Everyone Who Belongs: A Life That Matters, Reign Of Christ, Year B Series

Reign of Christ Sunday is a marker for the end of the liturgical year. It is a way of saying we wrap up a year’s worth of worship by claiming again whose we are. This is the last Sunday of the Christian Calendar year and the most important.

On this Sunday we reiterate our mission – to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The emphasis this week is in the middle – “of Jesus Christ.” This Sunday we announce with Jesus that Jesus is King or all Kings.

That is the kind of Disciple that we are. We aren’t disciples of our own wisdom; we aren’t disciples following the winds of this world. We are disciples of Jesus Christ. King of all King. King of the Kingdom of God.

What the John text tells us is that Jesus is a leader like no other. The rules by which other kings and leaders lead don’t apply to Jesus. To follow Jesus is to learn to be like him. To follow Jesus, we learn to walk with him. To Follow Jesus is to learn to listen to Him.

John’s trial narrative raises these issues in compelling ways. Although Pilate and the Jewish leaders may appear to be powerful, John presents Jesus as the one who exercises true authority and power.

We see in this text a surprisingly profound conversation between a prisoner in chains and his jailer holding all the keys, and yet you can’t help but wonder where the power resides. That just says even in bondage and suffering we can be more like the King then the bondsman.

Perhaps the view that Jesus is King of Kings and has all power is a view that emanates from this worldly kingdom in which we live, a society in which success is associated with “winning” at all costs. A capitalist greedy kingdom where having the most money or the biggest army is what matters.

But as a side not even when considering “military might,” we can see that despite all the military power held by the U.S., this country has not been able to secure most of its political objectives, as has been demonstrated in the recent example of the withdrawal of armed forces from Afghanistan.

Jesus posed the questions: Are you asking me about my kingship sincerely or are you prejudiced because of what people have told you?

I understand this because when I was going through that stage a lot of Black youth go through when dealing with racism and white supremacy i too asked why do they hate me!

You see sometimes folks are really afraid of us not because they have seen us but because they have herd how powerful we are. They have only herd stories of what Black men and Powerful Black sisters are like, what a black messiah would do and yet they fear the unknown power.

Jesus ask? Did you make up your own mind? Or is this what fox news told you?

Pilate’s question is one that he was asking for others—a question that was full of biases.

A modern-day example would be one where police officers ask a group of young black and brown men on a street corner, “What are you doing?” That question is neither neutral nor innocent. The racist ideas about black and brown people come into play.

When Jesus questions Pilate’s motive for asking him if he was king, Pilate said, “I am not a Jew, am I?” This is akin to the police who question young men of color and then defend their questions, saying, “I am not a racist!”

Pilate wants to act as though he is innocent of his prejudiced notions about Jesus, while playing along with the lies and corruption of his constituents.

Like many in politics these past few weeks they want to act like they support fixing falling bridges, fixing poison water, giving folks a living wage and still vote the hate party agenda.

Jesus does not fall for that; he instead unmasks the demonic forces of his society that engage in such egregious abuse of power.

Jesus tells Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world!” Many have interpreted this to mean that Jesus’ kingdom is somewhere in heaven and not relevant to this world.

To me, Jesus is saying that the values of his kingdom are different from those of the current system.

Jesus tells him: “If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

The values of Jesus’ kingdom are so immensely different from those of this world that often we Christians fail to apprehend them.

The church, which purports to—and should—represent Jesus’ kingdom, is here to serve in humility rather than to seek earthly power.