One of the things that I have always wondered about is how the Church calendar seems to have so much "good stuff" at the front end and then goes into this long season where not much seems to happen. We begin with Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany; then Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. All these happen in the first half of the Church year. In Advent, we anticipate Jesus' birth and his second coming. He is born and is revealed to the world at Christmas and Epiphany. Then, he travels to Jerusalem during Lent, where he suffers, dies and is buried. On Easter, we celebrate his glorious resurrection. Then at Pentecost, he sends the Holy Spirit. All of that's very cool stuff. Right?
And then we have all these Sundays after Pentecost. They seem to go on forever. We even call this season "Ordinary Time." How boring is that? Green altar. Green vestments. Dull, boring, ordinary, green. And today is the last Sunday after Pentecost. Next week, it all starts over again.
So it seems a little odd that today is Christ the King Sunday, a day that looks forward to the end of time, a day that celebrates the lordship of Jesus Christ. For most of us, Christ the King is a pretty strange day for two reasons. The first is that we're not so sure we believe in all this end-times stuff. You know, all those weird prophesies about the rapture and being "Left Behind?" About how Jesus will come descending on clouds to rule over the entire universe? After all, we're Episcopalians – we're reasonable, well educated people. The second reason Christ the King seems so strange to us is that we don't really know what to make of kings. Our country is a democracy, we elect our leaders; one person, one vote! Not only that, but we live in the richest and most powerful nation on earth. We have the most powerful army, and the most advanced technology, in history. There isn't anything we can't do, is there? So we're not just going to bow down and worship somebody just because he claims to be a king, are we?
This is exactly what Pilot was thinking. In today's Gospel, we are in the palace of the Roman governor, in Jerusalem. He represents the authority of the most powerful nation on earth, with the mightiest army at his disposal. He governs in a quirky little part of the empire that nobody in Rome could possibly care less about – an area that's filled with people who have never done very much, and who have this weird religion with only one god. And in this story, they bring in man named "Jesus", and they want him to be executed just because he claims to be some sort of king.
A king? Pilot knows quite a few kings. He's been around the block, so to speak, and he knows that earthly power, the kind of power that kings have, depends on having an army. It is based on fighting and struggle. He knows that the kings of this world have weapons and armies that can conquer other armies. They can capture territory, and can take whatever they want, and force other people to submit to their rule.
But Jesus is only one man. He doesn't have an army. He doesn't have any weapons. He doesn't have much of a political system to speak of, unless you consider "love your neighbor" a political theory. So Pilate wonders, "what kind of king is this?"
You know, even though we have never been very fond of the idea of royal rulers, we still understand that as Americans, our authority in the world comes from our power. We still recognize that it is through our military and economic strength that we derive our influence in the world. And while we don't have what we'd call an "empire", we still consider ourselves the leading nation in the world. While our recent economic trouble may have caused us to backslide a little, we still consider this the heart and soul of freedom and the land of opportunity. We are a strong and powerful nation in every sense.
But today on Christ the King Sunday, we celebrate a different kind of power. We recognize Jesus' lordship over a different kind of kingdom. Instead of the power of armies and economies, today we celebrate something that Ward Ewing, the Dean of General Seminary calls the "power of the lamb." Lamb power is soft power, a power that comes not through military might, or through social, economic, or political strength, but through self-sacrifice – through acts of love, compassion, justice and mercy. Today we remember that instead of ruling over a kingdom of the strong, the rich, and the well-connected, Jesus ruled over a kingdom of the weakest, the poorest, and the disenfranchised. And so as he stood before Pilate, Jesus claimed to be a completely different kind of king.
At the same time, Jesus is not naive. He's not some deranged wacko who believes he has some kind of imaginary power to conquer the Roman legions. He knows that all earthly power comes through fighting and constant struggle. And so when he is questioned by Pilate about the nature of his kingdom, he says:
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.
Jesus recognizes that he doesn't need an army, and that his followers aren't fighting in the streets on his behalf. He will never conquer any lands. He will never seize any treasure. He never claims to be a ruler in any worldly sense. Instead, he lays claim to a different kind of kingdom – a kingdom that spans all time, from beginning to end. He claims to be what the scriptures called the Alpha and Omega, the one who is and was and is to come.
Jesus the king stood up before Pilate, just as he stands today before every ruler of the world. He stands up for the poor, the starving, the weak, the homeless, the imprisoned and the despised and unwanted. He stands up for the sick, the suffering, the dying, the broken, and the ones who have lost their jobs. He stands up for those who are persecuted for what they believe, and for what they believe themselves to be. Jesus stands up for suffering, and through his own suffering on the cross, shows us the true power of weakness. The power of the Lamb – a Lamb powered world. And we are his foot soldiers, who have benefited from his mercy and who now are called to be merciful, forgiving, caring people set aside by Baptism. We are called not to a personal religion, but to be agents of God’s kingdom. That is why today we celebrate Christ the King, and why we say, "Jesus is Lord. Alleluia!"
Thanks be to God.
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