Checkmate?

Sermon for the feast of Christ the King preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury 

If He were a common criminal,

why would you give Him

even the time of day?

If He were a common criminal

you'd take one look

and hand Him over

to your Sadducee friends

and your old chum Caiaphas

with permission 

to crucify Him at their pleasure.

So why not?

Why talk with this man

at all?

Is it because possibly, 

just possibly,

He really is 

The King of the Jews?

[PAUSE]

If He isn't a king,

then it's not a problem

He can just go to that place...

Calvary...Golgotha...

whatever it's called.

If He is a king,

then we've got to be careful,

because he has followers

- a kingdom!

soldiers!

an army!

And peace in Jerusalem

is fragile at the best of times.

So we need to check Him out.

Is He a king?

His reply is strange.

What does He mean 

when He asks

whether we know this ourselves 

or whether someone told us?

Do we look Jewish?

Of course, someone told us!

This man in front of us

is here because

His own people,

His own priests,

have brought Him here.

Thinking about it,

that doesn't really

make Him a king does it?

If the people have given Him over.

If the chief priests have given Him over.

He can't be a king,

can He?

Unless there is some Civil War

brewing amongst the Jews.

And Civil War would

be a big deal.

We need to keep control

or Emperor Tiberius

will have our guts for garters

for losing Judaea.

This man has followers

and that's the problem -

He's causing trouble.

What has He done?

Yes, what has He done?

[PAUSE]

His kingdom is not of this world?

Well, that's true,

if His kingdom were of this world 

we'd already know about it

from the pitch battles

and struggles and blood.

He wouldn't be here

in front of us

all beaten up by the Jews.

Is He a king, then?

[PAUSE]

So we are right to call Him king!

But the way He understands 

Himself to be king

is not the way

that we understand 

being a King to mean.

He says that He is 

a witness to the Truth.

What is Truth?

The man's a philosopher!

And philosophers aren't a threat.

He hasn't done anything wrong.

And that's the truth.

They have brought Him here

because they envy Him.

He is getting more followers

than they are

but His armies

are not armies the Imperial Army

needs to worry about.

It's them kicking up the fuss,

not this man,

standing here,

bruised and bloody,

controlled and meek,

no angry words,

no screaming for mercy,

no ranting and raving.

He's in perfect control

of this whole situation.

It's as if He knew that 

this was coming

and He is ready 

to do battle with it.

Perhaps He is a king!

He has a kingdom 

in His followers.

He has a battle plan.

He has the bearing 

and dignity of a King

and has done nothing wrong.

How can we convict Him?

We will flog Him 

to show that we are boss

and we'll let Him go.

We can let Him go.

We rule Judaea.

Of course we can let Him go.

We can let Him go,

can't we?

Can't we just let Him go?

We can't, can we?