John 18:33-37 (NRSV)

33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ ³⁴Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ ³⁵Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ ³⁶Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ ³⁷Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. 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.’

The Gospel reading moves back to John as next Sunday is the feast of Christ the King. Pilate asks Jesus if he is the king of the Jews. Pilate seems perplexed – what is the issue? In verse 35 he explains: “Your nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Well, in the eyes of the law, Jesus had done nothing wrong. Jesus makes the case very clearly that there is nothing for the temporal powers to be worried about, as if he were indeed wanting to become a political ruler, he had amassed enough support. This is evident in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and he was also able to get away with the outrageous cleansing of the Temple. Jesus said: ‘… If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’

Jesus was wanting to do something far more radical; his kingdom deals with the essence of who people are. His kingdom does not require armies and taxes to support them – just transformed lives. I am fascinated by the emphasis on ‘truth’ and find it surprising that the compilers of the Lectionary end the passage at verse 37, as the key statement for me in this passage is verse 38 where Pilate asks Jesus: “What is truth?” But before I go there, let us reflect, briefly, on the whole issue of government. Here J C Ryle has some interesting observations.

Ryle suggests that Jesus  knew that ‘… the prosperity of kingdoms is wholly dependent on the blessing of God, and that kings are as much bound to encourage righteousness and godliness, as to punish unrighteousness and immorality …’

It is a joy for me to live in a free society where religious freedom is at the core of what we stand for. I remember when I first arrived, the joy that was mine to be free to be truly me. Britain has prospered, when the Gospel was indeed not just tolerated, but also encouraged. We have the most marvellous health system in the world and this is because of Christian insistence that unless we do this and help people at their point of need, we could be guilty of murder; if we do not have a welfare system that pays pensions, then we do not honour our fathers and our mothers. There was a time when Christian morality was key, and we became one of the great national powers. Ryle continues:

… no Government can expect to prosper which refuses to recognise religion, which deals with its subjects as if they had no souls, and cares not whether they serve God …

And the reason is almost what my students would call a ‘no brainer’. Ryle puts it this way:

The kingdom where there is most industry, temperance, truthfulness, and honesty, will always be the most prosperous of kingdoms.

I am not one for prosperity gospels and the like, but I do believe that we are in the state we are in partly because our society has abandoned the Gospel. Ryle was writing in the height of the 19^th century Evangelical Revival – when British society flourished.

To believe is to do, to commit, to work things out in practice.

It would appear that Pilate did not want to condemn Jesus, because he knew he was innocent. Barclay suggests that Pilate was ‘… caught in the mesh of his own past …’ As he had before, Pilate tried to put the responsibility onto someone else – the Jews in this instance. He tried to do what no one can do – and that is - evade dealing with Jesus. No one can deal with Jesus; we must deal with him ourselves. Barclay puts it this way: “There is no escape from a personal decision in regard to Jesus: we must ourselves decide what we will do with him, accept him or reject him.”

Pilate also tried to compromise. Here again Barclay is unequivocal, stating: “No man can compromise with Jesus; no man can serve two masters. We are either for Jesus or against him.”

Pilate’s biggest problem was that he did not have the courage to take the right decision and do the right thing!

Pilate was at sea; he did not want to be bothered with Jewish ways and it is therefore not surprising that he got things wrong because no one can govern effectively if they do not understand their people and ‘… enter their thoughts and minds …’

Pilate was also superstitious rather than religious, and was hesitant because Jesus might in fact be who he claimed to be.

By today’s standards even, Pilate had it ‘made’ – he was at the top of his profession – but in meeting this mysterious man Jesus, came to see that he had missed out on what really mattered. Barclay concludes:

“That day he might have found all that he had missed; but he had not the courage to defy the world in spite of his past, and to take his stand with Christ and a future which was glorious.”

Barclay suggests that we no one can read this story without seeing the sheer majesty of Jesus. There is no sense that Jesus is on trial. When a person faces him, it is not Jesus on trial but the person. It seems as though it is Jesus who is in control and Pilate who is on trial.

Here, Jesus also speaks to us with utter directness about his kingdom: it is not of this earth. The atmosphere in Jerusalem was electric; it was Passover and Pilate would (as usual) have drafted more troops into the city. If Jesus wished to have called for rebellion, he could have done it easily, but he makes it quite clear that his kingdom is in the hearts of people – he aimed at conquest, but his conquest was the conquest of love.

Jesus tells us why he came into the world – he came to tell the truth about God, about themselves and about life. Barclay continues:

“The days of guessings and gropings and half-truths were gone. He came to tell us the truth. This is one of the great reasons why we must either accept or refuse Christ. There is no half-way house about the truth. A man either accepts it or rejects it: and Christ is the truth.”

We belong to the truth and so must listen to his voice …

I have enjoyed Professor Dairmaid McCulloch’s excellent series “The History of Christianity” (BBC49.00 pm) and here it is so evident that Roman Catholicism is but a part of Christendom. Orthodoxy is also a significant part as is Protestantism. For me, it is time that we celebrated and respected differences, because that is all they are. It is not a matter of either or, or that one way is the only way. We are like different states, exercising different ways, but all united under the same sovereign God – with Christ as the King.

In liturgy, in the acceptance of the Bible as Holy Scripture, the  incarnation of Jesus as Emmanuel (God with us) we all have this in common. The Early Church established the paradigm –“Is it evident in the body of people that the Holy Spirit is present?” This made the Gentiles welcome and ended the argument, and this can be said to end future arguments. A few examples: Are there any Gay people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and whom God is using in His Kingdom? Are there women who have the gifts of leadership that should enable them to exercise the ministry of a Bishop? If so, women should be Bishops. Have there been Roman Catholic saints? Yes! Have there been Orthodox saints? Yes! Have there been Anglican, Methodist, Calvinist saints? …I think you get what I am trying to say.

At the time of the Reformation the important question was asked: “What is the Church?” Many agreed that it was where the Body of Christ was clearly present in the work of the Holy Spirit. Luther concluded that there were therefore Catholic Churches and some Lutheran gatherings were not!

Jesus came into the world to establish a kingdom that was based on the truth. And he was the embodiment of the truth. This truth transcends political boundaries and denominational differences. It is wherever Jesus is, where the Written Word is expounded and so enables contact to be made with the Living Word; it is where people are united with Christ, each other and the Communion of Saints in the Eucharist and most importantly, where the body leaves the Church and goes out into the world as the presence of Christ where wethey are. As the hymn writer put it: “Come let us sing, praise to our king …” Jesus is King!