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John 18:28-40 · Jesus Before Pilate
A King - A Kingdom
John 18:28-40
Sermon
by Warren Thomas Smith
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"For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world ..." (v.37)

Who is this Jesus? Shakespeare said, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."1 In Revelation we are told Jesus is "King of kings and Lord of lords" (19:16). Still we ask, "Who is he?"

One of the essential, significant elements of our Christian faith is the concept of the Kingdom of God. We pray daily, "Thy kingdom come." As disciples we live in light of that kingdom as a reality. Indeed, Jesus himself told us, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 10:7). It is warp and woof of the fabric of our faith. But whose kingdom is it? Herein we encounter a glorious paradox. We celebrate a kingdom established by the most unusual monarch who ever lived. How strange he appears when compared with other kings of history. What a contrast between the kingdom which others have founded and the kingdom he established.

Very briefly, let us look at four kings of history. Who were they? What did they set out to build? In the end, what did they accomplish?

Rameses II

Undoubtedly one of the most ambitious, super-egotistical personalities of antiquity, Rameses sought to perpetuate his name and person by portraits in stone. He had statues carved of himself and distributed throughout the Nile Valley - all testifying to his greatness. He has been called the last of the great pharaohs. His reign, 1292-1225 B.C., represents an attempt to restore the fading glory of a once-powerful empire. Under his firm hand the power of Egypt did return, for a season.

Rameses is very likely the pharaoh of the Hebrew Exodus. He was indeed a man of remarkable qualities; he is said to have fathered a hundred sons and fifty daughters. He was certainly an avid builder. Among his grandiose projects was the heroic temple at Abu Simbel, 170 miles south of the First Cataract of the Nile. Carved in living stone, in the very face of a cliff, it is a magnificent architectural wonder. The temple is so oriented that the first rays of the rising sun penetrate the sanctuary, filling it with light. The walls of the inner structure were covered with inscriptions, glorifying the one who built it.

Most prominent, in fact almost dwarfing all else, are four colossi - huge, seated statues of Rameses, over 65 feet in height. Here for all time was an attempt to say: "Behold my greatness!"

It was at Abu Simbel, the colossi, that ancients passed and looked in wonder, marveling at the monarch who ordered it built. It was the Abu Simbel colossi that prompted the poet Shelly to write his famous "Ozymandias." (It would be quite fitting, and more to the point, to substitute the name of Rameses.)

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that the sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.

A nd on the pedestal these words appear -

‘My name is Ozyrnandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."2

The entire structure is of such enormous value to art, history, and civilization that in our day, in order to save it from the rising waters of the new Aswan Dam, millions of dollars have been gladly spent to cut the stones from the cliff and reconstruct the statues at a higher elevation. Tragically, the temple, carved into the cliff could not be saved. Pictures were taken of the interior paintings, and drawings made of the structure, but with the rising Aswan Lake, the glorious temple has been inundated. Porous stone will soon crumble amid the flooding waters.

Rameses’ colossi, now removed to safety, look out over lake and desert. It is all that is left of Rameses’ once proud kingdom. He built statues of himself, and an empire that was an extension of his own inflated ego. Where, pray tell, is that kingdom today?

Shih Huang Ti

Shih Huang Ti was one of the most merciless tyrants of Asia. He sought to unify his China by crushing all local war lords and establishing himself sole master. In the third century before Christ, when the Tartars threatened to overrun China, the emperor began work on the largest structure ever built by man. Across the northern boundaries of his empire, Shih Huang Ti built a wall which extended over an area equal to half the United States - some 1,500 miles.

Following the difficult terrain, the wall rises over mountains 4,000 feet high and then dips into low valleys. Constructed of stone and brick, it stands twenty to fifty feet high, is fifteen to 25 feet thick at the base, tapering to some twelve feet at the top. At intervals of two-hundred yards there are forty-foot sentry towers. The mammoth barrier required eighteen years to complete. Some 3,000,000 soldiers were used as workers in addition to untold thousands of slaves. In order to make it strong, the bodies of thousands of coolies were buried in the wall. Quite literally, it became a wall of human flesh and blood. It is said Shih Huang Ti depleted one generation of Chinese in order to complete the project.

It has been observed that the one man-made object on earth which may be visible from the moon is the Great Wall of China. Later emperors added to the wall, but it remains today as the monument to a brilliant, utterly cruel man.

Shih Huang Ti - his kingdom is symbolized by a wall. It is ironic that no sooner had it been completed than it was breached, thanks to traitors in the ranks of the imperial army. What does the wall mean today? It is the outstanding tourist attraction for the Chinese, and an absolute necessity on the itineraries of people from abroad. Modern jets fly over it daily and Astronauts gaze down on it as it slowly crumbles into dust.

It is a pity Shih Huang Ti could not have embodied the philosophy taken from The Chinese Classics in Shu Ching, The Book of History:

The people should be cherished,

And not looked down upon.

The people are the root of a country;

The root firm, the country is tranquil ...

When the palace is wild of lust,

And the country is wild for hunting;

When spirits are liked, and music is the delight;

When there are lofty roofs and carved walls; -

The existence of any one of these things

Has never been but the prelude to ruin.3

Louis XIV

Ascending the throne of France at the age of five, Louis XIV’s reign was the longest of any monarch in modern history. Louis took the sun as his personal symbol and not only his court, but France - and, to an extent, Europe itself - revolved around him. He was taught that royal authority possessed four qualities: the king was absolute, sacred, paternal, and subject only to reason. His motto became "L’etat c’est moi." (I am the state.)

Feeling that the dwelling used by his fathers was grossly inadequate, Louis built the most magnificent palace in Europe. Versailles cost the French people $100,000,000. (In terms of today’s rate of exchange the amount would have been ten times as great.) Here the Grand Monarch dwelt in an opulence previously undreamed of. Seven of the highest-ranking nobles in the realm were required to assist the king in awakening each morning and donning his shirt. Living was on the most lavish scale ever designed, dominated by an elaborate and meticulous etiquette. Constantly attended by his family, mistresses, ministers of state, members of the aristocracy, and an army of servants, Louis XIV "was a god in his temple celebrating his own worship in the midst of his host of priests and faithful."

Never in modern history was an individual permitted to gormandize to the extent of the Grand Monarch. Hardly a mortal before or since has known such pampered elegance, such crapulence. He was flattered, fawned upon, and idolized by a throng of sycophants.

When he died, Louis XIV’s body was hissed and booed as it was carried through the streets. It was a welcome relief that the vain old man was dead. Louis XIV built a house and bequeathed to the French people the horror of one of the bloodiest revolutions Europe has ever suffered.

Jesus

The Christian Gospel! Men and women of faith have pondered long its deep and eternal message and meaning. What is it all about? It is about the incarnation - the Word made Flesh. Isaiah dreamed of a coming Messiah:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (9:6)

Was the dream fulfilled? Indeed, far beyond the prophet’s grandest hopes. The Christian gospel is essentially the good news of God’s revelation in human form, the event of Jesus who is the Christ. Yet, even as the faithful meditate upon this sublime event, they inquire as to the how and why of it all.

I know not how that Bethlehem’s babe

Could in the Godhead be;

I only know the manger child

Has brought God’s life to me.

I know not how that Calvary’s cross

A world from sin could free;

I only know its matchless love

Has brought God’s love to me.

I know not how that Joseph’s tomb

Could solve death’s mystery;

I only know a living Christ,

Our immortality.4

Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? We really know so little about the baby born in Bethlehem. Yet, in a sense, we know him better than any other personality who has ever walked this planet.

Was there ever a man who had so few of this world’s goods, yet who possessed the whole earth? He had none of the earmarks of the "typical" modern, urbane individual (that outward pose wherein, regardless of one’s inner feelings, one must appear self-contained, sophisticated, bored). Here was a carpenter who never asked anyone to kneel before him, yet history itself bows at the mention of his name.

He was a man. He lived: eating, sleeping, working, teaching, walking, laughing with neighbors at a wedding party, weeping at the grave of a friend, holding little children in his arms, washing the feet of his disciples.

They usually addressed him as Rabbi, for he was a peripatetic teacher with his twelve students. He paused to talk with any he met, usually telling his listeners a short, pointed story. He talked of simple things, earthy objects: yeast, seeds, birds, flowers, a woman sweeping her house, a runaway boy, a lost sheep, lighted lamps. Ordinary folk heard him with gladness and understanding.

He was a prophet who began his ministry by calling people to repent, for a new kingdom was here. When he preached in his local synagogue, he offended the congregation and they almost had a riot, demanding that he leave the village. He upbraided the evildoer; he castigated the smug, the self-righteous. He did not flatter; he was never fulsome in praise. In everything he said there was transparent honesty. It was always the truth, spoken in love. He was not always loved for what he said, however.

He was a spiritual physician: healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. He forgave a fallen woman. He pardoned a repentant thief. He understood those eternal problems which distress humankind: fears, sorrows, hates, frustrations, guilts, pains, prejudices. Likewise, he saw the joys, hopes, aspirations of people. He was able to meet human beings at the point of their greatest need. He was a man of deep compassion.

For a time he had a following, but this changed. He did not set out to gratify the crowd. Never did he play to the gallery. He did not select popular themes, those comfortable ideas which people delight to hear. He was practical, and he spoke of things that mattered. People seldom want to face unpleasantness.

After a tantalizing brief ministry, he was arrested. Accused by the religious leaders of the day and sentenced by the Roman authorities, he was put to death on a cross. "How very strange," we moderns say. "Here was a man who, during his 33 years, had not one attribute of success: wealth, political or economic power, high-sounding titles, degrees, prestige, honors." He neither published, programmed, nor publicized. Augustus Caesar did not know of his birth; the Emperor Tiberius did not learn of his death. Yet, at the name of Jesus "every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).

Joseph was told, prior to the birth of the child, "you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Where, O Jesus, is your tomb, that we may come to honor you - as we honor all the kings of the earth? What? No tomb? No grave? No spot on earth where your mortal remains now rest? We have been given to understand that all monarchs - the likes of Rameses, Shih Huang Ti, Louis XIV - all had royal mausoleums.

"Ride on, King Jesus." is a glorious Spiritual, which says it all. Indeed, we say, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). We exclaim, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

1. Twelfth Night Act II, scene 5.

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias" in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, p. 311.

3. Cited in Hiram Hyden and Edmund Fuller, eds. Thesaurus of Book Digests (New York: Crown Publishers, 1954), p. 133.

4. Harry Webb Farrington, "I know Not How That Bethlehem’s Babe" in The Book of Hymns, number 123.

5. See Warren Thomas Smith, At Christmas (1969), pp. 56-59. Used by permission.

CSS Publishing Co., Inc., Journey In Faith, by Warren Thomas Smith