Weekly Devotion
November 22 is Christ the King Sunday. The Gospel is John 18:33-37.
Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are
you the King of the Jews?” (33)
We are coming to the end of the Christian Year. Having followed the
story of Jesus from birth to baptism to death to resurrection during the first
half of the year, and having followed the story of the church from Pentecost to
Apocalypse in the second half of the year, we now look back on it all with the
very question that Pilate asked Jesus on the day of his crucifixion: “Are
you the King of the Jews?”
This is not just a rhetorical question. Perhaps on Pilate’s lips the
question was an ironic jest, but for us it is very real. Is this the one
who was sent from God to save God’s people? If so, what does it mean
that the King of the Jews was crucified by the Romans? How does such a
death save us, and from what?
According to the story in John 18, Jesus dodges the question about whether he is
a king. Instead, he talks about truth. “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.” (37b) The reading for
Christ the King Sunday ends there, without giving us Pilate’s famous retort,
“And, what is truth?” But, that question nonetheless rings across the
ages. The secret to the identity of Jesus and the meaning of his story
lies in how we answer. Is truth only in the hands of those who wield the
power, make the rules, and govern the meek, or is truth on the side of those who
resist evil, of those who see a better world ahead, of those who refuse to bow
before the status quo and the powers that be?
The mighty always think that death decides. To them truth is the
prerogative of those who write the history books, of those who vanquish and
those who survive. But, the Gospels tell a different story. In the
biblical accounts of history, truth is on the side of those who believe.
Truth is how the world was meant to be, not just how it is or how it appears to
be right now. Truth is what leads us from despair to hope, from darkness
into light, and from death to new life.
What is truth? It all depends on how you answer.
Pastor Rob