November 26 2006 At Saint Mark Norman, OK
Daniel 7:13-14 – Revelation 1:5-8 + John 18:33-37
“What have you done?” asks Pilot, the judge. “What have you done?” says the Roman to the Jew? Pilot is power. Jesus is servant. Pilot has heard the word “Kingdom”, and he’s interested, but he is a political man who wants to clarify this word, “Kingdom.” Jesus is a spiritual man. For him, “King” is Pilot’s word. Pilot is the one using it. The Spiritual man has a different view. He is a witness to the truth. He lives within and by his life reveals the ultimate relationship to God and creation. Those fixated on power cannot open this spiritual depth. Those aware of and seeking the spiritual will hear the voice of Jesus.The truth they know will draw them to the truth he is.
What it all boils down to is foregoing force. It is an awesome decision. The contrast between Pilot and Jesus is not the only one in this larger scene. There is also the contrast between Peter and Jesus. The preemptive strike of Peter in the garden seizing a sword and cutting off an ear provokes a response from Jesus: “No more of this.” Jesus who has spent his entire ministry getting people to hear his word restores the man’s ear. What he teaches is that the beginning of violence is the end of dialogue. Combatants can no longer hear one another: not just national, racial, or religious combatants. It works in our homes as well.
The other night while on vacation, I was awakened by a violent, vicious argument
in a condo somewhere in the building. A man and a woman were screaming at one another and throwing things. They could not hear one another, but I could. I wasn’t in the fight, and suddenly as I listened and prayed for them, I got the point: ears have to be restored for violence to end. Foregoing force includes not making threats. If we do not get the revelation of divine love and are not attracted to it, there will be no threats of terror or punishment. If you do not get the revelation of divine love and are not attracted to it, you will not be judged slow or inadequate or dismissed as unloved or unwanted. There are no winners and losers in the spiritual realm or in the eyes of God.
Foregoing force is an awesome decision. It did not work with Pilot who could not hear the voice of Jesus and dismissed it briskly: “What is Truth?” he sneers. At that moment the conversation ends. Every time the conversation ends, there is darkness and sadness. We must learn the very real difference between discussion and conversation. There is too much similarity between discussion and percussion or concussion. In a discussion, ideas and sometimes people are batted around, and some are accepted some are dismissed. However, with conversation there is a free flowing of meaning shared by all involved. People come to a revelation of truth together. Conversation which leads to conversion was preferred by Jesus who set aside force for the sake of truth.
This is the mystery of God revealed. A God who does not force, threaten, exclude, nor punish. The God revealed in Jesus the Word Made Flesh is God who wants to continue the conversation planned at the beginning. Human freedom is essential to that plan and to that conversation. When that human freedom is not capable of responding affirmatively, divine love continues the conversation. Christ is not king because he can bend human will with his might or force us by power to submit to the Father’s will. Christ is king because out of love he foregoes force and continues to talk. Peter may cut off ears. Jesus restores them. Near his death, Jesus has a royal robe of power stripped away, and the more I ponder that crucifix before which we gather again and again, I see him in his finest robe: a towel which he himself chose and wrapped around himself refusing power and force choosing instead service and sacrifice.
Those who hope to rise from the dead and live forever shall certainly do the same, because they know that the day will come when the question will be asked of us all: “What have you done?”