The King Appears

Appearances can be deceiving. That’s a lesson we have all learned a time or two, most importantly about people. Perhaps you’ve had that experience of meeting someone and finding them at first a bit gruff or taciturn, but after getting to know them better, you discover that there’s a warm and kindly heart beneath their rough exterior. Or take the opposite case. Often those who laugh and seem carefree can be going through a difficult interior struggle on the inside. In the age of social media, and hyper-interest in the lives of celebrities, we quickly learn that appearances can be deceiving.

We could say that same lesson is at the heart of today’s Solemnity of Christ the King. In today’s Gospel, Jesus and Pontius Pilate discuss whether he is a king, as his followers claim him to be. It certainly doesn’t seem like Jesus is a king. Yes, he had ridden into Jerusalem to great fanfare and acclamation, but he had quickly been scorned, betrayed, arrested, mocked, and tortured. And now he stood bloodied and humiliated before Pilate, the governor of the Roman province of Judea and Caesar’s personal representative to the region. To believe this was a king would appear to be something utterly ridiculous.

And yet, remember – appearances can be deceiving. Pilate himself wonders if there is perhaps more to this battered and broken man than meets the eye. He puts the question to Jesus: Are you a king, as your followers believe you to be? He’s thinking however in earthly terms, wondering where Jesus’s kingdom could be and trying to figure out what kind of king could let himself be treated this way. Jesus’s response – “You say that I am a king” – is intentionally ambiguous. He speaks of a kingdom, but one not of this world.

Pontormo, Christ Before Pilate (c. 1525)

Jesus himself will not settle the question. He says he has come into the world to bear witness to the Truth; it is up to those who hear him to make up their minds about him. That means not just Pilate, but us too. Many people today can’t accept Jesus as their king. Some end up rejecting him explicitly, as Pilate did. Many more do so implicitly – because his kingdom is not of this world, because his reign does not bring an end to suffering now, nor perfect justice on earth. Whether consciously or unconsciously they move on from Jesus – they relegate him to the past, or to dusty theology books, or at best give him an hour on Sunday then spend the rest of their time seeking happiness and trying to deal with their problems in the way they think best.

It is only to those with the gift of faith that we see those precise questions – suffering, injustice, how to seek happiness, how to find meaning in a broken world – can’t be answered apart from Jesus, but only with him, and precisely by his kingship. Two thousand years on, it is by the power of faith, it is in the faith of believers that the kingship of Jesus is revealed – not an earthly reign, as Pilate was expecting, but a kingship given to him from on high and one day to be revealed to all. As the Church, we hear the voice of the Risen Lord speaking to us, bearing witness to the Truth, and by his grace we too bear witness to him as Truth. We cannot yet see the full extent of his kingdom, but we don’t let contrary appearances dissuade us. Many may have given up on Jesus, but not us. And what’s more, for those who haven’t come to believe in Christ, we won’t come give up on them either, because the Lord won’t give up on them. He wants us to continue to proclaim his kingship to all – both by what we profess and more importantly by the manner of how we live – awaiting with hope that day of final revealing, and experiencing even now, in mystery, the spiritual gifts of kingdom.

Friends, as we say in the baptismal liturgy, “This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. We are proud to profess it in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord.” So much might appear to suggest there’s no way Jesus could be our King, but we know appearances can be deceiving, in his case above all! Let’s recognize the Lord as king now, and live like it, so that when he appears we shall be ready. As we celebrate this Eucharist, let’s examine our hearts to ensure we are not deceived with what’s going on in our lives, so that by the grace of his Sacrament, the Truth of the Lord will be visible for all to see.