Jerusalem-Notre Dame, 26th November 2006

 

Dear Christians,

The truth about Christ the King is from one side very evident.
This is the side of the Bible, The Bible understood as The Old and New Testament.
We have read a reading from the book of the Prophet Daniel. He describes a Son of man who received dominion, glory and kingship. All peoples and nations serve him and his kingship shall not be destroyed.
The prophet Daniel didn’t know yet who was a Son of Man. This question was for the saint John just resolved. He writes in the book of Revelation that Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
Jesus himself didn’t want to say directly to Pilate: Yes, I am king. But he said it in other words: “My kingdom does not belong to this world”, “My kingdom is not here”, “You say I am a king”.
So, everybody who reads the Bible, especially the New Testament he is sure: Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.
This is the side of the Bible. From this point of view the truth about Christ the King is evident and without doubts. 

But there is the other side. The side that we can call Pilate’s side. This is the point of view of Jews, Muslims, Atheists, generally all who are not Christians. They see Jesus like Pilate, it means they see Jesus bound, week, strange, incomprehensible, They can not believe how this man can be king of kings, because there is no evidence for it. Half of all evidence come from the resurrection of Christ, but they don’t believe in the resurrection of Christ. Half of all evidence will come after our resurrection, but we still live. 
We can not say: they are not intelligent. We can not say they are stupid. We can say they have the other eyes than we have and the other hearts than we have.

But there is also the third side in the thinking about Christ the King. This is mine and your point of view. All we know Jesus is King, but how somebody can be a King if he can not govern? Does Jesus rules over your decisions? Does Jesus govern your life? Am I really his servant or maybe I am rather his adviser? My and your heart is the field of the fight over the kingship of Christ. We decide in every moment of our daily life who is right: Pilate or Christ.

Dear Christians,
If we are not convinced that Jesus is really King of kings it is not because the Bible is wrong or because non-believers are right. It is because we speak like Jesus but we life like Pilate.