The feast of Christ the King: Viva! Kristo Rey!

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King or Kristo Rey, which is why in today's Gospel reading, we need to read a segment on the trial of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was brought before Pontius Pilate. You can read this passage in John 18:33-37.

"Pilate... said to [Jesus], "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?" 35 Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief of priests handed you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here."

37 So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king? Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

This Bible passage looked like it was taken from an exchange between a judge and a prisoner in a modern day courtroom cross-examination. But when this scenario happened, our Lord Jesus Christ was really the prisoner of the chief priests or the Sanhedrin, but since they did not want the blood of a fellow Jew on their hands, they gave him over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea to do whatever he wished of Jesus. Of course, the Roman governor was very wary of executing an innocent man, just because his religious leaders didn't like him. Even during the days of Pax Roman, there was hardly any peace in the Middle East. Pilate had enough trouble from the zealots who hated Rome with a passion.

It is for this reason why Pilate himself interrogated Jesus and the reason why he asked our Lord if he was the King of the Jews was due to the fact that Pilate obviously heard of the coming of the Messiah whom the Jews believe would rise up to free the Jews from the bondage of Rome. This time, he didn't want to rely on rumors about the Messiah. He wanted the truth!

I'm sure Pilate was perplexed seeing Jesus Christ standing before him in chains... handed over to the Romans by his religious leaders. If indeed Jesus was the King of the Jews, then why should he be a threat to the Sanhedrin that they would hand him over to the Romans? But nonetheless, Pilate wanted to get the first hand information directly from Jesus.

But in answer to Pilate's query whether he was the King of the Jews, Jesus answered Pilate with a question, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?" Clearly taken off guard by the reply of Jesus, Pilate responded that he was not a Jew and therefore he wanted to know what Jesus had done wrong that the high priest would hand him over to him?

To this, Jesus replied in all honesty, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." With that reply, I'm sure that Pilate realized that Jesus was indeed a king, but as our Lord said... that his kingdom does not belong to this world. Perhaps what was going on in Pilate's mind was a question, "If this man is telling the truth, where could his kingdom be from if it does not belong to this world?"

Pilate being the Procurator or Governor knew more about the Roman Empire than anyone else in Judea. He knew which territories Rome had conquered or subjugated and what they have not occupied and here is a man standing before him saying that his kingdom does not belong to this world. To Pilate, the whole world evolved around the Roman Empire and the only reigning monarch was the Emperor Tiberius Caesar.

If Jesus was telling the truth about his kingdom, then he would be a threat to Tiberius and to Roman domination in Judea and this one statement probably disturbed Pilate the most as Jesus said, "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Therefore if Jesus spoke the truth, then he really was a king... but from where does his kingdom come from? The last statement came from Pilate who asked, "What is truth?" Indeed, this is a question that continues to ring in many ears even up to this day. After all, truth can be interpreted in many ways, even lies can become truth and truth become lies. Remember during the days of the Marcos Dictatorship, which was declared on Sept. 21,1972? To many of us, this was a day of infamy, but to the Marcoses, they even had the gall to have Sept. 21st declared as "Thanksgiving Day." Truth indeed can be twisted to benefit one side only. But our Lord Jesus Christ is truth himself... truth that God so loved the world, he sent his only Son to become Man, to save us from our evil ways. For telling the truth about our sins, Pilate had Jesus crucified. Pilate didn't know that our Lord Jesus Christ was the King of the Universe.

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