| a_sermon_for_christ_the_king.docx |
A SERMON FOR CHRIST THE KING - NOVEMBER 24, 2024
“And That’s The Truth!”
Christ the King, November 24, 2024
John 18:33-37 and 38-40
It is time for a quick lesson in Hebrew. For some of you, some of this will be review.
How many of you have ever been to a Bar Mitzvah? Do you know what the words bar and mitzvah mean? Bar = son and mitzvah = covenant. So ‘son of the covenant.’ And if it is a girl, bat mitzvah’ means ‘daughter of the covenant.’ So you may have already learned two new Hebrew words today.
In today’s Gospel, when the crowd is asked by Pilate who they want released, they ask for Barabbas. So remembering what we’ve already learned, Barabbas is a name made of two Hebrew words mashed together: bar and abbas. Let’s take them apart. You already know that bar means son.
What about abba? Right! Father. So Bar Abba, or Barabbas means ‘son of the father.’
So the crowd, and by the crowd then I also mean us, today – we chose the son of the father (lower case) instead of the Son of the Father (upper case). And that’s the truth about us, isn’t it?
The truth we want is the one we can fashion for ourselves. The truth about human nature is that we seem always to make the choice we think will work out best for us in the long run. The truth about us is we want to be in control. We want to reign. Yeah, truth (lower case t) be told, we want to be king, even if that means deposing the one who has the only right to be the King.
I can’t remember too many times I ever played Truth or Dare. If it was about to be played, I would probably move to another room, or even leave. I do remember one time in high school, the youth group, which had helped with the annual Christmas Concert, was invited over to the choir director’s home for an after-party. We kids were hanging out in the den, the adults in the rest of the house. And there was nowhere else to go when Truth or Dare was started. I don’t remember what the truth choice was, but rather than disclose any deep dark secret about myself, I chose the dare, which was to wander through the rest of the house, amongst all the adults, on my hands and knees like a dog. Some of us can’t handle the truth, and will go to great lengths to avoid it.
I think Pilate was playing Truth or Dare with Jesus. At one point Jesus says, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate follows this with his famous question, “What is truth?” But look again at verse 38. “Pilate asks him, "What is truth?" But then it says, “After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again...” He didn’t want an answer and he didn’t wait long enough for Jesus to give one. He wanted to pay Truth or Dare his own way, and cut right to the dare. Daring the crowd outside to make their choice: a man who was clearly innocent in Pilate’s eyes, or a renowned revolutionary. But the dare backfired, and the crowd chose the wrong son of the father.
Centuries before, three women, all widows, stood at a crossroads. Naomi was returning to her native home in Bethlehem and begged her two daughters-in-law to stay behind, in their own country, and seek a better future. One of the young women, Ruth by name, refused, saying, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" Ruth 1:16-17
A very impassioned speech. With one curious aspect. What did Ruth mean when she said, “May the LORD to thus and so to me and more…”
She was making a covenant with Naomi. And covenants were sealed with the sacrifice of an animal. And as she said “May the LORD to thus and so to me and more…” she was very likely drawing her finger across her own throat, an imaginary blade, to symbolize a sacrifice and indicate the seriousness with which she made that vow.
I mention this because I believe Jesus may have done something of the same. When Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” I imagine Jesus’ answer including some sign language:
“You say that I am a king. For this (+) I was born, and for this (+) I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
In depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus between two others, on the hill called Golgotha, the cross of Jesus is usually the highest of the three. You could say at that moment he was king of the hill. And yet, even as he was physically raised to new heights, spiritually speaking, he was descending to the depths.
It is not on a white stallion that our king rides into battle, but on a cross. And it is in no other way that he defeats the enemy called death than by dying himself. And as he rides the cross into the depths, in so many words he says, “Do you remember that day when I stood at the opened tomb of my friend Lazarus and called to him? He listened to my voice. Well, right here and right now, from this cross as I, your king, am bleeding, I am calling out to anyone and everyone who has experienced any of the little deaths that life and other people can inflict.
And you know the little deaths of which I speak. You know the times you’ve felt
• Loneliness or rejection or abandonment
• Humiliation or shame
• Grief and loss
• Fear or worry
• Failure
• Exhaustion
• Brokenness
I know those times, through what others have done to you, or what you have done to yourself, the pain of those little deaths.
Hear my voice when I call to you. On the cross I know them all. That is where I, your King, have chosen to meet you.
And that’s the truth.
Amen.
Christ the King, November 24, 2024
John 18:33-37 and 38-40
It is time for a quick lesson in Hebrew. For some of you, some of this will be review.
How many of you have ever been to a Bar Mitzvah? Do you know what the words bar and mitzvah mean? Bar = son and mitzvah = covenant. So ‘son of the covenant.’ And if it is a girl, bat mitzvah’ means ‘daughter of the covenant.’ So you may have already learned two new Hebrew words today.
In today’s Gospel, when the crowd is asked by Pilate who they want released, they ask for Barabbas. So remembering what we’ve already learned, Barabbas is a name made of two Hebrew words mashed together: bar and abbas. Let’s take them apart. You already know that bar means son.
What about abba? Right! Father. So Bar Abba, or Barabbas means ‘son of the father.’
So the crowd, and by the crowd then I also mean us, today – we chose the son of the father (lower case) instead of the Son of the Father (upper case). And that’s the truth about us, isn’t it?
The truth we want is the one we can fashion for ourselves. The truth about human nature is that we seem always to make the choice we think will work out best for us in the long run. The truth about us is we want to be in control. We want to reign. Yeah, truth (lower case t) be told, we want to be king, even if that means deposing the one who has the only right to be the King.
I can’t remember too many times I ever played Truth or Dare. If it was about to be played, I would probably move to another room, or even leave. I do remember one time in high school, the youth group, which had helped with the annual Christmas Concert, was invited over to the choir director’s home for an after-party. We kids were hanging out in the den, the adults in the rest of the house. And there was nowhere else to go when Truth or Dare was started. I don’t remember what the truth choice was, but rather than disclose any deep dark secret about myself, I chose the dare, which was to wander through the rest of the house, amongst all the adults, on my hands and knees like a dog. Some of us can’t handle the truth, and will go to great lengths to avoid it.
I think Pilate was playing Truth or Dare with Jesus. At one point Jesus says, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate follows this with his famous question, “What is truth?” But look again at verse 38. “Pilate asks him, "What is truth?" But then it says, “After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again...” He didn’t want an answer and he didn’t wait long enough for Jesus to give one. He wanted to pay Truth or Dare his own way, and cut right to the dare. Daring the crowd outside to make their choice: a man who was clearly innocent in Pilate’s eyes, or a renowned revolutionary. But the dare backfired, and the crowd chose the wrong son of the father.
Centuries before, three women, all widows, stood at a crossroads. Naomi was returning to her native home in Bethlehem and begged her two daughters-in-law to stay behind, in their own country, and seek a better future. One of the young women, Ruth by name, refused, saying, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!" Ruth 1:16-17
A very impassioned speech. With one curious aspect. What did Ruth mean when she said, “May the LORD to thus and so to me and more…”
She was making a covenant with Naomi. And covenants were sealed with the sacrifice of an animal. And as she said “May the LORD to thus and so to me and more…” she was very likely drawing her finger across her own throat, an imaginary blade, to symbolize a sacrifice and indicate the seriousness with which she made that vow.
I mention this because I believe Jesus may have done something of the same. When Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” I imagine Jesus’ answer including some sign language:
“You say that I am a king. For this (+) I was born, and for this (+) I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
In depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus between two others, on the hill called Golgotha, the cross of Jesus is usually the highest of the three. You could say at that moment he was king of the hill. And yet, even as he was physically raised to new heights, spiritually speaking, he was descending to the depths.
It is not on a white stallion that our king rides into battle, but on a cross. And it is in no other way that he defeats the enemy called death than by dying himself. And as he rides the cross into the depths, in so many words he says, “Do you remember that day when I stood at the opened tomb of my friend Lazarus and called to him? He listened to my voice. Well, right here and right now, from this cross as I, your king, am bleeding, I am calling out to anyone and everyone who has experienced any of the little deaths that life and other people can inflict.
And you know the little deaths of which I speak. You know the times you’ve felt
• Loneliness or rejection or abandonment
• Humiliation or shame
• Grief and loss
• Fear or worry
• Failure
• Exhaustion
• Brokenness
I know those times, through what others have done to you, or what you have done to yourself, the pain of those little deaths.
Hear my voice when I call to you. On the cross I know them all. That is where I, your King, have chosen to meet you.
And that’s the truth.
Amen.