Living In The Kin-dom
John 18:33-37
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, 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?” Jesus answered, “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.”
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At first reading of the text, we might take Pilate's question to Jesus as innocent. Perhaps, Pilate was curious if Jesus was a king, a person of royal lineage, but on the other hand, it's all the more likely that Pilate was asking to confirm his own bias and understanding of who Jesus was. So on this Christ the King Sunday, we ought to stop and ask ourselves when we've stood in Pilate's place, asking Jesus leading questions to confirm or deny things we do or don't want to hear. Jesus is king, just not the kind of king anyone who buys into this world's measure of success would look for in a king. This clashing of world views and metrics for success frames a conversation we need to have about the values and morality of Jesus' kin-dom, not kingdom.
When I talk about the metrics of success that the "world" tells us, we need to say, "We made it," what are those benchmarks? Most commonly, we tell ourselves and our children that you need a house, that you need a job that makes good money, and that you should keep at it until you become "the boss" and accumulate, accumulate, and accumulate. Am I wrong? It's a story we've been telling ourselves for as old as time itself, and we can see the remains of those who passed before us who strived to live out this kingdom-building mentality. All you have to do is drive a half-hour or so to Cold Spring and hike up to see the ruins of the abandoned Cornish Estate. All the accumulating and maneuvering, with the thought, they were building a lasting legacy, all for it to decay and crumble and be slowly reclaimed by nature. Try as we might; nothing we build will outlast the resilient kin-dom of Jesus.
The Kingdom of Pilate
The kin-dom of Jesus doesn't stop Pilate from questioning Jesus. In Pilate's mind, Jesus is a threat, someone who could take his "kingdom" away and undo the metrics of success that he's bought into for his entire life. I'm not trying to portray Pilate as a paranoid figure, but someone struggling with genuine issues we still face today. We find Pilate living today in us and others in those moments when we view others as threats, as enemies, and as outsiders who come to steal what is "rightfully" ours.
The fear of losing something that was never ours, to begin with, is what often keeps us from having authentic conversations that result in change because we've already subscribed to one way of thinking that closes our hearts. It's that ugliness that rears its head when we talk about homelessness, the drug crisis, refugees, immigrants, the unemployed, the sick and dying, the widows, and the orphans. Do we want to live in a world that holds the least of these as threats to some distorted standard of success? If we do, then that means we live with hands and hearts that are closed. Living in Pilate's kingdom means that we live with hands that are closed, fists clenched tight; it means that we don't offer charity freely for fear that someone with more will destroy what we have left.
The Kin-dom of Jesus
This fear of loss and distorted sense of self-worth and value sets the kingdom of Pilate in stark contrast to the kin-dom of Jesus. You've heard me often talk about the kin-dom of Jesus, the kin-dom of God, but what do I mean by "kin-dom?" How is it any different from "kingdom?" It was never Jesus' intention to establish a conventional kingdom that relied on military might and traditional morals and values. If that were Jesus' intent, then all that talk about the first being last and the many rooms in God's house being prepared would be a lie because only the best or those who were worthy would be rewarded. This is why the kin-dom of Jesus is so different from the kingdoms to which we've become accustomed. The kin-dom of God, which was a threat to Pilate, strips away the identities of self-worth that culture has taught us to value.
The beauty of this kin-dom is twofold. First of all, it frees us, liberates us, and unclenches our tightly wound fists to let go of what we are holding. The kin-dom of Jesus invites us to let go of the treasures we think are valuable and to let go of the pains and hurts that have been eating away at our hearts. It tells us to let go and let all these things enter the light of truth so that Jesus can bear whatever it is we are carrying. The second part of the kin-dom calls us to cast our sight to imagine and make real a community created in the image of God's love. A place where assumptions and biases are cast aside. A place where truth penetrates our hearts to show us our ignorance and foolish understandings and the hurtful ways we've treated one another. These are the things that make the kin-dom of God a beautiful yet anxious place if we aren't ready to relax our clenched fists and open up our hearts.
Who do you say Christ is? Is Christ a force that makes you feel uncomfortable because of the reordering of priorities and values we should prioritize in our lives? Is Christ a liberator, someone who permits you to let go and breathe, someone who you can turn over your treasures and your burdens and take a sigh of relief? Or is Christ as king someone who makes us feel a little of all of the above by always being there to challenge our preconceived notions and perceptions by showing us new ways to live in community with one another and ways to extend ourselves grace? Either way, the freeing kin-dom of Jesus is a lot more appealing than the kingdom of Pilate, which we've always thought was the way to success. So release your clenched fists, open both hands, and let us turn over to God the things that are Gods so that they be transformed by the truth and love of God.