Episode 1492 To Testify to the Truth

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1492 of the Inspired Stewardship

[00:00:05] Daniel Tezeno: Podcast. I'm Daniel Tezeno. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize the richness in your life is key.

[00:00:26] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:44] Scott Maderer: This is the, what it means to recognize the reign of Christ, to recognize Christ as King. It doesn't mean to have power over everyone. It doesn't mean to reign over everyone. It's not about our power. [00:01:00] Instead, it's not about law or decree. It's about the witness of Christ. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:10] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:38] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 18, verses 33 38. I share how recognizing Christ as King isn't the same as what so many think of as kingship. I also talk about how recognizing Christ as King means recognizing the truth that He reflects, even though that truth often makes us [00:02:00] uncomfortable.

[00:02:02] John 18 verses 33 through 38 says, Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus and asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you ask this on your own or did others tell you about me? Pilate replied, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priest have handed you over to me.

[00:02:23] What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here. Pilate asked him, So you are a king? And Jesus answered, You say that I am a king.

[00:02:45] 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. And Pilate said, what is truth?

[00:02:57] This is one of those lectionary readings and one of [00:03:00] those Sundays that it's not always recognized in every church called the reign of Christ Sunday or Christ the King Sunday, depending on the context and the church. These sorts of layers and meaning are often hard for us to understand.

[00:03:19] Words matter, and interpretation and the words and what they mean to us shapes our understanding of things. And so when we say something like Christ the King, coming along with that is a history of patriarchy, a history of dubious morality, and things that human kings have done that get in the way and muddy up the picture of what it means to see Christ as king.

[00:03:46] Saying the reign of Christ, does that give us as Christians a sense of authority and purpose and a sense of obedience, a sense of transforming, a sense of telling others what they can and [00:04:00] cannot do. I think oftentimes out of something like the reign of Christ, we hear a calling for our own authority, our own reigning.

[00:04:13] And there's a strong tradition there that I think those words can often carry baggage with them. But here as we're ending the Christian year, coming toward the end of things, there's this call for a commitment, a culmination of another year, another long journey with Christ where we struggle and ponder and question his life and our own in equal measures.

[00:04:40] And this week the call is to come to a decision as much as we ever came to claim not our authority over lives in the world, but instead the authority of Christ over our lives to declare Christ as the one who reigns over our lives. [00:05:00] I think this passage where we're seeing this exchange with Pilate might show.

[00:05:07] Some of the very struggle that we have as well. Like most of John this conversation seems to be taking place at multiple levels. Maybe you've heard this story before as part of a Good Friday or Easter passage. And often, we encounter this text as part of the passion narrative. And the trials that happen before the truce of, crucifixion.

[00:05:32] And that is true, that is, this is part of that dialogue, but it's also encapsulates part of the purpose of Christ and why the Son of God was made manifest in the flesh here in this world. And I think there's also a response to that human form that may be our unfortunate response when God is in our midst.

[00:05:55] Pilate comes back into his office. He finds this man called Jesus [00:06:00] bound and beaten, brought to Pilate for condemnation, and Pilate seems to be reluctant, maybe in part because he didn't want to get involved in the internal wobbles here in this small rural backwater area. He was here to represent Rome and to keep the peace, to stand for law and order.

[00:06:21] these politics of the temple and mystical religions and all of this didn't really interest him. As long as people kept quiet and paid their taxes, who cares what exactly they're doing or saying or what god they worship. He was also reluctant maybe because he could see no harm in this man. Maybe the man was a little bit deluded, a bit over excited about the god from which he spoke, but he was really just a country kid with a messiah complex.

[00:06:50] And maybe Pilate didn't see condemning him to crucifixion as something that would sit well with him. And yet, to keep the peace, if the leaders of the people [00:07:00] complained that this man, this Jesus, was stirring up the populace, and maybe Pilate had given them a hint that first time around, hey, take this guy away, but they weren't doing it.

[00:07:13] So now he sits down again and says, are you the king of the Jews? And this brawler man that had been beaten with his hands tied behind his back and his bruised lips says, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, I would have subjects, I would have servants, I would have men who would rise up to fight to keep me from being captured and beaten and bound.

[00:07:38] If I was a king of this world, I would have tried to rule and to lead and to act like a king. But my kingship, my reign is not like what you're thinking. It's not of this world. Pilot may be heard and didn't hear at the same time like so many of us do. And after all kingship means [00:08:00] power. It's something of this world.

[00:08:01] Kingship means being able to tell people what to do. Kingship means having laws and power and sword. Kingship means being able to say, I'm right and you're wrong and you should live the way I want you to, but thinking maybe there is treason here. Maybe this man is saying he's a king. Pilate leans forward and says, so you are a king.

[00:08:25] And instead quietly deflating the argument, Jesus answers, you say that I am a king. You say it, they say it, everyone else is saying it, but I was born, I came into this world to bear witness to the truth. And then that answer, that 38th verse, Pilate leans back in his chair and says, what is truth?

[00:08:52] If you think about it, maybe he's saying it out of boredom, a little bit of a, what could this be? crazy man in this [00:09:00] backwater kingdom, in this area of the world, this backwater of Rome, what could he possibly know about truth? After all, truth is malleable. Truth means what you want it to mean in specific situations.

[00:09:14] Truth is a commodity, like patriotism, like power. Truth is bought and sold for the benefit of those in power. You could hear the sneer as he says, What is truth? And yet, maybe as well, there was a little bit of hope. Maybe he was asking the question with some sincerity. Maybe this person, this man, this Jesus could finally tell him what truth is.

[00:09:48] Or at least can say that there's no truth at all and maybe end the question forever. The response to this offhand sarcastic question, the response to this [00:10:00] plea. Is silence. What is truth? Isn't that the question that we all struggle with? How many times do we ask that? What is truth? What does it mean?

[00:10:14] Maybe not in those words, but we ask things like, what is it all about? Why am I here? Why can't I ever get ahead? Why are people doing this or acting that way? Why is there evil in the world? What or who is God? And why does God seem so far away when I hurt the most? What must I do to be a follower of Christ in a world that tries so hard to go another way, to go the way of power and control and dominance?

[00:10:45] What is truth? We bring all these questions forward, sometimes spoken out loud and sometimes sitting in silence in our heart, but we want someone to give us an answer. [00:11:00] And yet in a way, the silence in response to the question tells us that maybe even to ask that question is to misunderstand the very truth that is being talked about.

[00:11:14] After all, the irony of this scene is that in the office in that moment, the truth was staring pilot in the face and he completely missed it and asked, what is truth? The truth is that happens in our moments as well. We ask the question, what does God want of us? When God has already told us, we ask, where is God?

[00:11:35] When God is present by asking the very question, He's turning away from the only truth that can have meaning in a world such as ours. That truth that is embodied in one who lived and loved and gave of himself to create a sense of connection, of belonging, of restoration, of relationship, and of transformation.

[00:11:57] That truth is discovered in that [00:12:00] relationship. It's discovered in obedience and freedom. It's discovered in bowing down and rising up. It's discovered in those paradoxes of the both and. I don't know about you, but I've had moments when people have spoken the truth into my life in a way that was so strong that I just wanted to kill them, to shut them up.

[00:12:23] And this one who reigns, this king who is king beyond this world, and yet whose kingdom touches this world in and us and through us. This is the what it means to recognize the reign of Christ, to recognize Christ as king. It doesn't mean to have power over everyone. It doesn't mean to reign over everyone.

[00:12:46] It's not about our power. Instead, it's not about law or decree. It's about the witness of Christ and witnessing that reality of Christ in our lives [00:13:00] into the lives of others. Thanks for listening.

[00:13:09] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to Facebook. com slash Inspired Stewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:13:52] Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and [00:14:00] impact the world.