Today we celebrate The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The readings for today set the stage for a collision course between Jesus, King of the Universe and Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator of Judea. So, we have Jesus Christ whose Kingdom, according to Pope Pius XI “is a spiritual Kingdom and is concerned with spiritual things” (Quas Primas, 1925) confronting Pontius Pilate representing the secular and mighty Empire of Rome.
Jesus stands before Pilate because the religious leaders of the Jews accused him of claiming the title, King of the Jews. Taking the readings at “face value,” the odds in this conflict are against Jesus. Both the first and second readings from Daniel 7:13-14 and Revelation 1:5-8, are visions that describe Jesus as “coming on the clouds of heaven” ruling over “all peoples, nations and languages “and “the kings of the earth.” Jesus himself acknowledged that his kingdom “does not belong to this world “and that his “kingdom is not here” (John 18:36). Yet, in the Gospel, Jesus, a Jewish peasant, was tangibly standing alone in front of Pilate, the procurator of Judea, who probably was surrounded by soldiers and local politicians. To a pragmatic Roman military leader, all of this must have sounded like utter nonsense.
Hearing that Jesus did claim to have a kingdom, Pilate asked, “then 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.” Clearly frustrated, Pilate dismissed Jesus saying, “What is truth?” In their commentary on this passage from the Gospel of John in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch observe that “the irony here is that, while Pilate sees ‘truth’ as a harmless abstraction, the acceptance of the gospel throughout the Roman world will eventually lead to the downfall of the Empire and the rise of a Christian civilization in its place.”
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are people of the truth. And each of us is called as Jesus Christ himself was called to be a "faithful witness" to that truth. This is our challenge. If we are faithful witnesses "to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father" (Rev. 1:5-6) then we must reflect the truth established by Christ our King to the whole world.
Lord God, you have anointed Jesus as the Christ -
not to rule a kingdom won by violence
but to bear witness to the truth,
not to reign in arrogance
but to serve in humility,
not to mirror this world's powers
but to inherit a dominion that will not pass away.
Remove from us every desire for privilege and power,
that we may imitate the sacrificial love of Christ our King and,
as a royal and priestly people,
serve you humbly in our brothers and sisters.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
Amen.
