Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical year … today is the Feast of Christ the King.
Since Advent Sunday 2020 we have journeyed through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost and Ordinary Time.
From our celebration of the birth of a baby in the humblest of circumstances, we have recalled, reflected upon and learnt from the earthly life of the one we celebrate today as Christ the King.
Today the circle is closed and, next week, we begin the journey once again … we begin the journey again because we constantly fail to remember our place in the divine hierarchy … as we witness in the exchange between Pilate and Jesus in today’s reading from John’s gospel.
In this short passage from the final moments of Jesus’ earthly life we can see ourselves in the Roman Governor who will be forever remembered as being weak, as he gave into the baying mob.
We can see our own moments of uncertainty and doubt … our own need to ask more questions … to seek the assurance that Jesus is our Saviour.
Of course, Pilate was not weak … not really … he was famed for his ruthless governorship of a difficult outpost in the Roman Empire … and then he came face-to-face with Jesus, the Christ.
The few verses we have heard from John’s gospel reveal a Pilate who wants to know …
- he wants to know what all the fuss is about …
- he wants to know why the Jewish leaders are going to such extraordinary lengths to destroy this one man …
- he wants to know if Jesus really is a King!
As the meeting (you could hardly call it a ‘confrontation’) between Pilate and Jesus draws to a conclusion, we know that Jesus is just a few hours from death …
we know that we will be witnessing the moment when the Kingship of Jesus will seem like another shattered dream.
However, from our post-resurrection standpoint, we also know that human death will soon be overcome by the one whose divine Kingship is about to be revealed in all its glory …
we know that we are standing on the brink of a new age … an age in which all of Pilate’s (and our) questions will be answered.
We know that Jesus’ Kingship is about to be revealed in a new, life-changing way … in a way that, despite the prophecies of old, very few understood.
Jesus’ Kingship was not to be revealed in a grand display of aggressive military force … rather, it was to be revealed in the ultimate expression of love.
As Jesus’ arms were thrown wide and his open hands were nailed to the cross we see, not the ultimate gesture of weakness, but the ultimate gesture of open and welcoming love for all.
When we struggle in our daily lives …
when we feel the weight and the pain of the cross …
we often become angry with God …
we become depressed …
we even doubt whether God exists.
That is how our human nature works … if things aren’t going well for us … it must be because God has got it in for us.
But, as we see in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross …
- the nature of God is not to avoid suffering …
- the nature of God is not to avoid pain, or the places of pain.
It is the nature of God, to be with his people in the very midst of all that pain and suffering … to be where his divine love can provide comfort, consolation, healing and hope.
God did not stay in heaven where it was safe!
God saw the pain that exists in the human condition …
the pain that can lead us to be separated from him …
and then he came down to earth to take the burden of that pain on his own shoulders.
God … Jesus … the Christ … Christ the King … came into the human condition to show that he is alongside us … every moment of every day.
Where we travel … God has walked before and, through his grace, he is holding out his hand to offer us strength, consolation and a love that can never be broken … and then, ultimately, he is also offering a place with him in Paradise…
Today we celebrate the Festival of Christ the King … we recall the purpose of God’s mission as he came and shared in the totality of the human condition … we offer thanks for all he has done, and continues to do for us … and we are called to remember that it is never too late to ask for and to be welcomed into our King’s loving and eternal embrace.
All we have to do, as we move from this day into a new liturgical year, is to open our hearts and minds and travel with Christ the King, our loving, risen and ascended Lord and God.
Amen.
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