John 18:33-37
The kingdom of Christ
18:33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
18:34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"
18:35 Pilate 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?"
18:36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to 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."
18:37 Pilate 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."
Since I was a kid, I’ve been interested in “aliens.” From comic books about Buck Rogers to my favorite TV show as a kid, “Lost in Space,” people from other planets have been fascinating to me. “Star Trek” only added to the mystery, with “Mr. Spock,” a Vulcan with pointed ears and green, copper-based blood, actually being a member of the crew of the Starship Enterprise. If a science fiction movie had aliens in it, I watched it. I was both scared of the various and usually “horrible” creatures the sci-fi world conjured up, AND fascinated by how life might evolve very differently on other planets. I’ll be honest: most of the weird aliens didn’t make sense to me, as blobs and bug-eyed hulks didn’t have opposable thumbs or coherent language, which to me, even as a kid, would be necessary to engineer the kind of other-worldly craft needed to visit us here on the third planet from the sun. I remember how, even when I was young and quite naive, even I knew that “Lost in Space” had “jumped the shark” by introducing the alien known as “Tybo,” who was a man in a giant CARROT suit. I’m sure that aliens come in differing colors, and with possibly “blood” based on different elements than iron, but there’s no way they are vegetables, and never, never cauliflower, for heaven’s sake!
“Close Encounters of a Third Kind,” the Spielberg movie starring Richard Dreyfuss, at least had intelligent aliens with fingers and musical notes as their calling card. The “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” series each had aliens as partners in space exploration and exploitation, and not always as the “bad guys” looking to ruin life on Planet Earth. Oh, sure, there was “Independence Day,” a holiday favorite with really BAD aliens looking to do to Earth what the “Drill, baby, Drill!” folk want to do, but they were defeated by that film’s equivalent of “Larry the Cable Guy,” played by Jeff Goldblum, and his trusty laptop computer. There is no doubt that many of us fall for the “Out of this world” storylines, and this week’s Bible writer picked up on a few of the things Jesus said that bordered on Ray Bradbury.
This week’s Gospel text picks up on the chat between Pontius Pilate and Jesus that eventually led to Jesus’ death on the cross, mostly because of the gutlessness of Pilate, who was left forever washing his hands, for the remainder of human history. Pilate is trying to find SOMETHING substantive upon which to condemn Jesus, as this would be a win-win for himself and the religious leaders who had “reported” Jesus to him as an insurrectionist. If Pilate can substantiate the claims of the religious leaders who want Jesus “gone” that he said he is a king, then he can justify putting him to death as a threat to Rome. But Jesus throws him a curve: “My kingdom is not of this world.” I can imagine the look on Pilate’s face, one that might have been punctuated by the exclamation, “WHAT?” Was Jesus claiming to be from “another world?” An “alien,” in 20th and 21st century parlance? I’m sure this befuddled a practical, privileged guy like Pilate, who didn’t want to get caught between the moon and Rome in trying Jesus. By claiming that he was of a “different world,” Jesus was trying Pilate!
Jesus tells Pilate he came from another world and is planning on building a kingdom that is NOT of this world. I’m sure this put the political ruler Pilate on his ear. He knew the kingdom of Rome and his boss, the Caesar, but what would he do with someone who claimed to be “other-worldly?” Just by getting here, most sci-fi aliens are demonstrating their superiority, at least technologically, and I suppose Pilate would have seen the same “I’m better than you people” attitude in Jesus, although some of the statements in their dialogue—as recorded by the various gospelers—seem to indicate that Pilate actually kind of “liked” Jesus, and didn’t want to send him to the cross. In being truthful about his other-worldly kingdom, though, Jesus was probably not helping his cause with Pilate and the Roman authorities. If there was anything Rome feared, it was talk of superior kingdoms that had “other-worldly” power that couldn’t be vanquished by Rome’s strong army.
Of course, this is not the “other world” Jesus was talking about. He was obviously referring to his “Father’s world,” which is the kingdom or “realm” of the Divine. Jesus, after all, was what sci-fi writers would call the “star child,” or the “bridge being” between two worlds, which we believers see as both of the same order of creation, one here, and one on the “other side.” The incarnation of God into the human world as Jesus the Christ was so much more than what is often made of it. Some of our creeds and much of our theology relegates Jesus to being some kind of “scapegoat” or “animal sacrifice” to appease God and forgive us of our human sin, or at the very least points to this as his “main function” in being born into the world of humans. More needs to be said about—and understood—of Jesus’ role as what Paul called the “Second Adam” and the “First Born of the Dead.” Jesus, as God’s “bridge being,” came to restore the full relationship between the Creator and the created, a relationship that had been at the least tarnished, if not trashed, by selfish human behavior, which we usually label “sin.” As I’ve preached and written before, I believe the true “sins” the Bible speaks of are whatever cuts us off from our relationship with God and/or our fellow human beings. It is this “scissoring” action of sinful behavior that God abhors because the perfect will of God is for us to have a loving relationship with God AND other humans, and to live together in harmony. God is not “offended” by sin “just because,” but is grieved by it when it drives humanity farther from this goal of loving relationships. This also fully explains how sin can be both individual and collective. Our individual selfish behaviors certainly may encroach negatively on the lives of others around us, and therefore will harm those relationships, but when humans approve corporate policies and rules that marginalize whole races, nationalities, or groups of people, this also greatly grieves the divine.
If we adopt this understanding of sin, we see how the teachings of Jesus about love and relationships, the examples he demonstrated by crossing the artificial “barriers” we erect between ourselves and others (such as the “outcasts” of his day such as lepers, those with various disabilities, “demon possessed” (mentally ill?), and even the Gentiles), and his willingness to sacrifice himself on the cross for these values , all work together toward the same goal of reconciliation. We also get a better grip on the universality and eternal nature of it. It is God’s desire that all of us might be reconciled to God and learn how to love each other as God loves us. This is precisely what Jesus was all about. Judging from the hatred, violence, and marginalization we still see in our world, it is easy to see how God’s goals truly ARE “out of this world,” and still a long way from being realized. In the great scheme of things, however, progress IS being made. Isn’t it so that we tend to take the proverbial “four steps forward and three back,” though? Human selfishness is a tough one, for we all so easily fall prey to “I want what I want when I want it,” and even when tempered by a good dose of “religion,” we still so easily backslide, especially when something we really desire is in close proximity. There you go—a good definition of temptation: When something we really desire is within easy reach! Our “world” too often deals us this set of cards, and we struggle with the “game changer” Jesus came to be. That whole “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” rule is not an easy one to follow, as we related last week. Even in our politics, we strongly tend to vote for those who will legislate what is best for US, even when it may be poison for our neighbor, or at least limit their ability to have what they need.
I don’t know about you, but some of my most beloved moments of life have come when I’ve been a part of a group of people working together for a mutually beneficial, even life-giving goal. Some of you have been on a mission team, or a Habitat for Humanity build, or more locally, helped out with supplies for UMCOR through the Western PA Mission Barn, and you know how good you felt when you accomplished something that ministered to others in need. I’ve been a part of several groups/teams like the Peace is Possible Coalition and our Pittsburgh District’s Anti-Racism Team that worked for fairer public policy and protested prejudicial legal or police practices. I was privileged to bus to Harrisburg with over 600 representatives of CeaseFire PA to lobby our legislators for gun safety. It was indeed a great feeling to join that group in hoping to make a difference, and the day we were there, a very simple gun safety bill was up for final vote, and we were urging our representatives to vote for it, as it was really NOT something that flew in the face of “gun rights” folk. We all felt so good until we watched the vote together and it LOST. The disappointment we all felt must have been at least a sample of what Jesus felt when his teachings of love and acceptance were outright rejected by “religious leaders” of his time. Why should something as common sense as gun safety and seeking to cut down on senseless gun violence seem so “other worldly” to people?
In today’s text, Jesus is quoted as saying “Everyone who belongs to the truth, hears my voice.” It’s hard to believe, but in modern times, we’ve managed to mangle what is truth, haven’t we? You can play someone a video of what they actually said or did, and they can deny it as “fake news.” Or you can read something they put in print and had a publisher distribute to thousands (even millions) of readers, and they may still deny they ever wrote it. We’ve even given a nice name to some of this untruth telling—“gaslighting.” God called it “lying” or “bearing false witness.” It made God’s “Top Ten” of things that have the power to do serious harm to persons and community, and that really hack God off. And here we are, seemingly perfecting it to an art form.
Two sure signs that someone is attempting to step across the “great divide” to live closer to Jesus’ teachings of what God desires are: living an examined life; and living with gratitude for one’s blessings. The examined life is self-aware, and isn’t afraid to hold itself up against higher standards, with the goal of reaching them. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in the examined life, and gave a name for the process of being “nudged” toward God’s standards; he called it “going on to perfection.” The second sign—what I have always called an “attitude of gratitude”—results in the thankful life. We can be thankful of our blessings regardless of how OUR blessings stack up against those of others. Being thankful is a sure sign that someone has tapped into the bloodstream of the Divine. Next week is our nation’s “ritual” of being thankful, and I’ve always liked it, forced though it may be. Thanksgiving is truly “out of this world,” in my thinking, and for that one day, our country DOES pause to give thanks, each in her or his own way. As a practicing Christian—and believe me, I need the practice!—my goal is to give thanks each and every day for the Christ who is in the process of redeeming my life, for all of the people who bless my life, and for the opportunities I have to make my life count for something other than fulfilling my personal desires.
Needing to bring this to a close, let me say this. Jesus was convicted for his “other-worldliness,” and sent to the cross. In doing so, he opened a door for all of us to walk through, not just when we die, but while we live as well. My goal is to live a life that, were I to be dragged before some “Pontius Pilate” of this world, might be so “other worldly” that I, too, might be indictable, for a life of living thankfully. As the hymn writer has said:
We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His name, He forgets not His own.
Amen. Happy Thanksgiving, Dear Ones!
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