Pontius Pilate reentered the praetorian again with Jesus and asked Him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, as He so often does, with a question of His own. Jesus asks, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate responds, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But my kingship is not from the world.” Then Pilate said, “So you are a King?” To which Jesus answered, “You say that I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Every one who is of the Truth hears my voice.” Then Pilate said to Jesus, “What is truth?”
After going through the last several elections, national and local, I can’t help but wonder if it would not be better to go back to pre-Revolutionary War status and just have a king. A king, after all, is trained from birth on how to wave, how to speak, how to act and how to govern. Just think on it a bit. There would be no more of this on-the-job training stuff. No more political parties. No more campaigning and negative advertising telling us how bad the other guy is, rather than what each candidate has planned to make this a better, safer country. There would just be the royal family and when the ruler dies, we just hand the reins over to the next family member in line, rather than have to worry about hanging chads and stuff like that.
Well, I’m just kidding (I think). But anyway, our passages this morning remind us that, as Christians, we already have a King. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But my kingship is not from this world.” To fully comprehend what is taking place in these passages, we need to understand the political atmosphere of the times.
Up to the time of these passages we heard this morning, the Jewish people had lived a long history of existence as a conquered people. They had been slaves to the Egyptians. Then the northern part of the country, Israel, was conquered by the Assyrians. This was followed by the southern section of the country, called Judah, falling in defeat to Babylon. Next came the Greeks under Alexander the Great, and now servitude to the Roman emperor.
So, at the time of our scripture reading, the Jewish king, named Herod, is still simply a figurehead appointed by Rome. It is Caesar who really calls the shots. Into this political quagmire walks Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet Jesus makes no demands for allegiance. There is no takeover by force, no conquest. Even though, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says that with but a word He could call “multitudes” of angels to come and fight for Him. Instead, Jesus says simply, in Matthew 16, “Who do men say that I am?” And the disciples reply, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”
What is the rock upon which Jesus the Christ will build His Church? It is not, as some believe, Peter Cephas (Peter in Greek), which means “small stone” or “pebble”. Whereas the word Jesus uses for the rock foundation of His Church is Petra, which translates as “very large rock” or “boulder”. The “rock” Jesus is referring to here is the rock of confession of Christ as God the Son. It is people coming to the divinely inspired recognition and confession of Jesus Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. So Jesus says, “Peter, you are a building stone, but I am going to build my Church upon this rock, the Rock of Confession.”
In Luke 12, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge before the Father. But he who denies Me before men, so shall I deny before the Father.” As He stands with us before the Heavenly Father and all the angels of Heaven, Jesus will bear witness to the truth of our confession of Him as our Lord and Savior. And when Satan brings up our sin Jesus will say, “The debt has been paid. All is forgiven.” Satan will then ask, “What about their sinful nature?” “It has been washed clean by my blood,” Jesus will reply. “Ah yes, but the sinner you speak of is dead,” will be Satan’s last shot. But Jesus will spread wide His arms so that all can see the nail holes still present in His wrists as He tells all, “This person died with me on the cross the moment he placed his faith in me. But I have conquered Death. And as this person died with me on the cross, so this person rose with me to eternal life at my resurrection.”
As soon as we confess Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord, we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. This is why when Pilate asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?”, Jesus replies with the question, “Do you say this of your own accord? Or did others say this to you about Me?” Is Pilate simply repeating what others have said, or is he making an inquiry of faith? Pilate knows that this is what is being asked of him so he replies, “Am I a Jew?” Not being a Jew, Pilate reasons that any man claiming to be King of the Jews would not have any earthly power over him and could not ask allegiance from him. But what Pilate was missing was that this man standing before him was no mere earthly king. This man, God the Son, was in fact the ruler of all Heaven and Earth. He was, is, and shall be the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and He does expect allegiance from everyone who makes that confession.
How about you? Have you made this confession? Have you given all of your allegiance to Jesus Christ as your Lord, as your King? Has there ever been a moment in your life when you gave everything you have, everything you are, everything you ever hope to be or do, over to the rule of Jesus Christ, the One who gave all He had to save your soul for all eternity?
There are those who call the Church a volunteer organization. But I don’t believe that is true. For how volunteer can it be when we are followers of a King? Understand this, Jesus Christ is not looking for volunteers! Jesus Christ is looking for subjects. Jesus Christ is looking for servants. Do you remember the movies of the past about knights, maidens and kings? There would always be a scene where the knights would bow before the king and pledge their allegiance, their wealth, their possessions and their very lives to the service of the king. All was his to command. Just a movie fantasy for children you say? I tell you that Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, is looking for those who will give their all for Him, just as He gave His all for them.
Jesus Christ seeks those who will seek His will before their own. I mean, isn’t that exactly what we pray for every Sunday when we pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Do we really mean those words, or are we just mindlessly repeating them Sunday after Sunday?
In the mid-1600’s, Oliver Cromwell sent his secretary to the continent on some important state business. One night during his travels he found that he was unable to sleep. According to custom, a servant slept in his room and was indeed sleeping soundly that evening. In the middle of the night the secretary woke the sleeping servant up to tell him that he could not rest because he was “so afraid that something will go wrong with the diplomatic mission.”
“Master,” said the servant, “may I ask a question or two?”
“Of course,” came the reply.
“Did God rule the world before we were born?”
“Most assuredly he did,” the secretary answered.
“And will God rule it after we are dead?” queried the servant.
“Certainly He will,” came the response.
“Then, Master, why not let Him rule in the present too?”
The servant’s reply stirred the secretary’s faith and he found a deep sense of peace, and in a few minutes, both he and the servant were fast asleep. As Christians, we claim that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We say that He is our personal Savior and Lord. Yet, how often we forget that truth.
In closing let me remind you that: