"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Jesus in fact knew that it was the accusation of others that caused Pilate to ask the question. But he knew also that Pilate had his own curiosity, his own potential openness to an answer. Jesus hoped to draw from Pilate a question that came first and foremost from his own heart, not just a matter of fact dealing with the accusation of others. Similarly this morning, he is looking to us, not to our priests or fellow parishioners for a sincere question which he himself will answer.
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
What had Jesus in fact done to provoke such hostility from the nation and the chief priests? For although he had indeed proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God he never pursued that coming of that Kingdom in the way that the world might expect, by means of power, oppression, and violence.
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
When his own disciples had misunderstood and tried to fight to prevent him from being handed over he himself stopped them.
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (see John 18:11).
The Kingdom of Jesus was not, then, a political threat, of the sort about which Pilate was primarily concerned, at least not in the way he imagined. His followers were not a militant sect plotting revolution against the government, nor would his teachings be spread by imposition of force. It was central to his message that those who heard it would not be subject to compulsion in their response. He desired them to be free indeed, no longer slaves, but friends. Rather than tyranny, the basis of this Kingdom would be truth.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"
Jesus did not deny his Kingship. However, he answered in such a way as to emphasize the basic difference between the Kingdoms of the world, based on power, often on tyranny, occasionally on consensus, but not, as was the Kingdom of God on the truth as the most basic fact and fundamental principle. Indeed no earthly kingdom was qualified to claim this basis for those within such kingdoms were too preoccupied with other things to claim that they always and without fail obeyed the 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.
His Kingship was a fact whether or not he seemed to be powerful in a given moment, a fact here in chains before Pilate. Even when he seemed the most powerless, on the cross of his crucifixion he was nevertheless reigning in power. Nor did the power of earthly kingdoms have any victory then, for their powers together could not subvert him from his intended path, of freely laying down his life for the world.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again (see John 10:18).
Even from the seeming powerlessness and failure of the cross he was able to answer the prayer of the good thief who saw more deeply than did Pilate or the rest, asking that Jesus remember him when he come into his Kingdom (see Luke 23:42).
Testifying to the truth seemed like a much more tenuous position than simply coming with military might to slay his enemies. It was not for lack of power that Jesus chose another approach. It was rather because the priority of his heart was that the world could hear his voice and enter freely into his Kingdom.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
The truth to which Jesus testified was no cold or abstract philosophy. It was rather the truth of the Father's love for the human race. It included the truth of the desperate condition of slavery to sin in which that race found itself, but only so that the offer of salvation could be given, understood, and hopefully, accepted. It was for this reason that he desired every eye to see him, even those who pierced him. Even while we were yet sinners- even while we ourselves held the whip, the hammer and the nails, and the piercing lance- even then he loved us. He demonstrated for us an utterly selfless love by actions that nothing but love could explain.
The truth to which Jesus testified turned out to have been a more solid basis for a Kingdom than mere power, as has been born out by history. Empires rise and fall. Only the Kingdom of Jesus himself will endure forever.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
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