|
What sort of a king has “fingernails dark with tearing fish into a thousand
morsels, feet trod filthy, oiled with tears, then caked again?”
This is “the king” that stood before Pilate.
Surely Pilate was annoyed with the Pharisees who had brought Jesus to
him. The Pharisees had already found Jesus worthy
of being put to death as a blasphemer. But under
Roman rule, they did not have the authority to put Jesus to death, so
they’ve brought him to Pilate.
Pilate has only one legitimate concern: whether
this man standing before him poses a threat to Rome. This humbly dressed
man, whose hands are tied behind his back and whose followers are no where
to be found. It is not too far a stretch to
imagine the disdain, perhaps mixed in with some incredulity, as we hear
Pilate ask Jesus:
“Are you the king of the
Jews?”
This scene of Jesus before Pilate may seem strangely out of place just
before Advent. On the calendar of the Christian year, today is designated
“Christ the King Sunday.” This is the last Sunday of the church year;
the New Year’s Eve, so to speak, of the church calendar,
the Sunday before the entire cycle begins again with the First Sunday
of Advent.
Over this year we have gone through the major events in the life of Jesus
and today is the day we should sound a soaring “amen” and proclaim Christ as
the sovereign of all history, and yes, even of our
own lives. But perhaps we are more like Pilate,
disdainful and incredulous, of a person who
touched lepers; the epitome of refuse in his time.
A person who sat on hillsides in the midst of dusty children
clamoring for his attention. A person who was born
into the midst of manure and a the sounds of cows mooing and sheep bleating;
A person who washed the feet of his grimy disciples…a person who
dared enter someone’s personal space by covering the person’s eyes with mud
he had made with his own spit.
This is the person who stood before Pilate, a
person Pilate thought to be utterly powerless. The
reality is that Pilate, who represents the world’s understanding of power,
in fact is the one who has little power. And the
power Pilate does have, to put Jesus to death, will be overturned just a
few short days later.
This person who stood before Pilate represented a
kingdom Pilate could not understand. Jesus’ model
of kingship is not Arthur and the Round Table or George in the White House
or Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. Rather, Jesus’ seeks out the lost and the
sick and the sinner. Jesus does not dine on silver and porcelain, but in the
homes of those considered “unworthy.”
As he tries to explain to Pilate, Jesus does not call up an army to fight
the power of Rome with swords, but gives up his life for the truth, serving
Love rather than the shifting political powers and principalities of this
world. Jesus is not on high, but down in the muck with us, walking beside us
and giving us strength to continue walking ourselves.
Jesus gets his hands dirty. And if we are so foolish as to follow
this king that the world looks at with incredulity and disdain, then we
must also get our hands dirty.
Incredibly, this king does have loyal subjects. Loyal subjects such as the
members of one church who nightly meet the dancers as they leave the strip
club where they are employed. These church members walk the dancers to their
cars to insure they are not harassed by the strip club’s clientele.
Loyal subjects such as Andy Grove, one of the richest people in the
world. He has plenty of accomplishments to the point of view of Pilate’s
world. Andy could sit back and relax. Instead, he is trying to solve the
problem of uninsured people, some of whom are jamming emergency rooms and
the rest of whom are getting no medical care.
Loyal subjects such as the accountant for a large professional firm. The
accountant went to a center for ethics and values in the workplace with
questions about the integrity of his work. Not whether he was doing it
correctly, legally, and well, but whether or not it fit his values and
beliefs. At that center he was encouraged to think of his job in terms of
stewardship of the firm’s finances and the difference he could make in
people’s lives by ensuring that the company was aware of its financial
position as it related to keeping the money flowing for payroll and
benefits.
Loyal subjects such as those, like us, who are gathered today for worship.
At other times and in other places we are what the world names us. We are
little league fathers and soccer moms, we are accountants and officers of
the military, we are Kmart shoppers and “Solid as a Rock” in our Chevy
truck. But when we come to worship, we acknowledge, acclaim, and celebrate a
sovereignty and power seldom spoken of during other hours of the week.
All of us who claim the name Christian should be as unrecognizable as
members of a king’s court as Jesus was unrecognizable as a king. Our king is
one who did not count privilege and power as things which set him apart;
neither should we. Our king got down in the
dirt with those who were dirty; so should we.
Our king spoke out for truth and love and did not retreat to the
safety of his position and protectors; we
should do likewise.
Last Sunday, Jim talked about the Presbyterian Priesthood. If you weren’t
here, I encourage you to go to our church website and read
Jim’s sermon. As Presbyterians, we believe that all Christians are
called by God, not just those of us who have particular training and skills
to be in professional ministry.
I recently read the following from a sermon by a fellow Presbyterian
minister, Patrick Willson of Williamsburg, Virginia. I believe it summarizes
what Jim was saying last Sunday about our Presbyterian Priesthood and what I
have tried to say this week.
As a kingdom of priests, we are a colony of the
Kingdom, living the curious customs of a faraway but foreseen homeland. We
take bread, bless, break, and share it because we have learned a source for
being fed that the world cannot imagine. With a handful of water we name
ourselves with the secret name of the children of God, and we hear our names
called as we read ancient words that speak with the unmistakable voice of
the Living Christ. We pray for those who care not a whit about all this, who
think prayer absurd, and who even despise us
because praying for them composes our priesthood and exhibits the gracious
customs of Christ’s kingdom. We speak words of blessing, and take that
blessing with us to keep our poise and balance in a world eloquent with
curses. Many churches nowadays sponsor worship services designed to be, as
much as possible, like our surrounding culture.
Too often, nothing could be further from John vision in the
Revelation. Bring on the throne shaking with thunder and lightning, usher in
marvelous creatures with seven eyes and seven crowns and six wings. Around
this throne nothing can be too fabulous. Here we look for another kingdom,
however improbable that will inevitably sound to Pilate and People magazine.
Here we celebrate sovereignty. We see, however dimly, and we enact, however
imperfectly, another kingdom where gentleness and blessing are as common as
violence and curse are in the kingdoms of this world. We take our cues from
another Lord, the One who was, and is, and is to come; to Christ be glory in
the church -
and finally, in the world that belongs to
Christ! Amen. |
