He Shall Reign Forever
Daniel 7:13-14; John 18:33-38[1]
One of the challenges
of holding on to our Christian faith, hope, and love in times like these is
that it may not seem to do much good. We are surrounded by images of what
passes for “power” in this world, and it doesn’t seem to have much to do with
faith, or hope, or love. In our world, power is defined by the ability to force
others to do your bidding. That can take the form of troops and tanks and
bombs. Or it can take the form of “arm-twisting” intimidation. All too often,
power comes from having enough wealth to “buy” people to do what you want. The
way power works in our world has very little to do with faith, or hope, or
love.
We’d like to think
that there was a time when we were more wary of that kind of blatant abuse of
power. But if you read history carefully, you find that there have always been
those who were willing to do whatever it took to wield power simply for their
own benefit. While we criticize those who did so in the past, we can be
infatuated with those who do so now. The notion that it would be “cool” to
“have that much power” can be found in the minds of everyone from children
idolizing their heroes to aging politicians clinging desperately to the last
remains of their fading influence.
The situation wasn’t
much different in Jesus’ day. The Jewish people lived under the control of the
Roman empire. And whenever anyone tried to buck them, they had the most
powerful army in the world to put them back in their place. Roman Governors
like Pontius Pilate didn’t hesitate to unleash the legions on unarmed crowds of
men, women, and children to keep a firm grip on their power. The Jewish people
also lived under the control of their religious leaders. Then as now, while
there were many who were sincere, it seems that there were plenty who were willing
to abuse their position to manipulate the people and to maintain their own position
and wealth.
That’s the background
for the scene in our Gospel lesson for today. After making a show of
interrogating Jesus, the “chief priests” brought him to Pilate to have him
executed. Although they could have had Jesus stoned to death, they wanted him
crucified by the Romans. They used their influence over the people to force
Pilate to do their bidding. They “played their hand” shrewdly, publicly
claiming that if he didn’t execute Jesus, the “king of the Jews,” Pilate would
be disloyal to the Roman emperor. As if they cared about that!
And so Pilate’s
private interview with Jesus was about true power. Of course, Jesus was bound,
at the mercy of the Jewish religious leaders, on trial before the Roman
governor. I think Pilate’s question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” would have
been dripping with irony, because by all appearances Jesus had no power
whatsoever. But Jesus said, “my kingdom is not of this world,” meaning that his
authority was completely different from Pilate’s notions of power. In fact,
later when Pilate remarked over Jesus’ failure to recognize his power, Jesus
answered, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from
above” (Jn 19:11).
I think Jesus was
talking about something that was beyond Pilate’s grasp: the power of God’s kingdom
that would never end. It’s likely that Jesus was drawing on the visions in the
book of Daniel. There, God’s kingdom is likened to a great stone “cut out, not
by human hands” that crushed the powerful empires of the world (Dan 2:34). In
our lesson for today, Daniel’s vision of four beasts represented four kings
whose power would be taken away and replaced by “someone like a Son of Man” who
would establish God’s kingdom that would never end (Dan 7:13-14).
Although Pilate had no
clue what Jesus was talking about, I would say that Jesus was giving him a
lesson in real power. Pilate had bought into the image of power through force,
through intimidation, and through wealth. But Jesus had a much bigger image of
power. He knew that the true power in this universe is the reign of God. It’s
one of the basic affirmations of the Bible, and we heard it in our lesson from
Psalm 93: God has always ruled as king, despite all appearances to the
contrary. And as the Book of Revelation reminds us, one day, “The kingdom of
the world” will become “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will
reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). God’s reign is the true reality behind
all the appearances of power in our world, and one day it will be fulfilled “on
earth as it is in heaven.”
I think we need that
kind of “bigger picture” to help us through times like these. When all we see
reinforces the appearance that power in this world comes from force, or
intimidation, or wealth, it can be discouraging to those of us trying to live
out our Christian faith, hope, and love. But the Bible gives us a different
image of power: it’s the image of the all-powerful God who created all things
in the beginning. It’s the image of the God who entered this world in the
person of Jesus to redeem us all with the power of love on the cross. It’s the
image of the power of new life defeating the power of death on Easter Sunday.
It’s the image of Jesus reigning over all the “powers” in our world at the
right hand of God even now. It’s the image of that reign fulfilled one day “on
earth as it is in heaven.” And the promise is that “he shall reign forever and
ever”! When we understand where we come from, to whom we belong, and who
ultimately defines our destiny, it helps us to face the challenge of our times.
[1] ©
2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 11/21/21 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
