condemn us and punish us even to death.
That’s the truth that Jesus came into the world to bear witness to. I think this is what Jesus is talking about with that last line of the Gospel reading: “I came to bear witness to the truth.” The truth is that you and I are sinners. That’s the truth that he was going to die for in actually just a few hours after this discussion with Pilate: the truth of your sins. Because shortly after this little discussion with Pilate, Jesus was judged, and he was condemned to die. He was mocked, he was beaten, he was spit on, and then he carried a cross to an execution place and he was nailed to that cross and died. He was condemned, and that sentence was carried out, and he died for the truth that you are a sinner and the truth of the forgiveness of those sins.
And it’s the truth. We sin. There are times when we stray from following our King, when we don’t listen to His voice, when we serve ourselves and not Him, when we don’t love Him above all things, when we fail to love others as He loves us, when we fail to forgive as He has forgiven us, when we don’t give Him our time and resources that He deserves as our King. For all of this, Jesus, our King, should condemn us, should punish us. We should die for that. Jesus certainly has the power to do that, but he doesn’t. As a king, Jesus shows a completely different power. He shows us that his kingdom is not of this world because our world would condemn us, would punish us, would even kill us for the things that we do, but he doesn’t.
His kingdom isn’t of this world. He’s not a dictator. He’s not a conqueror. He doesn’t come to condemn. In his life, Jesus showed the power of humility, kindness, and healing. As we enter into the Advent season next week, we’re reminded that Jesus came into our world as a humble servant, not like a king. Jesus didn’t flaunt his power as the Son of God because his kingdom isn’t in this world of condemnation, but his is in a kingdom of forgiveness.
Jesus never sat on a throne, right? In fact, we can look at it—his throne really was the cross where he died to forgive us, not to condemn us. He could have shown his kingly power. He could have at any time. In fact, while he was being crucified, people there mocked him and said to him, “Hey, if you’re the king of the Jews, if you’re the Messiah like you say you are, come on down. Show us. Show us that kingly power.” He could have. But what he’s actually doing is showing his kingly power by staying on that cross. And dying.
Jesus has the power to condemn you, to punish you, and even kill you for your sins. And He doesn’t. Instead, He condemns your sins. He takes the punishment on Himself, and He kills death with His death. And now, now Jesus sits on a throne. After His death, we see His power in the resurrection from the dead, new life, eternal life. And now, as we say in the creed, that He was crucified, died, and was buried, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. There, He’s crowned with glory and majesty and dominion and authority. Jesus is still our King. Amen.
And he still has power, and he uses it to love and forgive us and not condemn us. It goes on. It’s not just what happened when he died in Rosary. It’s ours forever. That power he always gives to us in that way. You are completely forgiven of your sins. I like the reading from Jude. Maybe you caught that line in there in that epistle lesson. Because of the power of Jesus, now in heaven, at the right hand of God, it says, “He presents us as blameless before God, completely forgiven of our sins.”
Yeah, there are stuff that you are totally to blame for. I don’t have to remind you about that or specifically say to you, but there are things in your sins that you are totally to blame for. But in Jesus, you become blameless, presented before God in heaven that way. No. Yeah, well, yeah, I think that Jesus is a king that we would vote for. That sounds like the kind of king we want. But again, no, you don’t vote for a king. In fact, it’s like the other way around. Jesus votes for you. He accepts, forgives, and approves of you.
We see this, especially in the Old Testament. We can see this playing out in an interesting illustration. Here we go. Back in the Old Testament time, and even after that, if you wanted to go before a king, you had to get permission to do that, okay? It wasn’t an easy thing to do. You had to get permission to go into the presence of the king in his throne room, kind of like the Wizard of Oz, okay? That’s a difficult thing. Okay, that’s two movies I know I’ve quoted, so that’s definitely my quota for the day.
And even if you got permission to go in to see the king, it was a risk. Because if you got there and the king really didn’t like you or didn’t like what you had to say, what he would do would be, he would lower his face, lower his head, and hide his face from you, literally condemning you right on the spot. If you went in to see the king and he responded that way, bad news—you basically were dead. He condemned you and punished you for that. Kings had that kind of power back then. Scary.
But if you went into the king and his face was up and he looked at you and extended his scepter out to you, then you would touch it and come forward to be within speaking distance. That was his approval—not condemning, but approving that you could do this. And maybe you know where I’m going with this, but this is the idea behind what’s called the benediction.
At the end of the worship service, the pastor stands up there, way up there—I forget how high it is over there—and says these words: “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.” That’s reflective of this throne room, kingly approaching thing—that God looks on us with favor. He doesn’t hide His face. He doesn’t look down. He looks up on us in favor, approving us, forgiving us, not condemning.
In fact, the older version of it is: “May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you.” Countenance is another word for a person’s face. I kind of like the old one better, but it is what it is. That’s where we’re at. But that imagery of the king lifting up his face—not condemning, approving, forgiving, wanting to listen to you, wanting to be with you—that’s the power of our King Jesus.
That we’re asking him not to condemn us, not to punish us, not to kill us, and he doesn’t. He looks on us with favor and gives us peace. May King Jesus always look on you with favor and show His power in forgiveness, blessing you, keeping you, making His face shine on you, looking on you with favor and giving you peace.
Amen. Now may the peace of God, which goes beyond all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
