2009-11-22 John 18:33-37
James McTyre
Lake Hills Presbyterian Church (USA)
Today is Christ the King Sunday. Quick -- other than Christ, name another famous king (modern).
- King Hussein of Jordan
- The Lion King
- Michael Jackson, the King of Pop
- Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll
- The guy on 'The King of Queens,' Kevin (what's his name)
It's hard to name kings these days, much less any popular kings. We think of kings we think of outdated governments. Kings rule imaginary places, like Narnia. Or oppressive places, like Uganda. Kings are old-fashioned, primitive. When they're powerful, they're one step above military dictators. When they're weak, they've got that Prince Charles thing going.
We, on the other hand -- we pledge allegiance to the flag, not to any one person. We elect our own leaders. We're a democracy, not a monarchy. Democracy, good. Monarchy, bad.
So when we try to talk about Christ as King, we have a kind of built-in barrier. We have deep biases against kings and kingships. But on the other hand, we affirm Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, pretty often. One of our best songs says it - over, and over. ("And He shall reign forever and ever.") Monarchy bad. Eternal monarchy very good. This is one of those things that if you think too hard about, thou shalt get a headache. I think Christ the King is one of those things we don't think about because we don't like headaches.
Jesus must have been a real headache for Pontius Pilate. Jesus - and his supposed kingship - must have been a real pain in the neck. Not that Pilate deserves a lot of sympathy. But I think the dialog between Jesus and Pilate isn't that far from the contradictions we wrestle with when our hearts call Jesus king, but our minds are skeptical of kings. For Pilate, it was reversed: Pilate believed in kings (or caesars), but he was sceptical of Jesus.
I also think that too much of the time we have more in common with Pilate than we do with Jesus, and that causes headaches for the people who want to be our co-Pilates. Pilate and Jesus, ruler and subject. Pilate was the ruler, and Jesus was his subject. Or was it the other way around? Jesus was the ruler and Pilate was the subject. Which is it? Which is the truth?
This is a puzzling little passage from the Bible. I feel pretty certain that's the way God intended it.
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It's good to be king. King of the castle. King of the hill. "King of the road."
Steven King, B. B. King, Larry King.
King Kong, Smoothie King, King Ranch Casserole.
All good, but none serious monarchs. In our world, Democracy is king. In a democracy, who has the real power? (Insurance lobbyists. Someone in Shanghai.) OK, who's supposed to have the real power? We are. We, the people. We're the ones who are supposed to be king. We get to choose our own leaders. We get to manage our own lives. We get to decide our own future. Right? Well, that's the way it was presented in the textbooks. Books don't lie. Right?
We're all kind of wrestling with these contradictions. We the people are supposed to be the ones in charge, but more and more it seems like no one is. (And that's not intended as a criticism of the President, because I'll bet he feels that way more than any of us. "Who do I have to talk to to get something done?") When everyone's king, no one's king, because there's no one to rule. Pilate asks, "What is truth?" When you don't know what's up, when you don't know what or who's in charge, when you don't know what or whom to believe, truth is meaningless. The only power is what you can cling to.
Do you ever have days when you feel utterly powerless? You raise your kids well, and they still make dumb decisions. You balance your checkbook, and your husband forgets to tell you about the new golf clubs that make the account go boing. You exercise, you eat low-fat foods that taste like cardboard, you floss. You go to church, you tithe 10% of your income, you always drop coins in the Salvation Army bucket. And then, in the shower, you find a lump. A drunk driver comes the wrong direction. In a split second, your life changes. You're not king anymore. Not even close.
It's good to be king. It's fun to convince yourself you're king. But in our quiet moments, in our moments of truth, we know whatever kingship we have is hanging by a thread, if that much. Add to that a growing suspicion that no one's in charge, or that all the ones who are in charge are looking out for their own interests, and you can get a real headache.
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We say the Apostles' Creed every Sunday. In the Creed, which we say every Sunday, five people or
persons are identified by name. First, there's God, the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. We're all familiar with him. Then
there's Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. That's two. ...who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost. That's three. And born of the Virgin Mary.
She's number four.
Lastly, one final person, number five: Pontius Pilate. Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried."
So,
right up there with the names of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, just slightly after the Virgin Mary, is Pontius Pilate. Pilate
from Pontus. We say his name every week, as if he was a vitally
important man. A big shot. A king.
That's a sad irony. Pilate IS important in the story of our
faith. He's the one who allowed Christ to be crucified, dead, and
buried. But in the scale of human history, Pilate was a
middle-governing-body bureaucrat. He was a paper-shuffler. He was at
best the Michael Scott of the Roman Empire. (Michael Scott is the
incompetent middle-manager on TV's 'The Office.') At worst, Pilate was a
cruel dictator, a bully who tried to compensate for his own weakness by
stomping on powerless subjects. But even at his worst, Pilate doesn't
begin to compare to Idi Amin or Hitler or even Sadaam Hussein. He didn't have the power to be nearly as bad as he thought he was. Pilate
wasn't sent to Judea to think. His job was to be the face of the Roman
government, and to keep the Jews from causing Caesar headaches.
And yet, there Pilate is, one of only five names in the most common creed of the church.
Did Pilate actually crucify Jesus? No. Pilate washed his hands of responsibility. Washed his hands and sealed his fate. Pilates' great sin was preserving his delusion of power. Pilate was looking out for his own interests. And so, Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried.
A delusion of power made Jesus suffer. A delusion of power crucified Jesus. Whenever we forget the thread of separation between our own power and our powerlessness, Jesus suffers. Whenever we thrive on the illusion of our own kingship, Jesus is crucified. Whenever we hurt others because we have the power, Jesus dies.
In this way, we have too much in common with Pontus Pilate. It's not really that good to be king, after all.
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If Pilate wanted to be famous, wanted to be remembered forever more, he certainly got his wish. Here's a basic rule: Unless you're the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, or the Virgin Mary, you don't want your name in a creed. Kind of like how it's a good day if you wake up and your name isn't in the newspaper. If you're on the front page or in the obituaries, it's probably not going to be a good day.
But here's the greatest irony of all. If Pilate had embraced his powerlessness, if Pilate had just proclaimed that Christ WAS king, Pilate might have been forgotten. If not forgotten, at least not mentioned ever single Sunday in a very unflattering light.
If protecting our illusions of power causes Jesus to suffer, what, then, does accepting our powerlessness do? If our quest for power decreases, does Jesus increase?
In another passage, the Bible says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." What if Pilate had embraced his own powerlessness and - at the same time - clung to the power of Christ?
We'll never know the answer to that question. Pilate made his choice.
You, however, you have a second chance. You, who wrestle with your own feelings of powerlessness, you have a choice. You can get depressed over your lack of power. You can get angry, and resentful, and Scrooge-like. Or, you can embrace your powerlessness. Embrace your weakness in the face of this world. Give up trying to be king. Give up trying to be Queen. Let go of your frustration with what is versus how you'd wish it to be and hold on to the one, eternal power that faces you, faces us all, this day. Embrace the truth of Jesus Christ not because he's going to make you powerful and remembered, but because he can make your weakness be forgotten. Embrace the power of Jesus because in him, and in him alone, you can do all things, you can do enough, through Christ who strengthens you.
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Jesus gave Pilate headaches because he would never come out and say he was king. What Pilate couldn't get was that it was his own job to say whether or not Jesus was king. Pilate couldn't say. And so his fate was sealed.
What about you? Maybe it's really easy for you to say, "Jesus Christ is king." Maybe it's so easy you don't even have to think about it. But when you pay your bills and see where your money goes, who's your king? When you spend time raging against changes you can't control, who's your king? When you go to bed and lie awake worrying, who's your king?
Jesus doesn't promise everything's going to turn out alright in this world. In fact, he's really not all that encouraging about how this earthly life's going to go. Maybe because he knows how many powers we have to kiss up to. Maybe because he knows how hard it is to let go of our illusions. Maybe because he knows that we'll all suffer under the powers of Pilates.
And so Jesus never promises we'll be kings or queens of our own kingdoms. Instead, he gives us a choice. Do we hold onto our illusions of power? Or do we embrace his? Do we generate our own strength, or will we be strengthened through him? Do we hate what makes us weak, or in our weakness, do we find redemption?
So when we're faced with questions like this, it's a good thing to ask ourselves, W.W.P.D? What would Pilate do? Deny your inner Pilate and you'll lay claim to strength beyond your kingly dreams.
It's good to be king. But think about it. If you're king, what's Jesus? You know what Pilate said. Today's your chance to say something else.
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