Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville, South Carolina on November 25, 2012 for Christ the King Sunday.
I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Not of This World
Scripture:
Then 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."
John 18:33-37 (NRSV)
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
From "Hosanna" by Brooke Fraser
Many congregations order their worship around the liturgical calendar. By observing the various seasons and holy days of the Christian calendar, congregations around the world essentially reenact the entire Biblical history of the Church over the course of a year.
During the season of Advent, we look around us and see that the world is not as it should be, and we remember that we, like the ancient Israelites, are waiting for our Messiah to come into the world to set things right. At Christmas, we join with the shepherds and heavenly choirs in welcoming Jesus Christ, our newborn King, into the world. On Epiphany Sunday, we watch as astrologers arrive to pay homage to a young Jesus, presenting Him with extravagant offerings of myrrh, incense, and gold.
After Epiphany, we remember the Baptism of the Lord, and travel with Jesus to the Jordan River. We see the heavens open; we hear a loud voice call out, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased"; and we see the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus in the form of dove. On Transfiguration Sunday, we hike up a mountain with Peter, James, and John, and we fall to the ground as we see a glowing, radiant Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah.
During the season of Lent, we follow Christ into the wilderness where, over the course of forty days, we confront our own weaknesses, temptations, and demons, knowing what lies ahead of us.
On Palm Sunday, we follow Christ as He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, greeted with the accolades of the people. We see palm branches waving in the air and hear shouts of "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!"
On Maundy Thursday, we sit around the table with Jesus and watch Him break bread and give it to us, saying, "This is My body." Then we see Him pass around a cup of wine to us, saying, "This is My blood." Throughout the meal, we feel the weight of a bag of silver in our pockets. Afterward, we watch as Christ is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. On Good Friday, watch the man who was supposed to be our Messiah languish on a cross, crying out, "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?" We see the sky turn black and feel the earth shake beneath our feet as we watch Him breathe His last breath.
On Easter Sunday we run with Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene to Jesus' tomb and find it opened and empty, and just when we least expect it, our eyes are opened and we see that Christ our Lord has risen and that not even death could stop Him. On Ascension Sunday, we watch our Lord disappear into the clouds as He tells us that we will be His messengers to the whole world. On Pentecost, we hear a mighty rushing wind and we see the Disciples baptized by tongues of fire, and we remember that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we carry the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world.
Throughout the rest of the year, we remember that, as a friend of mine would say, we are somewhere between the Book of Acts and the Book of Revelation. We stand with Peter, James, John, and Paul, trying to figure out what it means to be the Church, the Body of Christ.
On All Saints Sunday, we remember all the saints who have come and gone before us, the "great cloud of witnesses," the great multitude who have come out of the great tribulation that is this life and have washed their robes clean.
Today, on Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar, we come full circle. Again we look around us and see that the world is not as it should be, and we remember that we are waiting for our Messiah to come back into the world to set things right. We await the day when heaven and earth are made new and when the new holy city comes down from heaven like a bride walking down the aisle toward her groom. We await the day when God's home is among humans and when God brings healing to all nations and wipes the tears from our eyes.
Today we return briefly to a scene from Good Friday. The night before, Jesus had been betrayed by one of His own disciples, arrested in a garden by soldiers and temple guards, and taken before the high priest for questioning. Now it is early in the morning, and Jesus has been taken to be tried by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.1 Pilate asks Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" Jesus responds, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about Me?" Pilate fires back, "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 then says to Pilate, "My kingdom is not from this world."
It is this statement I want to examine this morning. What did Jesus mean when He said that His kingdom is not of this world?
Jesus goes on to say, "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." At first, it might sound as if Jesus is saying that, because His kingdom is not from this world, He has nobody to fight for Him. On Good Friday, we typically criticize the Disciples for running away like cowards when Jesus is arrested, tried, and executed, but, if we read the stories of Jesus' arrest carefully, we will see that the Disciples' first impulse was to draw their swords and to strike.2 Peter even attacked one of Jesus' captors, cutting off his ear. The Disciples were ready, willing, and able to fight, but Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath."3
Earlier in the Gospel story, Jesus feeds five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and, somehow, the people manage to scrape together twelve baskets of leftovers. When the people see this feat, they realize that Jesus is indeed the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Jesus has to get away from the people at this time because He knows that they intend to "take Him by force to make Him king."4 Not only did Jesus have disciples willing to fight to protect Him, He also had followers willing to take on the whole Roman Empire to make Him king!
When Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, I believe that He meant that His kingdom is fundamentally different from the kingdoms of this world. Jesus once said, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars."5 If we want to see Jesus' prophecy realized, all we have to do is to open the newspaper or to turn on the news, because the kingdoms of this world operate on violence. Historically, the kingdoms of this world have worked out their disputes by going to war. Maybe Jesus refused to let people fight for Him because His kingdom does things differently from the kingdoms of this world.
In Jesus' day, there was within the hearts of the Jewish people a hope for a messianic age of peace. The Greek phrase often used in the New Testament to refer to life in this coming age is zoe aionios, which literally means "life of the age." This phrase is typically translated into English as "eternal life." To the Jewish people, the "present age" was marked with suffering, oppression, and violence, but the "age to come" would be an age of peace, justice, and healing.6 When Jesus performed miracles - feeding five thousand people with a sack lunch, for example - people began to realize that He was the Messiah who would usher in the coming age of peace.
When we celebrate Holy Communion, we "declare the mystery of faith" that "Christ has died," that "Christ is risen," and that "Christ will come again." Today, on Christ the King Sunday, we focus on the last part of this mystery. Like the ancient Israelites, we realize that our present age is plagued with violence, poverty, oppression, and suffering, and, like the ancient Israelites, we look forward to the day that our Messiah comes "in final victory" to usher in the coming age of peace foretold by the prophets.7
The prophet Isaiah makes the following prophecy about the messianic age of peace:
In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that He may teach us His ways
and that we may walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.8
The reign of Christ will be the end of the injustice that is so prevalent in the present age. If you pay attention to the news, you will see story after story of people being victimized and exploited. Isaiah says that, in the age to come, the Lord will be judge and arbitrator. Gone will be all injustice and all perversions of justice. The reign of Christ will also be the end of all violence. Isaiah prophesies that people will no longer go to war with each other, nor will they even learn how to fight. Swords and spears will be turned into plowshares and pruning-hooks. To put this in modern language, bombs, tanks, and guns will be dismantled, melted down, and recycled to make tractors.
Isaiah also offers this description of the world when the Messiah reigns:
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all My holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.9
The reign of Christ will be the end of oppression. Isaiah envisions creatures normally in predator-prey relationships eating and resting together. The strong will no longer take advantage of the week, nor will the wealthy take advantage of the poor. Former politicians and business tycoons will befriend people who were formerly homeless. Former CEOs will sit down to dinner with the former assembly line workers who once made them rich.
St. John once had a vision of the age to come when heaven and earth are made new and when New Jerusalem is established on the Earth.10 In the midst of this vision he heard a loud voice saying,
See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be His peoples,
and God Himself will be with them;
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.11
The reign of Christ will be the end of death, sadness, and pain.When we look at the world around us, the reign of Christ seems far, far away, but, then again, maybe it is closer than we think. Jesus once said, "The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the Kingdom of God is among you."12 The Kingdom of God is sometimes described as both "'Already' and 'Not Yet.'" Though it can be understood as a time in the future when God reigns on the earth, having done away with injustice, oppression, violence, and death, it can also be understood as simply the place where God reigns. John Wesley once defined the Kingdom of God as the "happiness and holiness" that is "the immediate fruit of God's reigning in the soul."13 If God reigns in our hearts, then we are the citizens of the Kingdom of God.
When Christians speak of the end times, the conversation often turns to the subject of readiness. Some have used the books of Revelation and Daniel and various teaching of Jesus and St. Paul to piece together a timeline of events that will precede the return and reign of Christ. Some believe that, at some point, all true followers of Christ will be spontaneously taken to heaven in an event called the Rapture. Those who remain will face a seven-year period of hell on earth called the Great Tribulation, during which the world will be subject to an evil ruler called "the antichrist" or "the beast." This period of time will end with the Battle of Armageddon, after which Christ will return to reign on the earth.
People who strongly believe this way take great measures to make sure that people are ready for the end times. In the 90s, two authors started writing a popular fiction series to educate people about end-time events. Some look to current events as signs that the end times are near, and some try to figure out who the antichrist might be. Some have even made videos to instruct the people who will be "left behind" after the Rapture. Not long ago, one man thought he had found a formula in Scripture to calculate the exact date of the Rapture. Many people believed him, and they left everything behind and devoted their lives to warning people. This date passed over a year and a half ago.14 This man was not the first to make such a mistake: years earlier someone else wrote a book titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.
I don't believe that such measures are the best ways to prepare for the reign of Christ. First of all, it is important to remember that the popular framework of end-times events is simply a theory based on a particular interpretation of Scripture. The truth is that we really do not know what will happen between now and the day Christ returns. Second, it is pointless to try to figure out when Christ will return. Christ Himself said that even He, the Son of God, does not know when that day will come.15
Perhaps there is a better way to prepare for the reign of Christ.
When Jesus began His public ministry, one of His first messages was, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."16 The Greek word metanoia, which is translated into English as "repentance," literally means "changing one's mind."17 The Kingdom of God is fundamentally different from the kingdoms of this world. When Christ reigns, the world will operate very differently from the way it operates now, so we will need to change the way we think about things. St. Paul writes, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."18
I think that the best way to be ready for Christ to reign on the earth is to let Christ reign in our lives right now. The words we pray so often - "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done [on] earth, as it is in heaven"19 - should not be for us a wish for the future but a mission statement that guides everything we do today. We must show other people what it means to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
One day, some parents were bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples tried to send them away, but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs."20 In Jesus' time, children had low status in society, but in the Kingdom of God, social status does not matter. I believe that Children are actually more ready for the Kingdom of God than the rest of us. When we are young, we are idealistic, but the grown-ups around us scoff at our innocence, saying that someday we'll understand how the world really works. Inevitably, the world squishes the spirit out of us, and idealism gives way to cynicism. Little Children have not yet conformed to the patterns of this world, and, as citizens of the Kingdom of God, we must reclaim the childlike hope, wonder, joy, and love we once knew.
Today, on Christ the King Sunday, we remember that the present age will someday come to an end and that Christ will someday return to reign on the earth in an age of peace. May we all let Christ reign in our hearts today, ready for Christ to reign over the whole earth. May we all live as children of the Kingdom of God, and, when we are inevitably reminded that the world is not as it should be, may we also remember that Christ makes all things new.
Christ says, "Surely I am coming soon."
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!21
Notes:
1 - John 18:1-32
2 - Luke 22:49
3 - John 18:10-11 (NRSV)
4 - John 6:1-15 (NRSV)
5 - Matthew 24:6 (NRSV)
6 - N.T. Wright. "Going to Heaven?" Published in The Love Wins Companion. 2011, HarperOne. pp. 33-35
7 - Quoted phrases are taken from Holy Communion liturgy.
8 - Isaiah 2:2-4 (NRSV)
9 - Isaiah 11:6-9 (NRSV)
10 - Revelation 21:1-22:5
11 - Revelation 21:3-4 (NRSV)
12 - Luke 17:20-21 (NRSV)
13 - John Wesley. Sermon 7: The Way to the Kingdom. Part I, Paragraph 12.
14 - Tiffany Stanley. "No Rapture, Just Judgment." The New Republic, May 23, 2011.
15 - Matthew 24:36
16 - Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)
17 - Wikipedia: Metanoia (Theology)
18 - Romans 12:2 (NRSV)
19 - Matthew 6:10 (KJV)
20 - Matthew 9:13-15 (NRSV)
21 - Revelation 22:20 (NRSV)
The painting of the Transfiguration was painted by Lodovico Carracci in 1594. The painting of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was painted by Viktor Vasnetsov in 1887.
If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.
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