How could he not bow down to the Kingship of Christ and serve the King of all of Creation? How could Pilate disregard the Truth and the power of Christ the King? In this passage from the Gospel of John, we see Jesus and Pilate wrestle with the two opposing forces of relativity and eternity. This wrestling begs the age old question, “what is the very nature of the Truth in this world?”
This question begs us to ask,”What do we know about this man named Pilate?” How did Pilate, this vilified man, treat the truth, power and sovereignty of Christ? Do we have anything in common with this man? Surely not!......... right? Well maybe not, But I don’t think we can go so far as to condemn the man. Pilate was a 1rst century AD man, a governor- a man of great power. He had the power of life and death. Pilate had the Power to judge the guilty and the innocent. Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, had the power to unleash the awesome might and power of the most organized and systematically lethal military force of that epoch of time. Pilate worked hard to get this power and Pilate climbed the Roman Bureaucratic ladder, and he wanted to stay there. It may have been a stressful job, but he had worked hard to get a great villa, the nice obligatory two chariot garage, a wonderful hot tub (also known as the roman baths), a great spouse and family. Now, the Governor had climbed that ladder to the top- but according to historical sources it was a notoriously creaky ladder- one of those lofty heights that when someone achieves the climb- they might look down and realize that suddenly that they are afraid of heights. You see Pilate’s boss was a little unstable; Tiberius Caesar was not what one would call a compassionate boss. Caesar wanted two things efficiency and public order. Pilate knew this and that if he wanted to keep his position, and possibly his life, Pilate had to placate Caesar and his cronies. How did these facts effect the way this bureaucrat saw the truth- what version of truth was it? Would Pilate do anything in his power to keep what he had, even ignore the truth? Or, to be fair, did Pilate actually ignore the truth? In his world, the state and material wealth were the only truths he had ever known. He was taught from an early age to strive for the state, to be a part of his culture, a culture where conquest and commerce where king- where the state and the culture of Rome were Sovereign- We might say that Caesar was king, but many Caesars where assassinated for threatening the status quo of culture. So, we can say that the pull and allure of creature comforts, security, and wealth were the Triumvirate of Truths in the Roman Empire. When we think of this material truth, The Triumvirate of Truths of Pilate, we may say that it was his truth; that was “real” to him.
To understand how radical an idea Christ was proposing to Pilate, we must now ask, “What is this Truth that Jesus brings to us?” In this passage, Jesus says that he is testifying to the TRUTH and we know that it is not Pilates’ truth; it can not be Pilate’s -truth. We know that there is a world-shattering conflict between the old truth of Pilate’s world and the Truth of Christ. We know that Pilate’s truth is of his broken world and not of the Kingdom to come. So, what is Jesus’s Truth?
It is the Truth of Compassion, Jesus taught us to love one another.
It is the Truth of Sacrifice, Jesus was the one true and perfect sacrifice for all time, His truth tells us to put others first, as opposed to Pilate’s truth of self above community.
Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves.
The Truth of Life and Healing, after all in John’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, is what got Jesus in front of Pilate anyway.
This truth is the truth of Forgiveness.
Now, there is a danger here, There is a danger in thinking that this Truth, this Kingdom Come is of a world to come. That the truth that Jesus brings us is one that only applies in another world, Heaven. There is a tendency to throw our hands up in the air and proclaim that this truth reigns only in Heaven, while we are left here to deal with Pilate’s version of a cruel societal truth here on earth. We may think, “When Christ comes down from the clouds in glory and tells us that he is the Alpha and Omega- then and only then will Christ will give us the Truth of his reign.” It is hard not to think like the ancient Romans. Our contemporary society is addicted to the material world. Many believe that to be happy, they need power, prestige and creature comforts, and that that need is so insurmountable that the truth of Christ must be of another Kingdom -- one which we must wait for with baited breath. But, there is GOOD NEWS, It is the Truth of the King Jesus Christ and it is one that is not far off, it is here and now, it is working and bringing healing to the world now. This truth, through the death and resurrection of Christ, dwells in us. The truth is born into us. We are made in the image of God and that truth is God, and our Power comes from God. Our power comes not from Rome, or material wealth, prestige or anywhere else, but only from The One Triune God. This unobvious Power is here with us now. If you listen, you can hear it in the whispers of your soul. This power of the truth is incarnational, that is to say that the power and the truth dwell in us. This power of the truth of Christ feeds us NOW, and we in turn feed the world with the power of the truth-
This leads us to ask “What is our personal truth, today?” Is our truth is just getting through the day, no matter how it affects others or ourselves? Can we be so angry that our truth is mired up in self, and we forget about others? Is truth ever dependant on where we are and what we are trying to achieve? Do we ever center our idea of truth on what we want or need? Does our truth make us feel we need something that might not be so healthy? Has our truth ever been, “I’ve got to take care of myself and I don’t care what happens to that other guy?” Pilate’s Truth is a worldly truth that seems to very familiar if one listens to CNN or reads the Washington Post. Pilates Truth is one that brings us visions of homeless children in the streets looking at us with vacant stares, the truth of famine, the truth of torture, the truth of Ponzi schemes, the truth of brokenness and separation. This truth that Pilate proclaims through his edict is one that is in direct opposition to the Truth of Christ.
Now this is pretty and uplifting little message, Jesus’s Truth, the Truth we strive to follow, is right and good, and Pilate’s is wrong and hurtful. But this TRUTH I speak of comes with work, it is not a truth we can just lay under a nice little tree (or sit in church) and ponder. It is rather the work of all of us to testify to this truth- There are many who have testified to the truth in our past, so it’s nice to have examples right?
Martin Luther King Jr was afforded the opportunity to be a minister at one of the largest black churches in the nation, he was respected in what was considered his community and he could have followed the example of many and been happy, complacent, and – yes- comfortable like the people before him. But this was not what God called him to do, he worked to create the new Jerusalem by fighting for equality among all of God’s people and sadly he died for it. Another example is The Reverend Charlie Andrews, an Anglican I might add, and who in the early twentieth century decided that the posh parish life in England was not what God called him to do. Father Andrews went against his ordination vows and sided against the king of England to assist Gandhi in liberating India & Pakistan, two nations that were bound by the yoke of oppression.
Still another example from the pantheon of Saints is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Reverend Bonhoeffer was living a comfortable academic life in New York City and decided to return to his native Germany during the rise of Hitler to confront the most heinous version of power with the Truth of Christ. He was led to the gallows for his witness. Still another, with a much happier ending, is the example of living the Truth that Archbishop Desmond Tutu gives us. Archbishop Tutu is a priest and an Archbishop who could have quietly performed the duties prescribed to his office and made no waves. But, God called him from complacency and he led a nation to justice and equality by being instrumental in ending apartheid in South Africa. Most importantly, there was a Jewish carpenter who decided to abandon the old truth of Ancient Rome in Nazareth, realize what his destiny was to be, and acknowledge who he was – Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world and God’s only son. This Truth is the one that led Jesus to give himself to us and the cross. This giving was an acknowledgement of the Truth that saved the world. These are examples from the history of our church and these events changed our perception of the Truth and brought us a vision of the truth. Every time you love your neighbour, forgive, and practice compassion, when you stand up for what Jesus has taught us to do- you stand up for the power of the Truth- We don’t have to be in Pilate’s position of power to stand for the truth- We have a different type of power- it is the solar power of the light of Christ, the wind power of the Holy Spirit, the Hydro Power of Baptism, not the dirty power of Pilate. Every time we as a church community lend a helping hand to the world through the programs that we do here at Epiphany, we testify to the truth. Whether it is Gospel arts, Franciscan Spirituality, bringing the Eucharist to Franklin Park, feeding our community at the Welcome table, discerning with the Breaking Bread For Justice Ministry Teams, working to bring music to the downtown community or participating in the healing power of prayer we witness to the truth. These ministries are all a witness to the healing power of the Truth of Christ. This is Christ the King Sunday. Let us embrace the power and the truth of our King, Jesus Christ. Let us prayerfully and intentionally disregard the old, broken truth adhered to by Pilate, because we are loyal to our sovereign of power and light! Let us be that power and light in this world, ambassadors of grace, workers for our king’s world. May this truth be realized on Earth as it is in Heaven.
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