Jn 18:33-37
Dear Friends, Today’s readings on this last Sunday of the Church Year have a clear and powerful message. Besides the celebration of the Jesus beginning the reign of God, we also celebrate the invitation into divine life that Jesus offers so generously.In the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus and Pilate is one of the most important parts of the Passion narrative. It involves seven different scenes.
One dimension of the story is that Jesus is defined as king in contrast to the earthly leaders. Their position is rooted in status, exclusiveness, rings and robes, expressions of wealth and power, titles and the ability to manipulate everything and everybody to their own advantage. In contrast, Jesus’ kingship is designated by the call to testify to the truth, to serve, to be free in poverty and lack of recognition, to let love prevail in all decisions. In his kingship, everything comes from God and leads to God.
Jesus offers the clearest expression of this kingship before the soldiers at the time of the scourging and mockery. Jesus had said clearly, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” (Jn 18:36) In his Passion and Death Jesus is pulling together the total message of his ministry and life. He is inviting us to receive all his teachings through the lens of his kingship expressed by the crowning with thorns before the soldiers and the solitary abandonment and death on the cross.
Jesus was testifying to a reign of God that has already begun. All of his life, teachings and actions are concrete expressions of what God’s reign truly looks like in sinful world in need of redemption. His many miracles and exorcisms, his merciful acceptance of sinners and tax collectors, his humble service and message of hope, all express the coming reign of God in our broken sinful world. His life was a witness to God’s power to transform all reality into the reign of love and justice, peace and healing. Jesus’ message was the invitation to this new life. The seemingly hopeless end on the cross was, in reality, the opening to the true the beginning.
This new beginning, this passage out of the darkness of sin and death, is what we are celebrating in our liturgy of Christ the King. These past few weeks we have been pondering the end times. Next week we begin the great season of Advent which is the other side of the end times in the coming of the Lord.
Today’s feast is a bridge for this powerful reflection on the end times and the coming of the Lord. Jesus, as King of the Universe, guides us in confidence and hope to the new day that is described in the Preface of today’s feast:
“By offering himself on the altar of the Cross as a spotless sacrifice to bring peace he might accomplish the mysteries of human redemption and, making all created things subject to his rule, he might present to the immensity of your majesty an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”
