Christ the King! Viva Cristo Rey!

Today’s gospel reading is about the interrogation with the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, and our Lord Jesus Christ inside the Praetorium in one of the most dramatic exchanges we’ve read in the Bible. Today the current Liturgical calendar officially comes to an end and next Sunday on Nov. 29th is the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of the new Liturgical Year. Today’s reading comes from the gospel of John 18: 33b-37.

“33 So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done? 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”

37 So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a King?” Jesus answered, “You say 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.”

A very interesting conversation between Pilate and Jesus Christ, which is recorded not just in scriptures…but also for human history. Here is Pontius Pilate giving his time to talk to this strange man whom the Jews brought before him to be punished for violating their religious laws. So it was time to size up this man Jesus Christ as to who he really is and why the Jews hated him to the point of having Pilate do whatever he wanted to do to this man Jesus.

So Pilate asks him the poignant question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus cleverly retorts back to Pilate, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate obviously wasn’t happy with the reply of our Lord and questioned him again, “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” For sure, Pilate who had a lot of spies within the Jewish sect and even the Sanhedrin must have heard a lot about this man Jesus. For sure he must have heard Jesus do so many miracles that the Jews were still talking about it. So why was he being condemned by his own people?

Jesus then told Pilate the truth…. “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” What else could Jesus tell Pilate…but the real truth about himself. This brought Pilate to ask the Lord again, “So you are a king?” Jesus then replied to Pilate, “You say 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.”

It is unfortunate that Pontius Pilate did not question the Lord further or discuss with him where his kingdom was because Jesus would have told him the whole truth… after all Jesus could never make a lie. But then Pontius Pilate had better things to do, after all Rome was so powerful and killing a man, whether innocent or not was but a blink of his eye.

So as the story goes, during the Sabbath the crowd was ask to choose between Jesus and Barabbas and the crowd chose the Barabbas who was then freed in exchange for crucifying Jesus. Then Pilate washed his hands in the process as if it washes away his guilt for executing an innocent man.

It would be interesting to note when years later, when Pontius Pilate died… he would be met by our Lord Jesus Christ in the pearly gates. I can just imagine how our Lord Jesus Christ would have greeted him… and welcomed Pilate into his kingdom and what interesting conversation would have taken place there in the Kingdom of heaven. Someday we will know everything about this.

Meanwhile, two thousand years later, we Catholics have learn to live with the truth of what our Lord Jesus Christ taught his apostles and disciples and handed down to the Fathers of the Church and eventually all these were written to form the Holy Bible. Yet other Christian sects charge us Catholics as people who do not read the Bible.

But if you study the words of our Lord, he is perhaps the most quoted man on this planet, yet our Lord Jesus Christ never wrote a single passage that would be written in scripture. The only thing he wrote was when he drew a line to the irate Jews who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery… and he drew that line and told him, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” Above all, despite his being King in heaven, Jesus was meek and humble of heart… which is the trait of a great and divine king!

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