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