|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Christ the King
Scripture John 18:33-37 33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35 Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “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.”
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This day caps the Christian year by professing that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. The reading for this week centers around the theme of kingship. Kingship could be a difficult concept for many of us to actually understand because we have not experienced living under the rule of a king. This scripture leaves me with many questions. How do I hear the unique kingship of Jesus today? This being the last Sunday in the Christian year, I look back over this past year to evaluate what progress I have made this year. I have not progressed as far as expected at the beginning of the Christian year but more than some expected.The most meaningful of these verses is the last. “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” This week I heard the voice of Jesus in the words written by Marjorie Suchocki. The purpose of grace is to restore the image of God that was lost through the corruption of human nature consequent upon Adam’s fall. Restoration of God’s image, in turn, involves repentance of sin through prevenient grace, pardon from sin through justifying grace, and growth in love through sanctifying grace…….Grace connotes the bending of God to meet our need, and our deepest need is restoration to God’s image. The ground of grace is the very nature of God as unbounded love, manifested in the work of God through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. 1 Suchocki helps me answer the question about the kingship of Jesus. I discover the process of how God works in the restoration of the image of God within me. The whole Christian is involved in the process of Christian growth. This process has helped me through the past year and will provide the resources for the new Christian year. It is a contradiction in terms, then, to imagine a faith without works of love. Since it is grace that enables the whole process-repentance, justification, sanctification-the whole of Christian life is a work of grace. 2 “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Believing that I belong to the truth, I continue to listen to Jesus’ voice. I may not always listen attentively as I should or follow directions exactly but grace will make the difference. If all goes well, I could understand the kingship of Jesus more fully this time next year through God’s grace.
1 Marjorie Suchocki. “Wesleyan Grace” in The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies, Edited by William J. Abraham and James E. Kirby. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. p. 542-543
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
