Throughout the day, we have been standing with Our Lord Jesus as He stands before Pontius Pilate. We have spent today gazing upon this one scene looking at all the aspects of what it means to be king and it brings us back to this meeting of leaders. What we witness here is a struggle between kingdoms and yet only one is a real kingdom.
This is a strange struggle, though, as we don't see soldiers fighting. Our Lord says that He has legions of angels at His command and yet He will not use them. The battle we are witnessing is not like anything we know. No cannons roaring or bullets flying; no swords nor spears; no skirmish or battle cry - at least none we recognise and yet, here, in the Roman Governor's office a battle is raging between kings.
[PAUSE]
Kingship involves imposing control somehow. Every king must face the struggle of exercising their will. Some do this by brute force; some do this by persuasion and diplomacy; some do this by careful manipulation.
How does Jesus rule?
[PAUSE]
God rules by the sheer act of creation. Things are as they are because He wills it. He says as much:
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
The truth is what really is. We owe our existence to God: only He makes things exist. More than that, God uses the very existence of things to communicate with us. We know that the Heavens are telling the glory of God. They have no speech or language and yet their sound has gone out into all lands. This is the truth that we hear and what we hear is the voice of God.
[PAUSE]
Kings exercise control in order to impose their will whatever the motivation behind that will may be. The truth of God's kingship is that it is motivated by goodness and love for us. His will is to love. He does not seek to dominate us. He does not seek to terrorise us or gain some pleasure by pitting us against each other. He does not play with our lives or seek some demeaning services from us. We are indeed to serve Him but in serving Him we find true joy.
We have a king who truly has our best interests at heart.
As He stands before Pilate, Our Lord is intent on proclaiming this truth that He is here to save us from evil and that, in a few hours time, He will do that on the Cross. That is His declaration of sincerity. It is His new covenant with us.
[PAUSE]
The rule of a king depends on those who accept his authority. The struggle is with those who do not accept it. Standing before Pilate, Our Lord is struggling. He struggles not against Pilate, nor against Pharisees, or Rome or the world: if He were then these would not stand. Christ fights against all the forces of Evil which have infected us since Adam and Eve.
He fights and His victory is our freedom. We are fully free to choose and that is God's victory on our behalf for true love allows the beloved to make a free choice. The truth will set us free. We could, like the Devil, choose to reject God and that distance from God will be ours for Eternity.
Or we could accept the rule of Christ and see the truth. That truth will open our eyes to own selves and we shall behold His glory as the One Who sits upon the throne. His control over Creation gives us life and this life with Him will be Eternal.
No comments:
Post a Comment