What does the reign of Christ look like? (John 18:33-37)
On the church calendar, and I don’t mean
our church calendar that appears in your Connections, I mean the ecumenical
church calendar that follows the Christian year as reflected in the Revised
Common Lectionary, today is called Reign of Christ Sunday. The question I want
to address today is asked in the title: What does the reign of Christ look
like? What is it about? What are the primary characteristics of the reign of
Christ? These are very important considerations.
In our text today Pilate questions Jesus
about his kingship. And in response Jesus says, “My kingdom is not from this world.” What does that mean? I’m sure
we all realize that words have multiple meanings. A trunk could be a box-like
container, or it could be the back part of your car that holds your luggage, or
it could be attached to a tree. What the word means is determined by the
context in which it is used. Biblical words are no different. Consider the word
“world.” When Jesus says my kingdom is not of this world, what does he mean by
world?
In this Gospel the writer uses that word
in both a positive way and in a negative. This Gospel affirms that God loves
the world. The world is God’s “good” creation. In the first account of creation in
Genesis 1 after each creative act God declares that what was created is good – “and God saw that it was good.” And
after God creates the human couple in God’s image, the story ends by saying, “God saw everything that he had made, and
indeed, it was very good.” Original goodness takes precedence over original
sin. God loves the world. God dwells in the world. God dwells in each of us.
Each of us possesses divine DNA. John’s Gospel emphasizes over and over the
truth of the indwelling God – a God who incarnates God’s self in flesh and
blood. Jesus is for us the definitive incarnation, but God dwells in each of us
just like Jesus, and we are called to be like Jesus, incarnating the grace and
truth of God. The world is good, and loved, and indwelt by God and therefore
sacred, but it is not flawless. There is, of course, injustice and evil in the
world and in our lives. So it’s vitally important to live within the healthy tension
this creates. Some overemphasize our sin, and cannot see our goodness. While
others see the goodness, but not the sin. It’s important to see both and
acknowledge both.
When John proclaims that Jesus’ kingdom
is not of this world, he is not saying that Jesus’ kingdom is heavenly rather
than earthly. The kingdom of God is both heavenly and earthly. When we pray: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven” we are praying that the way the kingdom of God
operates in heaven, in that transcendent realm, will operate the same way on
earth, in this temporal realm. God’s kingdom encompasses both heaven and earth –
it’s not confined to heaven.
Also, when John says that Jesus’ kingdom
is not of this world he is not saying that Jesus’ kingdom is spiritual in
contrast to the kingdoms of the world that are political. Because the kingdom
of God is both spiritual and political. When the early followers of Jesus
confessed Jesus as Lord they were making both a spiritual and a political
statement. They were saying Jesus is the final authority in all matters –
things spiritual and political. When they said Jesus is Lord, they were saying
Caesar is not. Lord was a title attributed to Caesar. They were saying that
their first allegiance was a commitment to do the will of Christ, rather than
the will of Rome. They would be obedient to Rome when they could, but if being
obedient to Rome meant being disobedient to the will of Christ, then they
refused to be obedient to Rome, and were willing to live with the consequences.
For followers of Jesus it’s always about what is moral, not what is legal.
What John means when he says that the
kingdom of Christ is not of this world is that God’s kingdom does not partake
of the values, morals, principles, and practices of the world that are contrary
to the values, morals, principles, and practices of Christ. It doesn’t mean
that there is no good in the world; there are people who do the will of God and
don’t even realize it. But it does mean that Christ’s kingdom does not share in
the injustice and evil that is also present in the world.
The late Walter Wink calls the world,
when used in this negative sense, the domination system. The domination system
is an unjust system. The writer of 1 John says in 2:15-16, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” He is not
telling his readers to not love the creation or even the evil people in the
world, after all Jesus commanded us to even love our enemies. Rather, he is
telling us to not love the unjust, domination system, because the unjust,
domination system is dominated by “the
desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and pride in riches.” He is
saying that covetousness and greed, as well as the selfish ambition and
egocentric pride are the values at the cord of the domination system.
This all becomes clearer when Jesus
clarifies what he means. He says, “If my
kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from
being handed over to the Jews” (that is, the Jewish leaders, who want to
kill him). What John is saying is that Christ’s kingdom does not partake of the
violence and hate and prejudice of the world. The kingdom of Christ does take
control of others by force, but rather serves and gives to others out of love.
Do you remember what Jesus says to his
disciples in the Synoptic Gospels when he caught them arguing about who is the
greatest. Jesus tells them that’s how the rulers and kings of the earth
operate. They lord it over others. That is, they seek to control others by
force and manipulation. But the kingdom of God operates on different values and
principles and under a different kind of power. The power of Spirit is the
power of the kingdom of God, and the power of Spirit is the power of compassion
and love. This is why Jesus says, “You
are not to control others, but to serve others. For the Son of Man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for the healing and liberation
of many.”
Pilate asks Jesus, “So you are a king?” Jesus says (and this is actually what John’s
church is saying), “For this I was born,
and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” Then
Jesus says, “Everyone who belongs to the
truth listens to my voice.” What John means in this Gospel when he talks
about truth is the truth that Jesus embodied. It is incarnational truth. There
are some Christians who would like to narrowly interpret truth to mean what
they believe. We are not talking about doctrine here. We are talking about the
truth of God that Jesus incarnated. It’s the truth of God’s grace and mercy and
passion to heal the broken, uplift the downtrodden, welcome the stranger, and
liberate the oppressed. That’s the truth of God that Jesus lived and taught. Pilate
is confused about such truth. So he asks, “What
is truth?” The domination systems of the world are blind to this truth.
The truth is that the kingdom of God is
generally unlike the kingdoms of the world. Because the kingdom of God is
really the kin-dom of God. It’s about loving others that flows out of our
common life and connection to each other. I love to tell the story that News reporter
and commentator Peter Arnett tells about the time he was in Israel, in a small
town on the West Bank, when an explosion went off. The screams of the wounded
seemed to be coming from all directions. A man emerged from this chaos, running
up to him holding a severely wounded little girl in his arms. He pleaded with
Arnett to help him get her to a hospital. He cried, “Please Mister, help me.
The Israeli troops have sealed off the area. No one can get in or out. But you
are press. You can get through. Please, help me,” he begged.
So Arnett put them in his car, managed
to get through the sealed area, and rushed the girl to a hospital in Jerusalem
The man collapsed in tears. Arnett went
over and put his arm around him to comfort him. He said, “I don’t know what to
say. I can’t imagine what you must be going through. I’ve never lost a child.”
The moment he said, “I’ve never lost a child,” the man looked at Arnett in a
startled manner. He said, “Oh Mister, that Palestinian girl was not my
daughter. I’m an Israeli settler. She was not my child. But, you know, there
comes a time when each of us must realize that every child, regardless of that
child’s background, is a daughter or son. There must come a time when we
realize that we are all family.” (Campolo, 121-22) That man just bore witness
to the core truth of the kin-dom of God. We are all connected. We are one
family. We all belong.
In our text Pilate represents the
unjust, and often violent domination system of the world. Jesus represents the
just and peace-seeking kin-dom of God. The two kingdoms are often at odds.
Throughout history there has been a clash between them. This conflict is being
played out right now on the Mexican border as a pilgrimage of migrants come
seeking asylum.
Our president has told them to go back
where they came from. We don’t want them, he said. He has tried to caricature
them as a gang of hardened criminals in order to justify his hate-filled
rhetoric and actions, when in reality they are mostly poor families fleeing
violence, oppression, and poverty. He has deployed troops to the border costing
millions of dollars, and would love to use brute force to turn them away. He
has told our military to shoot anyone who throws rocks. Now, fortunately, most
of our military leaders are good and decent people who have some compassion,
and would never shoot poor migrants seek asylum. But they have been deployed.
They are on the border carrying weapons of war. Take a good look, sisters and
brother, for that is the domination system of the world. We are not to love
that system, according to John. We are not to conform to that system, says Paul
(Rom. 12:1-2).
But the kin-dom of God is there as well.
I read a letter this past week signed by 570 faith leaders, representing 145
faith-based organizations across religious traditions. The letter was only a
couple of pages, but when I sent it to the printer it just kept printing and
printing. It was printing all the leaders and organizations that had signed the
letter. The key points the letter makes are these: 1) We call on Congress to
reverse course and see that the U.S. complies with its own laws and
international obligations to welcome those seeking protection. 2) The U.S. must
stop facilitating displacement and should partner in remedying the root causes
of forced migration. 3) It is a human right to seek asylum. 4) We oppose using
the plight of migrants, children, and families as leverage to enact dangerous
policies. 5) Asylum seekers, families, and children should never be separated
or locked up. 6) Congress has opportunity to reverse course by limiting funding
for detention, deportation, and border militarization. There is a paragraph
devoted to each of these points in the letter. The Baptist Alliance, who we
affiliate with, signed the letter.
These faith groups and others are
mobilizing as well. Coalitions and alliances are being formed to support the
migrants to deliver everything from basic necessities, such as food, water,
clothing, and basic medical care to legal, spiritual, and psychological
support. Our own Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is working to funnel supplies and
money raised in the U.S. to supportive ministries already in Mexico. Such is
the work of the kin-dom of God
The kin-dom of God counters exclusion with
inclusion. The kin-dom of God counters prejudice and alienation with acceptance
and affirmation. Instead of adding to their burdens, tearing people and
families apart, oppressing them even more, the kin-dom of God offers healing
and hope. God’s kin-dom welcomes the stranger; it doesn’t lock them up or send
them away. The reign of Christ is simply a reign of love. If we are not
committed to a reign of love, then we are not committed to the kin-dom of God.
Our good God, may our ears and eyes be
open to hear the words of truth and see the life of truth lived out before us
in the life of Jesus, our Lord. So that we may advance your agenda. So that we
may take your side, which is always the side of the oppressed and the vulnerable.
So that we may be instruments to help fulfill your dream for the world and be
active participants in the work of you kin-dom on earth. Show us how to love
others the way you love them, and to realize that we all belong to one another
and to you.
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