Sermon Sunday November 24, 2024
Rev. Norman A. Michaud
“Everyone Who Belongs to the Truth Listens To My voice
John 18: 33-38
The end of the Christian Lectionary Year ends the Sunday before Advent. We journeyed together in Ordinary Time, or the Season After Pentecost, since May of last Spring and have focused on Mark’s Gospel. The Reign of Christ closes the Season of Pentecost and opens the new year, Year A, on the first day of Advent, which begins next Sunday and begins the Season of Advent with the Gospel of Luke. But this Sunday, we turn to the Gospel of John in the moments of Pontius Pilot’s fatal questioning of Jesus leading to his death and resurrection. We know that the execution of Jesus is coming but next week we change our focus to Christ’s birth.
Today’s reading from John is an outlier. What is Pilate’s goal in questioning Jesus in today’s reading from John? What does Jesus offer Pilate? Who is Pilate? Of the four Gospels, John provides the most detailed account of the encounter between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator (governor) of Judea from about 26 to 36 CE. He was recalled to Rome in 36 CE and tried for his cruelty and oppression. His callousness in his rule over Israel was historic. You would not want callow and cruel Pontius Pilate if you could choose your judge.
Jesus cannot choose. As John describes it, Jesus has no choice but to play out his coming crucifixion through Roman Law. Pilate serves as Rome’s agent or procurator. He was appointed to secure Rome’s financial interests in the backwater kingdom of Israel. The Romans were tolerant of the religion of those they conquered as long as the puppet government they controlled filled Roman coffers on schedule. This collusion promoted a complex political dynamic between the Roman agent and the people it governed. Pilate deferred to Judean religious leaders. Both he and those religious leaders had the power to pronounce death sentences.
Passover, the annual celebration of Israel’s liberation from slavery and God’s victory over Pharaoh, always had the potential to be politically explosive. Roman authorities never knew when some Galilean or other agitator would stir up riots against the despised Romans.
In John’s scene between Jesus and Pilate, Pilate is as much on trial as Jesus. Pilate, charged with maintaining Roman rule in Judea, does not consider Jesus a threat to the Peace of Rome or Pax Romana. So, what is Pilate’s goal in questioning Jesus? Pilate likely believes himself to be the most influential person in Jerusalem, but Pilate is fearful and anxious.
The Jewish leaders at the Temple want Jesus executed. If Pilate does not give them what they want, how can he maintain his authority and control? Does Pilate have enough troops to quell the Jews should trouble arise? How will it play in Rome if he cannot handle Jerusalem on his watch? So when Pilate summons Jesus and asks him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Does Pilate honestly believe Jesus is an insurrectionist? No! Pilate seeks a technicality with which he can condemn Jesus and placate the Jewish leaders. As Pilate asks that question designed to catch Jesus in a capital offense, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus knows that this question is a trap. Jesus seeks to expose the real Pilate, who is fearful and desperate to stay in control and please Rome and the Jewish religious authorities.
I hear Jesus’ question echoed in Mark, Matthew, and Luke. In each synoptic Gospel, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” (Mark 8:27-29, Matthew 16:15-17, and Luke 9: 18-20) Pilate’s question, “Are you King of the Jews?” Jesus’ answer: “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate is stumped. He affirms only that he is not a Jew and defers to the Temple authorities who have requested Jesus’ condemnation.
On this Sunday, the church proclaims The Reign of Christ. His realm is not of this world but of God’s Realm. The church declares that it listens only to Jesus Christ and affirms that it does not give allegiance to any other person than Christ. The church lives out its foundational belief through loving God and neighbor. We show that we are Christians through our love.
This Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving. Our Turkey Raffle raises funds to partner with our neighbors and show our goodwill. We celebrate as a nation the lowly and hungry Pilgrims who found help and life-giving assistance from Native Americans who shared food and showed kindness to our actual church ancestors. We are the Pilgrims.
Those who came to settle Plymouth Plantation were not Puritans. When the Mayflower landed in Provincetown in 1620, the Mayflower’s passengers were not welcomed. Their church is the foundation of our church. Their Bible was the Geneva Bible, not the King James Version. The Geneva Bible was the first English translation and did not promote the hierarchy found in the King James Bible. Thanksgiving celebrates Congregational faith and understanding of Christ’s voice in our lives.
The persecuted Pilgrims possessed only one Bible when they came to this continent. It was the Geneva Bible, the English translation that freed the people to read and hear the Word of God through their language and allow for their independent understanding of God’s Word. They rejected the King James Version, which they found to centered on earthy understanding of king and kingdom.
In the Geneva Bible, Pilate throws his hands in the air and replies after questioning Jesus:
John 18: 38 Pilate said unto him, “What is Truth?” And when he had said that, he went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him no cause at all.
39 “But you have a custom that I should deliver you one loose at the Passover: will ye then that I loose unto you the King of the Jews?”
40 Then cried they all again, saying, “Not him, but Barabbas:” now this Barabbas was a murderer.
Jesus makes an offer to Pilate. “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” Jesus said to Pilate. Even to Pilate, Jesus offers to be the good shepherd whose authority comes from God, for Jesus is God incarnate and knows what must come to pass. God’s new Covenant through Christ is mercy and love, which offers justice for all. Jesus always offers abundant life rooted in the love of God, neighbor, and self. Let us hear the words of Jesus and not the Truth of the mob who would seek the release of a convicted criminal who the crowd frees and will unleash chaos, ending with the fall of the Sacred City on a hill.
But to receive God means facing the Truth about our lives, the Truth Jesus holds up before us. Pilate refuses to face that Truth. “What is truth?” he declares dismissively. What about those confronted by Jesus as this text is read today? Jesus still offers the invitation to be authentic about how it is with us and to be led by the shepherding sovereign into abundant life.