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In my study I have a wonderful framed photograph of part of the East Window in Bleasdale Church, Lancashire, where I used to be Vicar. It is a magnificent image of Christ the King, seated on a throne, holding the Orb and raising his hand in blessing.  The photo was given to me as part of my leaving present mainly because I had often told them that when I left I would be taking the window with me. I had gazed on it for ten years and it still revealed new things to me.

It speaks of Christ’s Majesty and Glory and of His Victory over Death. His hand in blessing is extended to the whole world which is depicted as a rainbow flowing from the throne. Above the crowned head are the letters IHS – a Greek symbol for the Holy Name of Jesus – and at his feet there is an open bible with the letters Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end of the Greek Alphabet but which is from the end of the Book of Revelation which we heard as our New Testament Reading this morning – I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

The whole thing is rather splendid and in keeping with today’s Festival of Christ the King. Traditionally this is kept on the last Sunday of the Church Year to sum up all that has gone before as we have been led by the Church to contemplate the life of Christ – the saving events of His birth, his life and teaching, his death and resurrection; His ascension and the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost and the way in which Christ has been lived out and witnessed to in the early Church. This Church year which has taught us so much about the things of God ends with Christ’s enthronement as Lord and King when everything is gathered up by our Risen, Ascended, Glorified Christ to the throne of heaven.

Our Gospel today gives a glimpse of this when Jesus claims his Kingship but in circumstances that are very different. We are taken back to Holy Week to the beginning of Good Friday when Jesus, already accused, faced the death penalty. He stands before Pilate who examines him closely about who he is.  We already know the result of that examination – of how Pilate hands him over to be Crucified but just in that moment you sense Pilate grappling to understand why Jesus has been brought before him and, even more importantly, just who He was.

The Lebanese spiritual writer, Kahlil Gibran, in a book of meditations about Jesus has a passage about Pilate’s thoughts when Jesus stood before him.  In this Pilate watches Jesus coming towards him as the Roman Governor sits on a dais.

I cannot fathom what came over me, Pilate says, but it was suddenly my desire, though not my will, to rise and go down from the dais and fall before him.  I felt as if Caesar had entered the Hall, a man greater than Rome itself.

But Pilate was afraid of the crowd who were braying for Jesus’ death and the religious leaders who with spectacular cunning appealed to Caesar as their leader – a fact that they had otherwise strenuously denied.

In all the intrigue which surrounded this trial and the motives which had brought this prophet and teacher to stand before him, Pilate became concerned about the Truth. Like any good Judge he longed to uphold the Truth as an act of Justice but it was less and less clear to him where truth lay. His heart knew that it did not lie in the charges trumped up against Jesus but his heart was ruled by his head. The crowd were now a dangerous rabble. Incited by the Religious leaders they were slowly but noisily becoming a force which threatened to spill over into violence at a time when feelings were already running high because of the Passover Feast.

This religious event brought with it the vivid re-enactment of Israel’s delivery from slavery and bondage in Egypt. The rule of Rome was no different to them than the oppression of the Egyptians. Anything, one small thing could ignite their passions and lead to riot and violent uprising. And that small thing, as Pilate knew only too well, was Jesus.  Even so, he struggled.

Are you the King of the Jews?
Everything rested on this.
Our Lord’s response frightened him.
My Kingdom is not of this world…
You are a King then.

The exchange between them became less of a trial between Judge and accused and more a philosophical discussion about Kingship, about God’s Kingship and about Truth.  That word again!  It perplexed Pilate.

What is truth, what is truth

Kahil Gibran’s meditation of Pilate again:

Behold a man speaking of truth at such a moment.
In my impatience I said aloud, to myself as much as to Him, ‘What is truth? And what is truth to the guiltless when the hand of the executioner is already upon him?’
Then Jesus said with power, None shall rule the world save with the Spirit and truth.
And I asked Him saying, ‘Are you of the Spirit?’
He answered, ‘So are you also, though you know it not.’
And what was the Spirit and what was truth, when, I for the sake of the State, and they from jealousy for their ancient rites, delivered an innocent man unto His death?
No man, no race, no empire would halt before a truth on its way towards self-fulfilment

Pilate was always faced with a difficult choice – as he wrestled with his conscience he also had to preserve the Peace of Rome and he couldn’t do that if he stirred up an insurrection by freeing Jesus.  His hands were tied as surely as Jesus was bound to the Cross and we may think him a weak man but in a strange sort of way he was fulfilling God’s will.  Without Pilate Jesus would have been denied His throne – the Cross.  And it was on that Cross that Pilate made his final judgement for he had an inscription nailed above our Lord’s head:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS

And if any doubted Pilate’s intention, he had it written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.

The Cross became the Throne from which, it turned out, God ruled the world in that odd kind of paradox which is the way of God. What seems to be one thing is actually another.  It was on the Cross that Christ’s Kingly rule of love found its deepest expression. 

We do not know what happened to poor Pilate afterwards beyond that he was re-called from Palestine to Rome but we can believe what Kahlil Gibran wrote at the end of his meditation:

‘And within myself I ask again and again, What is truth and what is not truth?

And it is a question that not only Pilate must wrestle with but so must we.  What is the Truth of Jesus Christ for you?

It is easy to say today that Christ is King but of what is He King?  Of heaven, certainly;  of earth, completely;  of the Church most definitely  - but here’s the rub: is He King of your lives?

Is He King of your lives in the same way that he was King of the lives of the saints who died to self in many and various ways so that they could live in Christ?  These were the Courtiers who sought the King of Heaven and lived on earth in such a way that they could enter his throne room and know that they had come home.  They had witnessed in their lives to the King whose Crown was made of Thorns, whose sceptre was a lance plunged deep into his side; whose Orb was a world broken, divided and torn apart by sin and who, instead of rich robes was stripped of his garments for a Coronation that nailed him to a Cross.  Yet in that suffering He ruled with love.

Those who know the costly rule of love in their own lives – who are prepared to suffer for love’s sake and who never stop loving even when to do so is painful and sorrowful and hurtful – these can claim to be our Lord’s Kingly subjects.  Those who enthrone him in their hearts and who bow before him and worship with reverence and awe because they know the truth of love, are amazed by it, enlivened by it, live by it – these are the ones who stand before His throne and as the Hymn Crown Him with Many Crowns puts it – Hail Him as the matchless King.

Are you to be numbered amongst them?
Is Jesus Christ King and lord of your hearts?
Can He be found enthroned in your heart?
Will we find Him loving and loving from within you?
Can you kneel before Him and love Him in return? 

Big Questions and all must be answered if we are to discover an answer to Pilate’s Question about truth.  I came into the world to testify to the truth says Jesus at the end of today’s Gospel – and that truth is bound up with the Love which in our Baptismal Service we say Claims us for His own. 

How true is that for you?  On the answer to that question hangs your destiny. You cannot shirk it. 

Let me end with some words of  Isaac of  Star a monk and school-friend of Thomas a Becket. If we take them to heart we will be well on the way to enthroning Christ our king in our hearts:

Blessed is the soul that never forgets nor lets go of the child Jesus.
More blessed still that soul which ever meditates on the grown Jesus.
But more blessed is that soul which ever contemplates the immense Jesus….
..and so let the Son of God grow in you, for He is formed in you.
Let Him become immense in you and, from you, may he become a great smile and exaltation and perfect joy which no one can take from you.

And which all can see and know that for you, Christ is indeed King.