Sign Posts on the Way

Jesus answered, "[…] But as it is, my kingdom is not here." 
 So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"   

                                                                              - Jn 18:33ff

This scene from John’s Gospel read during yesterday’s solemnity of Christ the King is gut-wrenching. Pilate, who is a recognized ruler, is curious about this man who has been brought before him and over whose life he now has ultimate power. In many ways, the man before Pilate is wretched. Having had a triumphant career among a bunch of country bumpkins in an obscure corner of the vast Roman Empire, he has now been double-crossed by one of his own, handed over to the authorities, and brought by his own leaders to face a capital trial under a foreign ruler. This is a pathetic and cringe-worthy scene.

Pilate doesn’t miss the irony. “You’re a king?” He asks Jesus. Is he fearful? Scornful? Or merely bemused and curious? There must have been a hint of honest intrigue, because Jesus seeks to know the motivation behind his question, and ultimately deigns to respond. And with his response, he manages both to let Pilate know that whatever power Pilate thinks he has over Jesus is an illusion, and that there is a kind of power about which the powerful Pilate has no clue. To Pilate, Jesus points out, it is literally other-worldly.

What makes it other-worldly is what Jesus does with this power. He gives it all away! He uses it to raise up the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. In our own day, when politics and the use and abuse of power are so upper-most in our minds, it is a good time to ask ourselves: Who, really, is the Ruler of my world, of my life?