Sunday Musings
Kingdom face-off?
Today is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Christ the King.
This isn’t an ancient holy day. It was first proclaimed by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to reassert the primacy of Jesus’ lordship over the rise of nationalism and authoritarianism in European politics.
A good number of pastors have told me that they like preaching on this Sunday — and they usually point out this history to prove its relevance. It isn’t, however, quite that simple. Because asserting the primacy of Christ the King over the political order didn’t stop the historical horrors that were about to unfold across Europe.
Whatever the Pope’s intentions behind the new feast, it neither elevated a Catholic political order nor protected the church from fascist authoritarianism. Less than a decade after the establishment of Christ the King, that same Pope came to an agreement with the Nazis, the Reichskonkordat — essentially opening the political door to Hitler.
Questions about God’s kingdom and its relationship to human governments are among the most contentious and difficult questions in the history of Christianity. Reasserting Christ as King over the politics of this world seems an appealing solution to some in our own times.
This is the path now pursued by Christian nationalists, those who seek to “reconstruct” Jesus’ lordship and extend God’s dominion through political movements in the United States and across Europe.
But Christians who reject Christian nationalism — which is a heresy — can’t respond with the opposite solution — to further remove and isolate the compassionate and just Jesus from public life. We can’t ignore what is going on or give into the temptation of a merely “spiritual” kingdom. Boxing in the prophetic life of the church has never served the poor and the outcast well.
So, what do we do? What is a positive path forward?
Today’s lectionary reading holds some clues.
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John 18:33-37
Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “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.”
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
You who are, who were, who are to come, before whose judgement all fades away that is not love: save us from the violence that seeks to claim our hearts so we might hear a different voice and belong to you in truth.
— Steven Shakespeare
This story from the Gospel of John is of a dramatic scene — the encounter between Pilate and Jesus. One man is the Roman governor of Judea, and the other is Pilate’s prisoner and whose fate is in his hands. The two men stand-in for the political powers they represent. This is a face-off between the Kingdom of Caesar and the Kingdom of God.
When a defeated king was brought before Caesar, the ritual was straightforward: Submit and surrender his kingdom to Rome. This involved a good deal of groveling, including kneeling and pleading for mercy. If you were very lucky, Caesar would only take your crown and not your head.
As the episode opens, Jesus has already been bound and beaten. Pilate has the prisoner brought to him for questioning. But the session quickly turns into the more powerful man taunting the weaker one. There’s nothing sincere here. Pilate looks at the bleeding Jesus and sneers — as an insult to both Jesus and the Jews — Are you the King of the Jews? You can almost hear what he was thinking: What a pitiful excuse of a King. But what would one expect from the Jews?
Jesus tried to dodge the question, in the same fashion that he often dodged insincere questions during his entire ministry. But Pilate wasn’t satisfied and asked again. I’m not a Jew. Your authorities have handed you over to me. What have you done?
And Jesus answered: “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.”
My attention is drawn to one word that appears four times in his answer: from. In Greek, this little word is ἐκ.
My kingdom is not from…
If my kingdom were from…
my followers would be fighting to keep me from…
my kingdom is not from here.
From is an odd preposition. In English, we most often assume that it is about a location. Where are you from? is typically a query about one’s hometown or nationality. We think of “from” as in a place.
Maybe Pilate was asking about location. After all, he asked Jesus if he was a King. King of whom? Of what realm? Where are you from?
The taunt becomes obvious — King of the Jews? Really? A conquered people with no realm? Some kingship, mocks Pilate. Your own religious authorities turned you over to me, to Rome. They have submitted, so should you. Rome owns Judea and you are already under my authority.
But Jesus responds, I’m not from here. Even in English, from means more than place. It refers to the origin of something — whether place, time, or cause.
I’m not from here. Your kingship, Caesar’s kingship — you have no authority over me.
Where is Jesus from? Not from this world.
Was Jesus pointing to Pilate when he said that? To the soldiers and police? To the religious authorities with whom he has long quarreled? To the imperial governor’s palace, no doubt the most opulent building Jesus has ever seen?
I don’t belong to this world — your world of power, violence, religious corruption, and wealth. If I did, my followers would kill to protect both me and the privileges I convey to them. My realm is not from here, not from this. It is of something entirely different.
Pilate thought he caught Jesus. He interrupted: So you are a king?
Jesus replied, So you say. But I was born to testify to the truth.
Notice how Jesus changed the conversation. Pilate wanted Jesus to name his realm and his people. He wanted Jesus to be a rival king, one that must now bend the knee to Rome.
But Jesus didn’t want to talk about place, about any location. Instead, he switched the meaning of from not to indicate his place of origin but to identify the source or causation of his origin.
This is easy to understand. We often talk of something being made from another thing. Just this week, I was talking with a friend about cooking. She said how interesting cooking is — that from one set of ingredients comes a different dish. From flour, water, and yeast, comes bread. From chicken, water, and salt, comes soup.
When Jesus said that his kingdom wasn’t from this world, he wasn’t saying that he was uninterested in the world or spiritualizing it. He wasn’t denying his humanity or his own people, the Jews. He was defying the kingdoms of the world that were from authoritarianism, greed, violence, or the superiority of one nation over others.
He challenged Pilate — and Rome — by saying that his origin was truth. Jesus claimed to be from entirely different stuff than the Roman Empire.
Today’s reading (sadly) omits the next line: Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’ Jesus’ answer should be clear to readers of John’s book. Jesus plainly summarized the central truth of his teaching a few pages earlier: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciple, if you have love for one another.
The truth is love. Love one another.
That’s where Jesus comes from — Love.
That’s the realm of Jesus. And that’s the realm of his followers. This realm, this “kingdom,” doesn’t come from authoritarianism, greed, violence, and ethnic superiority. It comes from God, the One who befriends the world, who sustains us with bread and wine, and who turns death to new life.
How do we resist the Pilates of our own day?
Speak the truth in love. Stand up for love in truth. Love and truth are exactly what is needed in this world to challenge the evil of the days. They are not about withdrawal, not about surrender, not about complicity. Love and truth don’t look away. Love cannot bend the kneel to Caesar.
Love and truth are where we come from.
And we must testify to that. No matter the cost.
ADVENT AT THE COTTAGE 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️
December 1 -24
The Advent theme this year is: Advent, A Season of Justice and Joy?
There will be two tracks of Advent offerings at The Cottage, one for the entire community and the other only for paid subscribers.
Track 1 (All Cottage readers): Four special Sunday Musings for each Sunday in Advent with occasional additional reflections mid-week.
Track 2 (Paid subscribers at The Cottage): In addition to the Track 1 posts, there are TWO additional special offerings for paid subscribers, both included in your subscription.
Advent Online Retreat — Voices of Justice and Joy
On three consecutive days — December 4, 5, and 6 — special guests will visit The Cottage online and share their insights on the theme of justice and joy.
➡️ The guests will be: John Philip Newell on the wisdom of Celtic spirituality; Jemar Tisby, on the wisdom of the African-American tradition; Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary who will treat us to an online mini-concert offering wisdom from American folk music and his experience from a lifetime of working for justice and joy in song.
📣 The live gatherings will be during the day. They will be recorded. If you can’t attend live — or want to watch them again — they will be made available for later viewing. You won’t miss anything. Think of this as a kind of DIY Advent retreat. 📣
Advent Calendar — Windows of Justice and Joy
On each Advent weekday (M-F, not Saturday and Sunday), you’ll get a short post with a minute (or two or three) video reflection from an author, preacher, musician, or teacher on the theme of justice and joy.
The participants will be a daily surprise — just like the little surprise pictures or candies in a real Advent calendar. You won’t know until you get the post who is going to encourage you along the Advent way.
INSPRIATION
Our King is calling from the hungry furrows
Whilst we are cruising through the aisles of plenty,
Our hoardings screen us from the man of sorrows,
Our soundtracks drown his murmur: ‘I am thirsty’.
He stands in line to sign in as a stranger
And seek a welcome from the world he made,
We see him only as a threat, a danger,
He asks for clothes, we strip-search him instead.
And if he should fall sick then we take care
That he does not infect our private health,
We lock him in the prisons of our fear
Lest he unlock the prison of our wealth.
But still on Sunday we shall stand and sing
The praises of our hidden Lord and King.
— Malcolm Guite, “Christ the King”
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
My husband and I have been trying to figure out another way to convey the concept of Kingdom to those of us who don’t fully understand that concept. We finally arrived at the synonym that we have chosen to use – “the Way of Love.” Any other “way “ needs to be contrasted to “the Way of Love “ to be a valid way of living.
Thank you Diana. As always your words are an inspiration. I feel as if today in Christianity the emphasis is on a story of the risen Christ who is returning to exact retribution and vengeance on people. A Christ who tells everyone what to believe and how to behave and who belongs to the chosen ones. Christians need to return to the Jesus who lived among the least of these. Who do we resemble the Romans or the early Jesus people?