PROPER 29, YEAR B

CHRIST THE KING

November 21, 2021

St. Uriel’s, Sea Girt, N. J.

John 18:33-37

At the conclusion of the Gospel we’ve just heard, our Lord describes his kingly mission as one of bearing witness to the truth. His subjects, who hear his voice, are those who are of the truth. Then, in the immediately following verse, Pilate asks his famous question, “What is truth?”

We may think of the truth as a statement or proposition that accurately represents reality. If I say that someone is truthful, I’m saying that this person is honest and makes reliable statements. We also speak of the truth as the contents of such a truthful statement, as when a child comes home with a torn jacket and the parent says, “Tell me what happened: I want the truth.” Or again, on taking the stand in court, we swear an oath: “To tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

In some intellectual circles, it’s fashionable to deny the existence of any such thing as objective truth. According to relativism, all we have are perceptions—“what’s true for you and what’s true for me.” Certain versions of the sociology of knowledge imagine all truth claims to be oppressive attempts by privileged groups to protect their interests and maintain their power by imposing their own arbitrary view of reality on everybody else.

But the Christian faith commits us, I think, to the philosophical position that there is such a thing as objective truth, which we are capable of recognizing and acknowleding. The same God who created the world of objective reality also created the human mind capable of knowing it. The truth can indeed be slippery and elusive, subject to many conflicting interpretations. Nonetheless, through careful investigation, observation, comparison, examination, and sifting of evidence, we can come to a more-or-less accurate perception of how things really are.

The truth of which Jesus speaks, however, is not one that we attain by our own investigative efforts, but rather one that God reveals. In the words of an old English Christmas folksong, it’s the truth sent from above. Not so much the truth that we uncover, as the truth that uncovers us! In John’s Gospel in particular, the truth is not so much a proposition as a Person. Not static but dynamic: something that happens when Jesus reveals himself as God’s only Son, and when people believe in him, enter into a new relationship with God through him, and find their lives changed as a result.

Today’s Gospel portrays this divine truth as key to Christ’s reign as king. Notice that in response to Pilate’s question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus doesn’t deny that he’s a king. He does say that his kingship is not of this world. That is, he doesn’t use force and coercion to achieve his goals. Instead, he exercises his kingship by bearing witness to the truth; and his kingdom is built up as people hear his voice, believe in him, and live in in faith and obedience to the truth that he both reveals and embodies.

When Pilate asks Jesus if he’s the king of the Jews, he’s trying to determine whether he poses a political or military threat to Roman rule in Palestine. At one level, Jesus reassures him: “My kingdom is not of this world … otherwise my servants would fight.” Many people mistakenly interpret those words to mean that our Lord’s kingdom is completely spiritual and otherworldly, as though faith and politics belong to completely separate realms having nothing to do with each other. Wrong!

On the contrary, our Lord’s statement that his kingship consists of bearing witness to the truth has enormous political implications. His kingship subverts all ideologies and power structures founded upon lies and falsehoods. Classical Christian political theory regards earthly authority as instituted by God to keep order in this world, secure some measure of justice, and serve the common good. But earthly rulers are accountable to God. When they overstep the bounds of their authority and violate God’s laws, they subject themselves to divine judgment.

The early Christians thus routinely prayed for the Roman Emperor and endeavored to be law-abiding subjects of the Empire. But when the Emperor demanded to be worshiped as a god, they had no choice but to refuse, even though they knew that it could mean going to the lions. The emperor’s claim to divinity was a lie; worship of the emperor was false worship. No wonder that the Roman imperial authorities found overwhelmingly threatening and subversive this new sect worshiping a king whose claims took precedence over even the claims of Caesar.

For Christians, allegiance to Christ as King comes before any earthly allegiance. When earthly powers usurp God’s place and demand unqualified loyalty and obedience, they commit a blasphemous falsehood. The proclamation of Christ’s kingship unmasks and exposes this lie for what it is. For this reason, Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925, to counter the rising totalitarian movements of Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, which were then setting themselves up as new secular religions demanding their followers’ total and unthinking obedience.

Those who belong to Christ’s kingdom hear his voice and receive his truth. That truth may challenge our most culturally ingrained assumptions and values; it may call into question our most cherished political loyalties. Still, as Christians we owe primary obedience to Christ as our king. We’re indeed called to be loyal to our families, to follow our employers’ lawful directions, and to obey the laws of the state. But if any earthly power should ask us to violate our consciences by disobeying God’s laws, then we’ve no choice but to refuse and resist. When asked by King Henry VIII to assent to the royal supremacy over the Church in spiritual matters, Saint Thomas More replied that he was the king’s good servant, but God’s first. That witness to the truth cost him his head. But on that point he was certainly right, and clearly among those who hear the voice of the one true king.

Today, more than ever, we need to reaffirm our loyalty to Christ as the King who reveals God’s truth. Many of our political leaders have made a career of debasing truth into a transactional commodity: anything that can be made up, manipulated, and molded to serve the interests of the moment and gain short-term advantage by telling people what they want to hear: not the truth but lies, distortions, and disinformation that deceive their followers into unquestioning support of their political agendas. 

Jesus operates in a diametrically opposite manner: the truth he reveals is not necessarily what we want to hear, but it’s absolutely what we need to hear – for the sake of our liberation and salvation. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel, he promises us: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” A key paradox of the Christian life is that Christ is the King whose service is perfect freedom.