John 18:33-38
In the aftermath of World War One, Europe was in shambles. Millions were dead. A generation was lost. Many vowed to never again fight a war so brutal, so tragic, so deadly. People asked themselves why such a terrible war had happened. They remembered that religious leaders on both sides of the conflict had declared that God was on their side. People had believed their country was better than other countries in God’s eyes, and that their leaders were divinely chosen in some way. The war had brought disillusionment with both church and state, and in the 1920s there was already a noticeably rising tide of nationalism in Europe.
It was that context that led Pope Pius the 11th to declare Christ the King Sunday in 1925 as the final Sunday of the church year. Many Protestant churches soon followed. Church leaders hoped the festival would remind Christians who our true king is and challenge out-of-control nationalism and fascism. The holiday didn’t prevent World War Two from happening but from its inception, Christ the King Sunday has served to make a political statement about where our true loyalty lies: not with nation or family or political party but with Jesus Christ the king of kings.
Last week we heard Jesus’ words about the world’s future. About the birth pangs and the emerging new creation. Today’s Gospel reading depicts the scene of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate was the most powerful man in the region. More powerful than the chief priests, more powerful than King Herod, and certainly more powerful than Jesus. And Pilate has a very different understanding than Jesus of what power is and what a king is. To Pilate, a king is a ruler of worldly empires. A man who has political and military authority. One who controls armies and directs the course of important events. One who has power over others to make his own will happen.
To Jesus power is the strength to do whatever is necessary to serve those under his rule, to save those in need of redemption, to be present in the midst of the chaos and suffering of this world. Jesus demonstrates that true power involves surrendering your will to God, not enforcing your own will on the world. Jesus does not exert power over others, instead Jesus has the power to whatever love requires.
These different understandings of power lead to different conceptions of truth. Jesus is truth personified. Earlier in John’s Gospel Jesus told his disciples “I am the way and the truth and the life”. Jesus is at one with God, at one with reality, at one with capital “T” Truth. Like Ceasar and most rulers throughout history, Pilate has a way of seeing reality through the lens of have power, which often means manipulating truth for the sake of controlling others. And so he is blind to what real truth is. We don’t know if his question “What is truth?” demonstrates he is genuinely interested in learning what truth is, or if it’s a dismissive way of suggesting there’s no such thing as truth.
In the 20th century, some philosophers began to wonder whether any real truth exists at all. This postmodern view suggests that there can subjective and relative truth, but not objective or absolute truth. This has had major implications on society. In some ways this view of truth helped widen humanity’s tolerance of different people and different beliefs. In some ways this view challenged rigid thinking and helped us break out of fundamentalist interpretations of life. But in other ways this view that all truth is relative has led to nihilism, purposelessness, and lack of meaning in life. In other ways it has made it even easier for those with power to manipulate truth, put their own spin on anything, and dismiss unfavorable evidence as opinion or bias.
The danger of this way of thinking about truth has been on full display in recent years in American culture and politics. Partisan news networks, online echo chambers, and social media algorithms have made discerning what truth is all the more challenging. Two sides of any argument can find just about anything to support their position, and both sides can simply dismiss the other as believing misinformation or falling for fake news. One example, which I hope is not a controversial thing to bring up, is the fact that the number of flat-earthers, people who believe the earth is flat, has been growing enormously in recent years, mostly due to conspiracy theory videos found online.
Now the internet is a wonderful thing and technology has helped human knowledge grow immensely. I do believe that overall modern technology has expanded our knowledge of truth. But we need to be careful. We need to understand that there is such a thing as objective truth, and that any truth claim needs to be assessed in light of the one who is the Truth, the Way, and the Life.
Jesus told us that if we know him we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. Knowing the one who is Truth will help us discern whether what we’re hearing is actually true. One simple way to put every truth claim under the microscope of Christ is to remember that He taught us “you will know them by their fruits”. Just like you will know a healthy tree by whether it produces healthy fruit—so will we be able to tell whether someone making truth-claims is speaking God’s truth by the fruit they bear. By whether their truth-claim embodies the way of Christ’s goodness and love. By whether their truth-claims unite or divide. By whether their truth-claims further Christ’s mission of caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, protecting the vulnerable, lifting up the lowly, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. If any claim to truth doesn’t pass that acid test, we know it’s not the gospel truth of Christ.
When we make Christ and the truth of the gospel the guiding post of our lives, we’ll get better at recognizing truth when we see it and recognizing who and what we can trust.
Christ our King came to give us clear vision about what real truth is, what real power is, what real love is. The truth about Christ is that he is the Son of God, the King of the universe, the Savior of the world. He is the King who died to save his people. The King crucified out of love for us. The King who reverses human ideas about power. The King who leads through service and sacrifice rather than control and exploitation. The King who teaches us to understand what truth means, to recognize it when we see it, and to live it, to embody it in our lives. On this Christ the King Sunday let us remember who our King is and dedicate our lives to embracing the truth of the gospel and sharing Christ’s truth with the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Brian | November 24, 2024 | Christ the King Sunday
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