When was the last time you played checkers? You know the board game were each person gets 12 pieces and moves diagonally forward across the red and black checked board. Of course, the fun part is jumping over your opponent’s piece to capture them. The game really heats up when you reach the far side of the board and you get to say, “King me!” At which point your opponent crowns your piece allowing it to move in every direction. Your new king has the power to take out many more pieces but is also a piece you defend because you are fearful it might be captured. The game can turn on a dime when multiple pieces are taken in a run, shifting power and future plays. You win the game when you have captured all your opponent’s pieces.
Life, like checkers, is about power and who gets to say, “King me!”
Our news is dominated by elections and indictments; both forms of shifting power. When one has power, the goal is to retain and expand power, just like a king jumping on the checker board. We have heard so much about the shifting balance of power in our government as the chambers of Congress have realigned. This created a domino effect (pun intended) in leadership or we might even say kingship. Just think of the fight for Speaker of the House. But just as elections put people in power, trials and indictments take players off the board.
Special Counsel, plea deals, painful historic parallels, make me yearn for a time when checkers were in fashion, and Thanksgiving conversations were less volatile. Remember when the most controversial topic at Thanksgiving was who was going to do the dishes? Or deciding between college or pro football?
Our gospel lesson today is Jesus on trial answering questions as to whether he will be indicted. Is Jesus a King? Whose power is at stake? A little history here.
In John’s account Peter has taken an ear off a soldier as Jesus is arrested.
Jesus is first taken to Annas, a corrupt and powerful leader who is also the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest. Notice the consolidation of power within a family.
Caiaphas is the one who advised the Jews it was better for one man to die for the people rather than an uprising. But killing Jesus was a problem for the religious leaders. The Jews no longer have the power of the death penalty, they lost that right 40 years earlier.
So they are taking Jesus to a Roman power to do their dirty work. After going to Annas, then the High Priest Caiaphas, now Jesus is before Pilate, the Roman governor. It almost feels like his case is working through the courts, even though this all happened in a about a day.
Three questions stand out in this trial:
Are you the king of the Jews?
What have you done?
So you ARE a king?
Pilate is the man in power. He has been handed the problem and person of Jesus. This is not his problem. But as the governor he must weigh in. At first, he says to try Jesus by Jewish laws, so he can wash his hands. But the Jewish leaders need him to put Jesus to death. So he gets right to the point asking Jesus if he is king? There can only be one king and Caesar is king. Later when Pilate seeks to release Jesus, the Jews say, “Everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar” (19:12). The struggle for power is being played out in this trial. Pilate has the power in name, but he fears what will happen in his region if there is an uprising. He certainly does not want someone claiming to be king, threatening his power and Caesar’s.
“What have you done?” Pilate asks. Ironically, when asked about Kingship Jesus redirects. When asked what he has done, Jesus defines his kingdom. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world and the best example of this is when he told Peter to put down his sword when Jesus was being betrayed and arrested. If God’s kingdom were of this world then his servant would fight, and people would die to save him. But Jesus came not to fight or be saved, but to save each one of us. To save the world. Power in Jesus’s kingdom is so different than power in the worldly sense.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter lost his bid for reelection to Ronald Reagan, and he returned home to Plains, Georgia, a broken man. Even fellow Democrats distanced themselves from this embarrassment of a president. Out of the limelight, he began to quietly work on issues that were important to him as a follower of Jesus Christ. He gave time and energy to a struggling organization called Habitat for Humanity. He advocated for people of poverty. He continued to teach Sunday school each week at his Church. For years he took his turn mowing the church lawn, while his wife, Rosalynn, cleaned the church bathrooms. His was a voice that spoke for peace in a world that is bent on war.
In 2002, Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And when he was asked by author, Phillip Yancey, to reflect on his life as an engineer, a Naval officer, a successful farmer, a governor, and a president, which phase did he enjoy most? President Carter thought for a moment and then said, “Now.” How ironic, that Jimmy Carter was once considered a “loser” in this nation’s eyes and became one of the most admired and respected people in the world. According to Yancey, “If someone held a contest for best ex-presidents, Jimmy Carter would win hands down.” It causes me to pause; if what we long for in this life is to be admired and respected and loved, why do we spend most of our time trying to be successful and powerful and feared? Trying to say, “King Me!” (Sermons.com)
What does that have to do with Jesus, standing before Pilate, refusing to act like a king that the world would want to follow? We are part of Jesus’ kingdom, a kingdom that is not about power and capture, but about love and justice.
It is true a lone checker can take out a king, shifting the power and the game.
Jesus never asks us to be a people of kings, a people of power. He asks us to take up our cross and follow him. His kingdom lives in the hearts of his followers, in the minds of those who place humble, peaceful, just ideals before power.
This takes us to Pilate’s final question, So you ARE a king? Jesus knowing what that means to Pilate and seeking to redefine kingship says “You say that I am.” Drum roll please for what comes next… “For this I was born, for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.” During this trial for his life, for power, the future, Jesus brings it back not to power, not to fear, but to truth. Earlier in John Jesus says, “Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth” (17:17).
The truth is Jesus Christ is King. Not just king of the Jews, not just a king who died, not just a king with a different sense of power.
Jesus is the king who God raised.
Jesus is king of our lives.
Jesus reigns in our hearts and helps us to live in God’s realm of heavenly hope.
Jesus came for Truth- not fear, not power, truth. Is your truth Jesus Christ is King?
Have you bent the knee to the one true king who loves us and died for us?
Jesus’ Kingdom was never a place but a perspective,
never an established rule, but a stated reality of how to live life,
never a fight for power, but a forever personal way of interpreting the world and embodying Christ’s love in everything that we do.
The world wants kingdoms to be about power. People want to say, ‘King Me”
Not so with the Truth. For Jesus’ Kingdom chooses relationship. Jesus’ Kingdom chooses the predicaments of humanity.
Jesus’ Kingdom tells the truth about the Truth — that God so loved the world. Amen!
