Sermon – Christ the King

When I first introduced myself to you, I noticed that I omitted one important bit. And so people have had to ask me where you from? So, I am from Nigeria. I will like to share the experience of my journey to the UK.

My husband’s parents lived and worked in UK in the 50’s and my husband was born and partly brought up here, went back with his parents and came back on his own as a grown man working and  fulfilling his citizen duties. Then came the need to fulfil his desire of having his children/wife join him, he took 2wks. Off work to collect us little did we know it wasn’t going to be on a platter of gold, at our interview his passport was seized despite the fact that he had proved himself beyond all reasonable doubt.

Why we asked, - you ought to get it through the high commission in Nigeria and not straight from the home office. But they’ve had his application in for over a year and did nothing about it. Knowing his right he applied direct to Home office and within three weeks it was sent to him. So the issue was power tussle between the high commission and home office.

He fought for his right, got it reissued this time with the children inclusive.  Then I had to go for a visa but to my greatest disbelieve the woman in authority looking at a happy family with three children age 8, 6, and 2  could pronounce no visa for their mum to be with them and advised that my husband should go with the children as they are British citizens, settle down and then can apply for mum to join them.

This meant turning a working class man into a house wife with no job psychologically crushed down a whole family. This made me wonder what we can do with our powers when we find ourselves in position of authority.

In today’s reading Jesus was handed over to Pilate by the high priest and his people for trial. Let’s see what followed, It will be wise to note that the religious authorities are very devout in that they do not want to enter Pilate’s headquarters since to do so meant entering the house of a Gentile thereby  will become unfit to eat the Passover meal. Yet they do not hesitate to make a case for destroying Jesus, the agent of God.

The Jews have two circumstances under which a person can be killed -   blasphemy or adultery and here they accused Jesus and brought him before Pilate to be sentenced and to die by crucifixion, the Scriptures which told of the way he was to die were fulfilled.

The Jewish rulers set Jesus up as the king, which would have been a threat to the Roman government. Hence Pilate has only one legitimate concern, and that is whether Jesus poses a threat to Rome.  If Jesus is assuming the role of king, that is a treason punishable by death.  Pilate, however, senses that Jesus is not the pretender to the throne that he is accused of being.

The Romans and the Jews both knew that a king had absolute power. Several arose claiming the military and political power to lead in rebellion against Rome and restore the power of the Jews. Many had tried and had failed. Putting Jesus in line with these political leaders would guarantee action from Rome. And this action would mean that Jesus would no longer pose a threat to the Jewish religious leaders.

Now Pilate in his own dilemma, I can visualize him going back and forth between the inner and the outer courts where the crowd gathered seeking clarity and trying to make a decision, finally, he succumbed to the Jewish leaders desire and gave Jesus away to be crucified just to please the Jewish leaders so as to maintain his popularity.

How many times have any of us had to sell our conscience and ignore justice to please ourselves or someone else? How have people use their powers in our world today?

The fact is that ultimately the one who has the power, of course, is Jesus. This power of Jesus comes not from war but from peace. It comes not from hate but from love. The rule of Christ reverses the world rule of domination, violence, economic exploitation and massive weapons of warfare. The rule of Christ replaces this world vision of kingship with peace, health, healing, wholeness and salvation. The way Jesus conducted himself during this trial being spiritual and peaceful revealed that he was backed by power from on high. Even Pilate himself in the end acknowledged this in the inscription he wrote – ‘Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews’.

When we say that Jesus is the king, what do we mean as Christians? What do we believe about Christ as King?

We must always remember that Jesus does not define himself as king by ascribing to be king of a certain group of people or ascribing to a certain parcel of land.

He was a servant king, the suffering servant (the messiah) Isaiah prophesied of, Humble and obedient. In Jesus God has come near to us and in Jesus royalty came to live among us.

I believe that anyone who has had a true encounter with Christ is changed and has a deeper piece of the truth.  The mystery of Jesus’ sacrifice of his life for mankind is experienced during baptism which marks the beginning of our journey of faith.

In baptism we acknowledge Christ as the son of God and our personal saviour; we die with Christ to resurrect with Him in newness of life. We are cleansed and filled with the spirit of Christ.

Today we’ll witness the baptism of Richard Ojo and we’ll all join in the affirmation of our believe in God and Christ as his son. What message is there for us? – It reminds us that Jesus calls us to change. He demands that we dethrone ourselves and live instead for him as our king. He commands us to throw our crowns at his feet and start living lives of submission and obedience to him.

For when the truth of Christ enters our lives, we are set free to live, to learn to love, to grow, to care and to teach.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.