Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
When our Lord was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and handed over to the Chief Priests and the Elders of the people for thirty pieces of Silver in exchange, so poor was the trade that until today those who give up Christ or sell Him for something else, discover that they have sold Him too cheaply, and whatever they gain is never satisfactory. Caiaphas, who was high priest that year said to Him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” And our Lord said, “you have said so.” In response, the high priest tore his robes claiming that our Lord has blasphemed. One wonders what sort of answer did the high priest expect!
After judging that our Lord deserves to die, Caiaphas and his friends brought Jesus before the representative of Ceasar. The charge they brought before the governor had now changed, they said, “we found this man perverting our nation, forbidding people to give tribute to Ceasar, and saying that he himself is King.” We can be sure, that is not the reason why the high priest tore his robes. Is this a new charge? How did it come about? When Pilate heard the accusation, he inquired whether our Lord was the “King of the Jews”? In the end our Lord answered, “You say I am King. For this I was born and for this I came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” “For this I was born!” Here we can certainly recall when the three wise men came from the East asking, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” Hearing that testimony, Pilate, the chief justice of this civil court, concluded that he found no crime in Jesus. He found no guilt in him. Surely, he was sinless, yet he was counted among the wicked.
Convinced that Jesus was sinless, Pilate sought to release him, but the people still breathing murderous threats and fuming with hatred, they shouted even more, “if you release him, you are not Caesar’s friend; everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar.” Really? Is Caesar the king of the universe? Why then did these same chosen people of God prayed in the Psalm forty-seven, for example, that “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the Lord, the Most High, is Mighty, a great King over all the earth.” Why now do they praise Caesar rather than God? When Pilate heard their cry, he thought that he had had enough, and he handed him over saying, “Here is your King.” They cried even more, “away with him.” Pilate, amazed at their level of hatred, asked if he should crucify their King, and they said, “We have no king, but Caesar.”
This persistent rejection can be traced back to the first book of Samuel 8:5 when the people of God came to Samuel and said, “Appoint for us a king to govern us like all the other nations.” Samuel was displeased about it, and God said to him, do as they say, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being King over them.” This was the first instance of the rejection of the Kingship of Christ. So, Is Jesus Christ, King of the Universe? Absolutely! A King not appointed by men but by His essence, His very being, and by the power of his love to create all things, and by extending his infinite mercy to all of us miserable creatures of his, who constantly stand in need of His grace and Divine providence.
Therefore, when we say in the prayer “Our Father” that “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we need not simply move our lips in recitation of this great prayer, but also seek to demonstrate by our way of life that we truly belong to God’s Kingdom of justice, peace, love and joy in the Holy Spirit, and that our lives are governed and directed by God’s decrees.
Amen.
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