WHEN KINGDOMS COLLIDE
a sermon based on John 18:33-38a
by Rev. Rick Thompson

     We know what happens, don’t we, when kingdoms collide.

     When kingdoms collide, we can anticipate the result: chaos, destruction, and death.  Always, there is death.

     In the 4 years of the American Civil War, 618,000 soldiers from North and South died on the battlefield, or as a result of battlefield wounds, or from disease.  8.5 million people died in World War I.  In Russia, between the First and Second World Wars, Josef Stalin is thought to have ordered the deaths of 20 million of his own country’s citizens.  In World War II, 50 million people died, including the 12 million executed in Nazi death camps.  In the Korean Conflict, well over a million soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians died.  More than 58,000 Americans and nearly 600,000 Viet Namese died in the Viet Nam war.  And, in Iraq, we know that our military deaths are approaching 3,000, an estimated 200,000 civilians have been killed, and the carnage and chaos seem to be increasing day by day.

     Yes, we know what happens when kingdoms collide.  The predictable result is death.

     In this Gospel story—one portion of a larger story of Jesus appearing before Pontius Pilate—we are told of the collision of two kingdoms.

     One of the kingdoms—the mighty Roman Empire—is represented by Pilate, who interrogates Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”—or, more accurately, King of the Judeans.  We read between the lines, and assume that the Jewish leaders who brought Jesus to Pilate are accusing Jesus of claiming to be a King.  So Pilate, backed up by the enormous power of Rome, puts the question to Jesus—“Are you the King of the Judeans?”

     And Jesus, although he doesn’t answer that question directly, does not deny being a king of some kind, “My kingdom is not from this world.  If it were…my followers would be fighting….But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

     Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “I have no kingdom.”  No, he says, “My kingdom is not from here.”

     So here we have it—the collision of two kingdoms: Pilate, representative of earthly empire, and Jesus, king of some other kind of realm.

     And we know what will happen: there will be death.

     In fact, we’re about to come to the critical point in the story: Jesus will die.  Pilate, backed Rome’s power, will win—and Jesus will die.  Jesus will be sentenced to death, and tortured, and killed in a most horrible way—executed on a cross.

     In his conversation with Pilate, Jesus talks about “truth,” and Pilate sneers, “What is truth?”  And then he gives his own answer: truth belongs to the one who can destroy the other.  The truth is, as they say, “the one who has the most toys, wins.”  In Pilate’s eyes, power, earthly, political power is truth!

     But Pilate doesn’t really know who he’s contending with here.  He hasn’t caught on to the source of the power of Jesus.  “I came to bear witness to the truth,” Jesus had said.  And earlier, Jesus had said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”

     If Jesus is right, then Pilate is looking Truth right in the face and doesn’t even know it when he asks Jesus, “And what is truth?”

     But Jesus will show him.

     Jesus will show Pilate—and all the world, all those who are on the side of Pilate—that truth is expressed not through raw power, but by suffering, sacrificial love. 

     And that kind of love has power!

     History, as we noted, is full of reminders about the typical gory and brutal outcome when kingdoms collide.

     But history is also full of lessons about the power of the human spirit, the power of God, to change lives and change the course of history.

     Mahatma Gandhi led a non-violent struggle which resulted in India’s independence from Great Britain.  What weapons did Gandhi possess?  Weapons of the spirit—the willingness to sacrifice, the determination that his cause was just, and the support of millions of India’s poorest people, all of them unarmed.

     Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., armed with similar spiritual weapons, led the civil rights movement in this country which won equality under the law for millions of people of color in America.

     Mother Teresa, filled with nothing but the love of Christ, touched the lives of millions for the better by touching and caring for the poorest of the poor as they were dying.

     They stood for Truth—the truth of God, the truth that love is stronger than political and military might.

      Certainly that is one lesson of the end of the story of Jesus, for his story didn’t end with his horrible, humiliating death. For Jesus rose up in triumph from the grave, lives eternally, and rules—even now—with the power of God, the power of suffering, sacrificial love.  Pilate is long gone and largely forgotten—except for his role in the story of Jesus—but Jesus—Jesus is still exercising his power—the power of truth and love and life!

     Love is stronger than death—that’s a truth of life in the kingdom of Jesus.

     And life is stronger than death.  Life, and not death, has the last word when Jesus is the King!

     That’s the kind of kingdom, that’s the kind of power Jesus embodies—power that cannot be held even by death!

     Try to top that one, Pilate!

     Usually, when kingdoms collide, the result is death.

     But it’s different in this encounter!  The strongest one wins, but that one is NOT Pilate—not the one with military and political might..  The strongest one wins, and that one IS Jesus!  Jesus, whose love and life are stronger than death!

     And the outcome is not death, but life—life for Jesus, life for the world, life for you and me!

     Yes, that’s the truth!  That’s the truth.

     And because Jesus is the Truth, the living one—stronger than death—and the powerful one, who rules over all creation, it’s really Pilate who’s on trial in this scene.  The way the story is written emphasizes that.  When we read the whole scene—again today’s reading is just one small section—we see Pilate going in and out, in and out of his headquarters—seven times altogether.  Inside, he confronts Jesus, and is convinced of Jesus’ innocence.  Outside, he is confronted by a group of hostile Jewish leaders who want Jesus dead and want Pilate to execute the prisoner.  Pilate waffles.  Pilate wavers.  Pilate is on trial, and finally he makes his decision—Jesus is not the Truth.  “I possess the truth,” Pilate insists, “because, after all, I have enormous political and military power.”  And so Pilate makes his decision: Jesus MUST die!

     And John, in writing this scene, wants us to put ourselves in Pilate’s place.  We are on trial.  We are being asked, “What is truth?”  Is truth what the world says it is, or is truth embodied in Jesus?  And, if Jesus is the truth, will we follow him at any cost?

     As Hitler rose to power in Germany and prepared to launch what became known as World War II, Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran pastor, was among those who discerned that Hitler’s claims were both dangerous and idolatrous.  Niemoeller resisted Hitler.  One time he preached a sermon—and we remember the title Hitler claimed, don’t we—“Fuehrer”?—a sermon entitled Jesus Is My Fuehrer.  Niemoeller was eventually imprisoned by the Nazis, but survived to tell his story and preach again.

     Jesus was Niemoeller’s King—and his loyalty cost him dearly.  His loyalty to Jesus could have cost him his life.

     Are you and I willing to swear allegiance to Jesus as our King, our Lord, our ultimate Ruler—no matter what the possible cost?

     Are we willing to stand up for what we believe is the Truth—that love and life are stronger than might and death?

     When kingdoms collide death usually results.

     But when one of the kingdoms is the kingdom of God, the final outcome is life!

     Do we believe that? 

     Do we believe that enough to remain passionately loyal to Jesus?

     Do we believe that enough to follow Jesus—the One who went to his death, knowing the final outcome would be life: his own life, and life for all the world—including you and me?

     Do we believe that—and will we follow, follow Jesus as our King?