The Solemnity of Christ the King (Year B)
Deuteronomy 7: 13-14; Revelation 1: 5-8; John 18: 33b-37
In today’s Gospel, the Solemnity of Christ the King, the culmination of the Liturgical Year of the Church, Jesus is confronted by Pilate regarding His kingship. In the end, He revealed Himself as the one who will testify to the truth. He is the King of Truth. When Jesus was hanged on the cross, Pilate placed the inscription INRI above His head. It stands for Isus Nazarenus Rex Iudareum, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Maybe, for Pilate, Jesus was King of the Jews. But he was mistaken. Jesus was the King of the Universe, the King of Kings.
This shouldn’t be hard for us to believe. For us, Christians, this should be an obvious fact. Throughout this year, beginning with Advent, to Easter, and the rest of the year, Jesus has been depicted as a good prophet, priest and king. Jesus loved us, His flock, Jesus would always defend us, His people. Jesus will never forsake us, His beloved. Jesus is King.
As I prepared my homily this past week, I did some Google searches for recent headlines featuring the word “truth.” Here are the lines that popped up most often: “The Death of Truth.” “The Assault on Truth.” “Notes on Falsehood.” “Our Post-Truth World.”
Though the articles focused (unsurprisingly) on contemporary American politics, their concerns reached beyond the political to engage a more sinister and existential reality: we live in an Age of Untruth. Politics notwithstanding, we are steeped in a culture of blatant lies, sly exaggerations, doctored images, wild conspiracy theories, and fake news. Objective facts, for all intents and purposes, no longer exist or matter. The true is false, the false is true, and anything can mean anything.
I didn’t just rely on Google to search for the word “truth” in the headlines this week. I also used it to research its use in Scripture. And I found the word “truth” is mentioned 164 times in the Bible, and that the notion of “truth” was a major theme for the evangelist John, the author of our Gospel this morning, where the word appears a whopping ninety-nine times. As a matter of fact, “truth” is the bookends of John’s Gospel. In the Prologue that begins his Gospel he tells us that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and TRUTH . . . (and) grace and TRUTH came through Jesus Christ.” And then, towards the end of his Gospel, we hear the words Jesus spoke to Pontius Pilate that were recalled in today’s passage, "You say I am a king. 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."
What is truth? It’s defined as that which conforms with fact or reality. It is genuineness, veracity, or actuality. In a word, truth is reality. It is how things actually are.
What are the characteristics of truth? What are its distinguishing properties? What’s the truth about truth?
First, TRUTH IS DIVINE. Ultimately, all truth is God’s truth. Truth is from above. It is not of this world. It’s not determined by opinion polls, nor is it discovered by public surveys. God is the one Source and sole Author of truth. Sin is whatever God says it is. Judgment is whatever God says it is. Salvation is what God says it is. Heaven and hell are what God says they are.
Second, TRUTH IS ABSOLUTE. Many people say truth is whatever they want it to be. They claim that what you believe is “true for you” and what I believe is “true for me,” even when the two are worlds apart. Something cannot be both true and not true. Truth is absolute because it is derived from the one God. Absolute truth depends on God.
Third, TRUTH IS SINGULAR. That is to say, truth is a single entity. It does not exist in bits and pieces of unrelated ideas or disconnected data. Because truth is one body of truth, it is always internally consistent. It never contradicts itself. Truth always speaks with one voice and is always in perfect agreement with itself.
Fourth, TRUTH IS OBJECTIVE. Truth is black and white. It is definite, definitive, and conclusive. Truth is not abstract, vague, or nebulous. Because truth is objective, it is impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced, and non-partisan. It speaks to all people in all places the same.
Fifth, TRUTH IS IMMUTABLE. God does not change and neither does His truth, which cannot be true today but not true tomorrow. Truth is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, truth is always current, always contemporary, always relevant. It is never outdated, never obsolete, never expired. Truth never ceases to be true.
Sixth, TRUTH IS AUTHORITATIVE. Truth does not stammer or stutter. It speaks with the supreme authority of God Himself. It always makes demands upon us and never offers mere suggestions. Truth is commanding, arresting, and directional. It summons us and mandates our complete compliance. Truth is binding upon our lives. Truth demands our response.
For us as Christians truth has been revealed in Jesus Christ. We’ve heard that truth proclaimed in the Scriptures during this liturgical year of 2021 and we’ve seen that truth lived out and embodied in the actions of Jesus. Today, Jesus tells Pilate he is not a king with armies and territories. “My kingdom is not here.” Rather Jesus is the king who reigns in the hearts of all those who see life as he saw life and who live life according to his Gospel. Truth is not relative, truth is found in Jesus Christ.
As I reflected on today’s Gospel passage it occurred to me that if Jesus came to testify to the truth, if he is the truth, if he is the King of truth, then what do we, his subjects, owe our king? What does loyalty to truth look like, here and now? Well, if Truth is king, then “fake news” is not. If Truth is king, then self-deception is not. If Truth is king, then lazy relativism is not. If Truth is king, then distorting inconvenient facts for our own political, racial, social, cultural, religious, or economic comfort, is not.
Not only was Jesus born to testify to the truth, so were you. Truth needs a voice. God wants to use you to speak truth. Can we stand for the truth as Jesus does? Can we belong to the truth as he does? Can we tell and keep telling the beautiful, hard, cutting, joy-filled, pain-filled, powerfully undeniable stories we know to be true about this Jesus, this Jesus whose very identity is Truth, and whose best expression of power is surrender? This is what it means to be a subject of Christ the King. This is what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom not of this world. To live in any other way is treason!
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has created you for a very special purpose. He means to establish his reign in the throne of your heart, and from there, to rule the universe. May his kingdom come in you, and his will be done through you, until it is completed both on earth and in heaven. And may his truth set you free . . . the truth about who He is and what He taught . . . the truth about what is right and good, beautiful, moral, blameless, faultless and beyond reproach.
