Christ the “King”

There are 25 weeks of Ordinary Time this year, meaning that this is the last week of the liturgical year. The last Sunday of Ordinary Time is known as Christ the King Sunday and the lectionary often features Pilate’s question to Jesus “Are you the king of the Jews?” (John 18) For a long time, I thought Jesus was anti-imperialist and, therefore, anti-Roman; that opposing Caesar was the embodiment of what being Christian was about. But I’m not so sure anymore.

Less religion, more politics

Here’s the thing - if everything changed when the First Jewish Roman War left the Temple in ruins, and all the Gospels and non-Pauline epistles were written during or after that enormous change, then we might be getting the time before that (i.e. Jesus’ earthly ministry) a bit wrong. Put another way, if you think of Pilate or the Romans as the main antagonist of the Gospels and Acts, you are reading post-war political tension onto a comparatively peaceful pre-war period.

It is Jesus’ own community that serves to stir up conflict; the religious establishment and its benefactors consistently drag him and his followers before Roman courts that consistently find their accusations to lack merit. Over and over again, the persecution comes from within the Jewish fold, not from outside. If you need a scapegoat, then get angry at religion rather than politics.

Jesus appears to have zero fµ¢ks to give about fleeting political entities, whether democracies and republics or kingdoms and empires. Being a “king of the Jews” was to be a dime a dozen, not a viable threat. Pilate knew it, Jesus knew it. What is important about this exchange is not Jesus’ kingship, but Pilate’s (unintended, inadvertent) confession.

In verse 37, the “this” for which Christ was born does not refer to “…that I am a king” but to “You say…”. It’s not like Jesus is so insecure that He seeks validation from other kings, the Incarnation is to show the world (princes and paupers alike) the truth. God was not born to be a king, since that’s an eternal given, God was born so we might see and proclaim the simple truth that Jesus is Lord. It’s satire; Pilate may not truly believe that Jesus is king, but he still said it…

Don’t get caught up in the anti-Roman/imperial hubbub, that’s to miss the forest for the trees. Historically, Jesus had little beef with the military apparatus of his day, and his followers stood out for NOT hating on Rome enough in the lead up to the revolt that resulted in the destruction of the Temple. If there is a political lesson to learn from this passage, it is Don’t burn out trying to take down a system that’s fleeting anyway. Be for something, like human dignity, rather than against something, even crooked rulers or corrupt religiosity.

That’s my 2¢ anyway 🤷