In this Sunday's Gospel from John ch. 18 - Pilate's interrogation of Jesus - one can wonder if Pontius Pilate, functionary of the empire, was even paying attention to Jesus' astounding confession, "For this I was born, for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth." (v. 37) Just thinking that not every prisoner under questioning articulates his defence with such integrity and such brevity. One suspects Pontius' attention drifted after Jesus' declaration that he was a king from another world. Were Mr. Pilate listening closely however, he would have heard that the truth is that this oddly regal prisoner was an alien invasion of God's truth and love to Pilate's world of self-interest, cynicism, and power.
Christ the King is actually the one bringing the judgement here, even as he himself stands before Pilate as a prisoner. The Augsburg Confession in its Article xviii is almost grudging in granting that human free will can produce civil righteousness. Lutheran heritage grants that much good can be done by secular regimes. We are without the need to elect Christians to office to enact certain ideological ends, we are free to support competence in government instead of the theocracy envisioned by the fundamentalists of the world's major religions.
The truth that Jesus advocates is the truth of his witness and his person. Our philosphical debate between absolute and relative truth has no place here. The truth to which he testifies is the truth of the Father who sent him, gave him actually (John 3.16) so that those who hear his voice might know eternal life. We hear that truth and hear that voice clearly from the cross, "It is accomplished!"(19.30) Accomplished is our redemption and eternal life! Governments, fallible and corrupt, can provide order and ward off death, even as agents of God, so that God can work the greater truth with which Christ the King invaded the world, "for us and for our salvation. . ."
Recent critics of the American president have been labeled "birthers" and "deathers". Christ the King's critique of our human ways is as a "truther", revealing with his light the darkness of our self-righteousness conceived in guilt and blame and enacted in deeds of anger and vengeance. Hearing the voice of Christ the King, we have opportunity to trust the truth that will save us, the action of Christ's giving of himself on the cross, there revealing God's triumph over death.
"For this I was born, for this I came into the world(: the cross!)" So, he is a king! A "birther" as the Word made flesh, a "deather" who reigns triumphant from the cross, and a "truther" whose voice declares salvation for all the world. Again, in Word and Sacrament on this Sunday, we'll hear that voice and be invited once again to believe and trust in it.
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