2024 11 24 Reign of Christ - Proper 29 (34)
2
Samuel 23:1-7 and Psalm
132:1-12, (13-18) Revelation
1:4b-8 John
18:33-37
How to be his witnesses:
We’ve called this season the
Sunday’s after Pentecost, and Pentecost is the celebration of the coming of the
Holy Spirit, which turned very ordinary people in the extraordinary witnesses
of Christ. Therefore, we have been in a
season of learning to be the witnesses of Christ. Today we reach the final week of the church
year and we proclaim and celebrate that Christ is King. In all we learn about God and the ministry of
Christ, we are led to this conclusion; Christ is king. However, this is a question that each of us
must answer for our own lives, not just once, but daily. Our Christian journey starts and ends with
this question; Will you accept Jesus Christ as the King and Lord of your life? Today we are reminded to make the declaration
that Christ is king, as we ponder the question through the story of Jesus’
interaction with Pontius Pilate. “Are
you the King of the Jews?” He asks Jesus, and so we are caused to ponder the identity
and kingship of Jesus also.
It was nearly 2000 years ago
that this story took place, in 33AD. I
personally find it frustrating, that as far as education is concerned, Jesus is
put in the category of religion lessons only.
Therefore, people being poorly educated, reject Jesus as a fictitious
character who is believed in by Christians. However, Jesus is a person of our
history. He is a fact, and one day every
single person will need to deal with that fact.
Through our readings, we are also caused to ponder the identity of Jesus,
and reflect on the way we live as witness to his Kingship.
Jesus was Jewish. He was born into the clan of Judah, a
descendant of King David. In reply to
the question from Pilate, Jesus does not deny that he is a King, but explains
that his kingdom does not belong to this world. This is where we need to make some decisions;
Do we believe Jesus or not? It isn’t a
matter of believing the reality of Jesus – He was really there in front of
Pilate, but was he telling the truth?
Was he really a king of another world?
Surely these were the question on the mind of Pilate. What would you have been thinking in his
situation?
Jesus tells us that he came
into this world to testify to the truth.
This is key! We know, from other
scripture that Pilate’s wife had dreamt about Jesus and we know that Pilate
washed his hands of the guilt… This implies that Pilate was conflicted, and
unsure. Certainly, he believed Jesus to
be innocent of the charges brought before him, yet he handed him over to the
Jews to be crucified. Pilate, like all
of us, was faced with having to make a decision about the identity of Jesus.
C.S. Lewis, who wrote the
chronicles of Narnia, has explained that when it comes to the identity of
Jesus, there are only three possibilities.
Jesus claimed that he was a King, but that his kingdom was of another
world. Through the scriptures we know
that Jesus declared that he existed before the world began, and that he and the
father are one. Therefore, there are
three logical possibilities; Jesus was either lying about all this and
deliberately misleading people, or he was a lunatic and he himself was
believing in a delusion, or he was telling the truth. So, we look at the life of Jesus and see the
good and compassionate works and the miracles and we can easily conclude that
Jesus was not deliberately lying. Next,
we need to ask, was he a lunatic? If so,
this would have been evidenced and reported by others. In fact, there were times that his family
thought he was losing the plot, but this only serves to prove that if he was
truly a lunatic, something would have been done about it before he got to the
point of crucifixion. His followers
would later on be martyred, in their own testimony to the truth of which Jesus
came to testify. The whole world became
so impacted and convinced that Jesus was/ IS the truth, that we now mark our
years since the birth of Jesus, (the dating being according to the best of
knowledge at that time) - So… he was not a lunatic.
Jesus tells us that he came
to testify to the truth, and everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his
voice. In this life, 2024 years after
his birth, who is listening to the voice of Jesus? We, in the Church, need to deal with any ambiguity. Jesus IS the truth…. No ifs, buts or maybes.
We are all witnesses to the
immense confusion and chaos in the world over many things. Where is the truth? Our confusion, in the world, comes because
the world is generally not listening to the voice of Jesus and the voice of
truth. Our country leaders and world
leaders are not listening to the voice of Jesus. In
fact, our mayor reported to us, at the Mackay Churches Together Christmas
dinner, that there are people wanting to stop prayer before council. They object, saying that religion has no
place and they ignorantly claim that we are not a Christian country. This is a denial again, of our history. It is fact that Australian laws and values
are based on Christianity. This was a fact
taught to us in university in the studies of society guidelines. We also still have a holiday for Good Friday,
Easter and Christmas. We may be becoming
less Christian than we were…. But then who would be to blame for that? Is it us?
There has always been this tension between church and state, but the
reality is, we need the voice of Jesus, which comes to our society through the
church, for goodness to reign in our world. In what ways do we speak the voice of Jesus
to our society?
King David tells us; "One
who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of
morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on
the grassy land." Remember, the
fear of God is that sense of the greatness of God and respect, knowing that
God’s ways are beyond our understanding.
We have a healthy fear for the fact that we will all be answerable to
God for our actions. A leader that has
this understanding will certainly be one who will bring life to the nation.
We are the church and we are
the body of Christ. We have a call to be
influential in our nation also.
Especially, when the leaders of our country are not being led by the
spirit of God. It might be cliché, but
we should ask ourselves, “what would Jesus do?”, and then we need to remember
that Jesus said to his followers, “these things and greater, you will do”….
Meaning that we are now his body on earth and so we now need to ask Jesus what
he would have us do. We are the body of
Christ, therefore the body needs to go where the head directs it. There are many issues of contention that need
the wisdom of God. Where is that
goodness and wisdom going to come from, if not from us, the church?
The church has a
responsibility. We have a
responsibility. We know this from Jesus’
stories about sheep and the goats, and so many other stories about how we need
to show our faith by our actions. Of
course, we always respect that other people don’t share our faith, but need to
remember that our faith is not just a healthy set of beliefs that will bring us
goodness in life. Our faith is the
truth. It may seem like a presumptuous
thing to say, but Jesus said it! And we
have just worked out logically and rationally that Jesus was neither liar, nor
lunatic.
Jesus came to testify to the
truth. In our reading from Revelations,
we are told that Christ is the faithful witness. We are also told that he is the ruler of the
kings of the earth. The rulers of the earth
might not acknowledge this at this time, but one day Jesus will come again, and
we are told that every eye will see him.
The message that we are
called to proclaim, is called the Gospel – meaning Good News. The way of God, is the way of goodness. I think that sometimes we forget this
fundamental fact. And I think that we
forget this because we don’t fully grasp that God truly loves us. Our reading from Revelation confirms the love
of Christ when talks about Jesus as the one who loves us and freed us from our
sins by his blood. Last week we learnt
that by the one sacrifice, Christ has made perfect those who are
sanctified. Jesus died for love of us,
and if you were the only person on earth, he would have done that just for
you.
Each of us needs to
personally come to a point where we acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus in our
own lives, and we need to be regularly reminded that Christ is King - of our
lives.., but also, he is over and above all creation and all powers. This is Jesus who loves us. He is the truth. May the Holy Spirit teach us to know the
power and the love of this King. Understanding
these things, we will walk this land in the confidence that we are his, and quite
naturally, we will be his witnesses who bring his light, love and goodness to
our nation and world.
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