Proper 29B, November 25, 2018
2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-13 (14-19)
Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
St Thomas the Apostle
The Rev’d Leo Loyola
It was 1925, and the Great War, “the war to end all wars”, had ended.
In its aftermath, the world was growing darker.
From the east, there was the rise of the Soviet Union. In Germany, the Nazis grew in power. And in Italy, Benito Mussolini dropped any pretense of democracy and established his dictatorship.
Of this ominous climate, Pope Pius XI had this to say:
Conditions have become increasingly worse because the fears of the people are being constantly played upon by the ever-present menace of new wars, likely to be more frightful and destructive than any which have preceded them. Whence it is that the nations of today live in a state of armed peace which is scarcely better than war itself, a condition which tends to exhaust national finances, to waste the flower of youth, to muddy and poison the very fountainheads of life, physical, intellectual, religious, and moral. 1
With growing secularism and nationalism endangering the voice of the Church, Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King.
With this feast, Pius XI sought to remind the nations that true power does not lie in the hands of the Stalins and Hitlers and Mussolinis of the world.
Power did not stem from hatred and violence, but from the love of Christ.
Of course, many find this difficult to swallow. It sounds so wish-washy, so kumbaya.
People that believe “might makes right”. People who see themselves and their country in the right. People who claim they have the right to push their ideals and agendas into others’ faces.
People like Pontius Pilate.
Surprisingly the Pilate of the Gospels appears much tamer than the dark picture his contemporaries paint.
According to the Jewish writer Philo, Pilate held a “vindictiveness and furious temper” and was “naturally inflexible, a blend of self-will and relentlessness”. He was well-known for “his corruption, and his acts of insolence, and his rapine, and his habit of insulting people, and his cruelty, and his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never ending, and gratuitous, and most grievous inhumanity.”
If people complained about him, he didn’t care. In his mind, he held all the power.
So now, as we enter today’s Gospel, picture in your mind this image of Pilate…and Jesus.
As Pilate entered the headquarters again, he summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
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?”
But Pilate knew the answer already. To him, Jesus was not a king.
If Pilate was the epitome of power, Jesus clearly did not possess any.
My guess is that he was more irritated by the Jewish leaders for wasting his time. But before he could dismiss this obviously innocent man, Jesus had this to say:
“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.”
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.”
Was Pilate simply humoring Jesus? We can’t say, for sure. But very likely, based on Pilate’s character.
Was Pilate convinced that Jesus was truly a king? I doubt it. He doesn’t seem threatened at all by his so-called followers or his presence.
What we do know is that this powerful man simply underestimated Jesus. His narrow view of power blinded him from understanding the kind of king Jesus truly was.
Like Pilate, many people in this world hold this this same attitude about Jesus.
They choose to close themselves off to him. They are unconvinced by our claims about Jesus, that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. They just see the value Christ can have in their daily lives.
But for those who know Christ, Pope Pius XI had you in mind. When he instituted the Feast of Christ the Lord, this is what he had to say:
If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all (people), purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God. 2
In the midst of darkness, Pius XI strongly believed that the people of his day needed a beacon of hope. He did not see the Feast of Christ the Lord as an opportunity for inward reflection.
It was a rally cry for people of faith to stand boldly in the face of evil.
It was a rally cry for us to stand by our true king, the King of Kings.
It was a rally cry for us to keep our eyes on the prize in the midst of darkness, that one day, God’s will to be truly done on earth as it is in heaven.
So let us remind ourselves to make every effort to make Christ our King with very fiber of our hearts minds, souls and spirit. Amen.
1 Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) | PIUS XII. Accessed November 27, 2018.
2 Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) | PIUS XII. Accessed November 27, 2018.
