My Kingdom is not from this world!  Jesus gives us a clear picture of what a true King is when he says, “My Kingdom is not of this world!”

 

Here He is, bound and dragged in front of Pontius Pilate like a common criminal, bedraggled and harried from being up all night, questioned and taunted, and facing even more questions.  Not much like a King as we imagine it.

 

If you close your eyes and think of the word “King!” - what do you imagine – what do you see?  Do you see a European Storybook King from the middle ages with long ermine robes and a tall jewelled crown?  Do you picture an Eastern King in a turban with curly-toed slippers and multi-coloured silk caftan.  Do you see a modern King in a military uniform like the Kaiser?  When you hear the word, “King”, do you see Elvis? (“Thank yuh verra much, Ah’m the King o’ Rock and Roll!”)

 

In most cases, the external signs that go along with a human King are all signs of obvious power and wealth not a humble captive!  The King is someone very special, and in the ideal definition the king is more than human. He is an almost divine being, possessing superhuman qualities through Divine Right because God has 'called' and 'chosen' him.  He also represents the people before God; the spirit is transferred to the king with his anointing as it is with a priest or a prophet.

 

But human Kings rarely live up to that ideal.  Throughout history Kings have been a general disappointment.  Filled with greed, cruelty, pride, lusting for power, using their position to exempt themselves from moral behaviour and yet allowed to continue through the ages.  Even in our so called modern Democratic societies, the Presidents or Prime Ministers often appear to act like a King at least while they have their hands on the power. 

 

Look at the first three Kings of Israel in the Bible - you can find the story starting with the first Book of Samuel.  When the people of Israel found themselves fighting against their neighbours, they saw that these other peoples all had a King who had well organized armies that came up against them.  Israel had judges and prophets, who didn’t command the people personally, they only passed on to them what the Lord spoke to them and passed judgment on their disputes.  They led the fighting too when they had to but when times were peaceful they let each person do what he or she believed was right.  But that wasn’t enough.

 

So the Hebrew people told the prophet Samuel to ask God for a King!  At first Samuel said, “You don’t need a King, you have the Lord!”   But the people kept asking and so God told Samuel to let them have a King, but to warn them what it would mean to have an earthly King.  Despite telling them how it mean heavy taxes for war, and giving up their young men for armies and their daughters for servants and their produce to feed them and their labour to build for the King, they still wanted one.

 

The first was Saul, who was taller and stronger than any man in Israel.  He seemed like a good choice but the very first time it came down to choosing between the instructions that God gave him through the prophet Samuel, he chose to go his own way and he lost God’s favour!  He became proud, angry and jealous of his position so that when he heard that God had chosen David as the next King, he tried to kill David several  times.

 

When David was made King, he started out well but soon even he was sinning with Bathsheba and disobeying God.  When his son Solomon became the third King, he asked God for wisdom not power and he built God a great temple but in the end he amassed so much wealth and power that he fell away from worshipping God and died worshipping other idols.

 

Not a great start to Kingship for God’s very own chosen people - would you say?

 

We understand what a human King is right from the earliest times in our lives.  You remember playing “King of the Castle” as children.  Everyone would try to get to the top of the hill first and stay there by shoving everyone else back down and singing out in your most mocking tone, “I’m the King of the Castle, and you’re the dirty rascals!”  The message seems to be that if I’m the King then I get there by force and everyone else is below me.  That what it means to have a Kingdom from this world.

 

And yet, as unattractive as this image of Kingship appears, there seems to be something built right into us that wants that figure of authority.  We know instinctively that we are meant to serve despite the fact that our society keeps trying to sell us the ideal that we can stand on our own and never be dependent on anyone.  What nonsense, since we are dependent on God, and the need we have to serve is put there inside of us to serve the Lord.  It is to serve in the Kingdom which is not from this world.

 

The feast of Christ the King is not very old in the history of the Church, it was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.  There may be some of our parishioners who remember it being proclaimed for the first time when they were young.  Pope Pius tried to give us a chance to remember each year that Christ is the true King, the one we were all born to serve and to show the secular world outside whose Kings had stopped even asking for God’s blessing, what a true King should be.

 

Jesus is the King who serves!  Jesus is the leader who suffers first to save his people rather than asking his people to suffer to save him.  The Book of Revelation shows us Jesus is the King who promises that  we will share the throne with him if we in turn will serve others and endure the hardships and suffering with faith as he did. 

 

Jesus is the King who feeds us, instead of demanding that we feed him and he feed us with his very own body and blood here in the Eucharist.  Come and partake in the meal the King provides and become a King with him as he lives in you.  Become a King who serves.

 

Jesus shows us that when we have that urge to see power and glory, to look at the humble and the meek to see it.  In two thousand years since the coming of Christ, there is no other Kingdom of this world which has endured, no other King whose line has remained unbroken through twenty centuries except the Kingdom of God.

 

It takes courage to turn our backs on the power of this world and serve Christ first.  It takes courage to stand up for the moral right when our governments legislate evils such as abortion.  It takes courage to speak up for our beliefs and endure the humiliation of our friends as Jesus was humiliated before Pilot. 

 

But if we have the courage to pick up a weapon and fight for our earthly kingdoms or to pray for victories for our earthly Kings then surely we can find the courage to fight for our true King, Jesus Christ, not in battle but by serving in the "Kingdom that is not from this world."