Pastor Sermon

John 18:33-77

Revelation 1:4b-8

November 26, 2006

A Sermon By

The Rev. Dr. Paul O. Boger, Sr.

Some of you remember the old Perry Mason series on television with Raymond Burr. I understand they still play on some cable TV stations. I guess they have a sort of timeless appeal.

But, what, exactly, is the appeal?

The shows are rather predictable and, perhaps, that is their power. Although the crime committed may be perplexing, you always know that, by the end of the trial, Perry Mason is going to figure it out, and the perpetrator will blurt out, "Yes, yes, I did it. I killed her because I hated her."

We love stories that turn out as they are supposed to, where goodness is finally vindicated and wrong is exposed and punished.

A few years ago, my wife, Carolee spent the better part of a week as a jurist on a civil trial, and although she couldn’t talk about the trial while it was in progress, she would come home and simply say to me: "Guilty, Guilty." I guess the verdict appeared quite obvious to her from the outset of hearing testimony. And I guess the outcome appeared obvious to both sides in the trial since, on the last day of testimony, both sides settled out of court. So, I guess we can safely say that this was a trial that turned out the way it was supposed to turn out.

Come with me to another trial. Today's gospel is a scene from the trial of Jesus by Pilate. Jesus has been dragged before Pilate, because the claim was that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, the King of the Jews; that somehow in this so called Christ, God was there. So here’s Jesus, on trial with Pilate as his judge and jury, the man who is in charge of the Roman occupation forces in Judea. The trial is supposed to be a scene in which a bedraggled, powerless, poor, itinerant rabbi named Jesus stands trembling before the man who represents all of the power and might of Imperial Rome.

I believe Pilate thought this trial would turn out the way he thought it was supposed to turn out. Jesus would be set free. After all, in this Jesus God could not be there. Such thinking is absurd.

Yet scarcely has the trial before Pilate begun when we realize that this trial is not going to go the way we expected. As the trial proceeds we see Pilate getting a bit nervous. Soon he’s jumping around all over the place, moving back and forth seven times from one room to the next, biting his nails, uncertain, inept, frightened of the crowd outside, indecisive.

"Are you king of the Jews?" Pilate asks Jesus. Surely Pilate's question is meant as a joke. The Jews are a captive people. They have no army. Pilate stands there, backed up by a huge Roman occupation force. Pilate looks at this forlorn, whipped, and bleeding Jew and asks, "Are you king of the Jews?"

And Jesus responds, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" and we think the tables may be turning. Is this something you thought up yourself, or only a rumor, the report of your latest public opinion poll?

Again Pilate asks Jesus a question, "Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me; what have you done?" Jesus says, "My kingdom is not from this world."

With this answer we are beginning to get the point of this courtroom drama. The kingdoms of this world depend upon armies and violence for their power. Jesus says, "My kingdom is not from this world." Very interesting. "My kingdom is not from this world." What does this Jesus mean?

Jesus the defendant has, in a sense, become Jesus the prosecutor. Pilate the judge has, in a sense, become Pilate the defendant, standing sheepishly before Jesus the judge. One author has put this matter eloquently, when he writes:

"Every statement shows Pilate more and more confounded by this mysterious presence. Pilate is no poised diplomat; he is a ping-pong ball slapped back and forth between his public fears and his inner doubts. He pleads, he bullies, he begs, he vacillates, and finally he folds: "Then he handed Jesus over to them to be crucified" (John 19:16). The irony is clear: It is Jesus who is to be crucified, but it is Pilate and all like him who are defeated. It is Jesus who will suffer death, but it is the world that is perishing. (Whispering the Lyrics, Tom Long [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Co., 19951, P. 77.)"

I think John is saying something here about power, about the fragility and the illegitimacy of our kingdoms. I think an assault is being made upon our understanding of power and our understanding of governments. And I think that John is pointing us to a different way of understanding power and governments. To me, by the end of Jesus’ trial, the way of God breaks through and we are exposed to a different way of thinking about power and kingdoms.

Just like those memorable endings of the Perry Mason show, at the end the real criminal is made to confess, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, despite himself.

That’s what’s going on here: Are you a king? What have you done? What is truth? Where are you from? asks Pilate. Have you ever stopped to contemplate that Pilate’s blathering questions are really our questions? On Christ the King Sunday, as we look forward to Advent, and celebrating Jesus’ birth, do we not somehow ask: Are you king? What have you done? What is truth? Where are you from? As with Pilate, so with us, the way we answer those questions ultimately demonstrates what we actually think about Jesus, about power, about governments, indeed, about all of life.

In this trial John intends for you and me to be Pilate. He intends for us to answer: Is Jesus king? Has he done something significant? Is he truth? Is he of and from and for our kingdoms or governments?

In this trial, as Jesus goes head-to-head with the powers-that-be, John wants us to wrestle with the question: Do the powers of this world crumble before Christ’s power or not? He wants us to decide if God is there in Christ. He wants us to determine if we see ourselves as hapless victims of the powers of this world or as victors over this world because in Christ, God is there.

To day we focus on the Reign of Christ/ Christ the King Sunday. To claim Christ a king is to declare that there is no corner of creation that is utterly immune from his rule. To claim Christ as King is to claim that no power on this earth is greater than his power. This scene in Pilate's court begs us to answer: Does Jesus reign or not? Is it true that in Christ, God is there?

As we take our first steps into Advent 2006, next Sunday, we are offered the opportunity to begin a spiritual inner journey in relation to this mysterious, timeless, and potentially life and world shaping story people of faith have been telling for centuries.

When you walk away from here today and go back tomorrow morning to the routine of you life what questions will you mull over in your inner self? Will you ask: Is there nothing to fear because of the coming of Jesus? Has Jesus been where you are? Did he face this world and all of the world's accusations and triumph? Does Jesus reign? Will this coming Advent open to me a clearer understanding of what it means when we say, "In Christ, God is there?" Do I really believe that in Christ, God is there?

In Christ, God is There is the title of today’s sermon. That understanding is what brought Jesus to trial before Pilate. That understanding is the one we are asked to put on trial in our minds and lives.

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