So, Who s In Charge, Now? C. Gray Norsworthy Johns Creek Presbyterian Church Christ the King Sunday November 20, 2016

Transcription

1 So, Who s In Charge, Now? C. Gray Norsworthy Johns Creek Presbyterian Church Christ the King Sunday November 20, 2016 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, What charges are you bringing against this man? If he were not a criminal, they replied, we would not have handed him over to you. Pilate said, Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law. But we have no right to execute anyone, they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Is that your own idea, Jesus asked, or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilate replied. Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done? Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place. You are a king, then! said Pilate. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. What is truth? retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the king of the Jews? 40 They shouted back, No, not him! Give us Barabbas! Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. -- John 18:28-40, NIV So, who is in charge now? A little more than a week ago, we elected a new president. However we feel about the outcome, we can probably all agree that the outcome was a surprise to almost everyone. Since that time we have been trying to process what took place, why, and what it means going forward. Some of you greeted me with high fives after the election, while others of you shared with me that you spent the next day in tears. Many suggest this is like nothing we have ever seen before maybe. So, how do we as Christians think about all of this? What is the relationship, if any, between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world? Last week I came across a video that went viral. It is a two-minute clip in which TNT sportscaster Ernie Johnson, Jr. talked about how he felt the day after the election. You may or may not know about Ernie Johnson, Jr. For those of us who grew up in the Atlanta area, we know him as the son of Ernie Johnson, Sr., former pitcher for the Braves and a long-time broadcaster of the Braves games. His son, Ernie Johnson, Jr., followed in his dad s footsteps. He has won an Emmy for Best Studio Host. But in 2006, he contracted cancer non-hodgkin s Lymphoma. He stayed on air most of the time as he went through his treatment, even though he lost all of his hair and his face swelled. But, he survived. Johnson and his wife Cheryl have six kids. Two are their own biological children and they have adopted four more. Two were adopted out of foster care. One was adopted from Paraguay. And 1

2 Michael was adopted as a three-year-old boy from Romania with a club foot who was unable to speak. He also developed a progressive form of muscular dystrophy, and now at age twenty-five, has been dependent on a ventilator for the last five years. As I learned when I watched this video, Johnson is also a Christian. So, whether or not you agree with Johnson s politics, I invite you to open your heart and your mind to listen to how one person wrestled with his thoughts and feelings after the election. Show video: One of the phrases Johnson used that jumped out at me was when he said that presidents come and go but he always knows who is on the throne. He always knows who is on the throne. I wonder what he meant by that. I assume he meant something like this: God is on the throne. Today is called Christ the King Sunday in our liturgical or church year. It is a day we set aside to think about what it means that Jesus the Christ is King. So, today we want to look at one story from the Bible that talks about who is on the throne and what it means that Christ is King. It is the story of the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate. Pilate was the Roman governor and he represented Rome and Caesar. Caesar was viewed as the ultimate power at that time in that area of the world. If you were to ask most anyone living under the authority of Rome who was Lord most would say that Caesar is Lord which is the equivalent of King. At one point, some even began worshipping the rulers of Rome as being divine. Pilate s job was to do the will of Caesar and to keep the peace the Pax Romana. Anyone who disturbed that peace was quickly dealt with usually by crucifixion on a Roman cross. In our story, Jesus has been arrested by the Jewish religious authorities, tried the night before, and found guilty of blasphemy because they said he claimed to be equal with God. In the Jewish tradition, this was punishable by death, but because they were living under the authority of Rome, only Rome could execute someone. So the Jewish religious authorities come to Pilate in order to have Jesus stopped and put to death. In the story it is clear Pilate really wants to have nothing to do with him. He tells the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus by their own law. What gets Jesus in trouble with Rome is not his claim to be the Son of God, but his claim to be a king. In Rome, there is only one King Caesar. All other kings either do his bidding, or they are crucified to make an example to the world of what happens to those who mess with Rome. Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king. Jesus responds by saying that his kingdom is not of this world. Pilate jumps on that and says, You are a king, then! Jesus doesn t deny it, but he goes on to say that his purpose here is to testify to the truth. Pilate then asks a profound question: What is truth? Jesus doesn t answer and Pilate tries one more time to get out of crucifying Jesus by offering to release a prisoner for Passover. He offers Jesus, the king of the Jews or Barabbas who had led a revolt. Those present shout for Barabbas, and Pilate symbolically washes his hands of the whole matter. 2

3 So, who is the king here? Who is in charge here? Most anyone who was present would have looked at Pilate with all of this military power surrounded by the symbols of Rome and Caesar and said that of course, Pilate and Caesar are in charge. Who would look at this bound, backwoods Messiah and say that he actually was in charge that he even had a kingdom, or was somehow a king? But when Pilate asks the question, What is truth? it seems to change the whole encounter. It transforms from this immediate scene in which there is a conflict of power between Pilate, Jesus, and maybe the Jewish authorities to something bigger than that. What is truth? What does that have to do with anything? -- unless Pilate senses that there is more going on here than meets the eye. Maybe there is more to this so-called King of the Jews than what appears on the surface. It is almost as if we are watching a movie with a close up on this interaction between Pilate and Jesus. Then the camera begins to draw back. We start to see the bigger picture of Jerusalem, and then Israel, and the whole Middle East, and then the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa, and then the whole world. And maybe we are reminded of the creator of this whole world, and we remember who is really in charge who is really king. When we as Christians ask the questions, what is truth, who is king, and who is in charge here the truth that Jesus testifies to, and the truth that we can choose to listen to and believe is this: God is king of this world and God is in charge, not only now, but forever! So, who s in charge now? The One who has been in charge from the very beginning and will be in charge for eternity: God who is made known to us in the person of Jesus the Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Jesus who is not only our Savior, but the savior of the whole world! As John's gospel reminds us, For God so loved the world, that he sent his only begotten son... (John 3:16a) So what difference does it make that Christ is king? I liked what Johnson said in his video it gives us hope. And hope is something we need now more than ever. We can have hope because God has a plan for this world. It is a plan God has been working out from the very beginning of time, when we as humans decided to go our own way and not follow God s way of life. As scripture shows us, God has been working throughout history to save this broken world that God created good and that God loves. God worked through the Old Testament people of God, wanting them to be a light to the nations, but they struggled with living that out. God sent Jesus, God in the flesh, to be born, to grow up, and to show us how to love one another. He gave his life on a Roman cross to demonstrate the depth of God's love for us. God then raised Jesus from the dead on that first Easter to inaugurate God s new kingdom with Jesus as Lord. So, not only can we have a restored relationship with God, but God is in the process of renewing all of creation so that one day this world will be as it should be! And we live in that hope looking forward to the time when all will be set right. But, we may wonder where those signs of hope can be found. In his video, Johnson talked about the meeting between President-elect Trump and President Obama at the White House. Most of us were watching to see what it would be like when these two men met who had made some very strong comments about each other prior to the election. But, to the surprise of many, the two men acted in a very respectful and even gracious way toward each other. Each spoke of their respect 3

4 for the other and their willingness to work with each other during this time of transition. The President even said to Trump that he wanted Trump to succeed because if he succeeded, then America succeeded. For me that was a moment of hope! I think it was even a glimpse of God s kingdom breaking into our world showing us how people can get along, even when they disagree on almost everything. I appreciate how Johnson went on in this video to talk about what all of this meant for him personally. He talked about how he needed to be a better neighbor. He used a great image that he wanted to be a fountain and not a drain. A fountain gives water, it gives life, and it nourishes what is around it. A drain just takes and takes from what is around it sucking things down into oblivion. So, think about your life and ask yourself this question are you more of a fountain or a drain? Whatever you are now what do you want to be and what can you do here and now to make that happen. Friends, choose to be a fountain and not just a drain! Choose to live your life giving extravagantly of all that God has given to you, rather than just taking and taking in order to meet your own wants and needs. When Johnson spoke of presidents coming and going, but always knowing who is on the throne, he may have been talking about God being on the throne as the Lord of all creation. But I wonder if he was talking about that on a more personal level? Maybe he was talking about both. Maybe he was talking about who was on the throne of his life and what that meant in the decisions he made in life. In reading about Johnson s life, I found out that he was not a Christian until somewhat recently. In fact it came to him after he had become successful in his career. Someone talked with him once about God having a plan for Johnson's life. Johnson said that when Jesus said, Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28) that really spoke to him because he needed some rest in his very driven life. Johnson said this: Since I came to Jesus, my life is no longer a me-centered life, but a Christ-centered life. When he made it through the cancer treatments, people asked him how he got through that. He would tell them three words: Trust God. Period He added, Not Trust God if this next test comes back the way I want it to. Trust God. Period. That's what it means when God is on the throne of our lives. It means that we can Trust God. Period. When I was in high school, our church decided we needed to learn how to share our faith with others, so they taught us to do this using a little booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws. Some of you may have seen it before. These laws were one simple way of looking at the gospel and what it means to be a follower of Christ. For example, law one was God loves you and God has a wonderful plan for your life. It went on to talk about how we were separated from God by our sin and how Jesus came to bridge the gap between us and God. But at the very end, it had a drawing of two circles. The circles represented our lives. In each circle was a chair that was supposed to represent the throne of our lives. The dots represented all of the things in our lives. On one throne was an S 4

5 that stood for self. It described each of us as being the one who sits on the throne of our lives, making all the decisions the way we want. In the other circle was a throne with a cross which represented Jesus and what it looked like when Christ was on the throne of our lives. Now I know it is pretty simple and that life is much more complex than this, but I think the basic truth is... true. God gives each one of a choice as to who will sit on the throne of our lives. In the grand scheme of things, God has been, and will always be King! And God will work out God s plan for our world. But on a personal level, we have a choice about whether we want to be part of God s great plan or not. And when Christ is on the throne of our lives, it brings an order and a peace which cannot be found any other way. And while that first step of choosing to be a follower of Christ only happens once, my experience is that throughout my life I often struggle with trying to get myself back on that throne almost every day. This struggle is not a one-time thing, but an on-going, day-to-day process in which we can choose to become more and more like the persons God created us to be. So, who is on the throne of your life? Who do you want to be on the throne of your life? And, if you knew for sure that God was in charge both now and forever, what difference would that make in how you lived your life today? This morning I invite you to Trust God. Period. Choose to be a fountain and not a drain. When it comes to your life today, decide for yourself who s in charge now! In the strong name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 5