Meet Jesus King of the Universe!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and, the last Sunday in ordinary season. The Gospel of John opens a scene where Jesus is on trial in front of Pontius Pilate. The most fascinating thing I saw, is a battle between the Kingdoms of the world and the gentle Kingdom of God. Jesus and Pilate’s conversation ends up revealing that Jesus is indeed a King. Most times we may not be aware of these two Kingdoms clashing in front of us, because we are living a reality of which there are invisible spiritual forces behind. The real issue behind these battles is that humankind continue to rebel against the intentions of God their creator. I was reading from one of the church Fathers St Cyril of Alexandria talking about how Jesus was betrayed in a garden, recalling “the Eden Garden”, the old paradise God gave to Adam and Eve. That’s where the human condition began, sin. They rebelled against their creator in a garden, and now Jesus’s sufferings began in a garden towards a reversal of the sting of sin and death brought by the first Adam. That’s why Jesus is called the new Adam, challenging human authorities and Kingdoms whose order is out of synch with God’s intentions; an order full of hatred, division, selfishness, jealousy, and violence, to replace it with a peaceful order, a gentle Kingdom rule, free from sin and death, and the devil. My prayer is that we would discern the heart of these spiritual battles and run to Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose honorable intention is to restore the distorted image of God in us, so we can become whom God intended us to be. Recorded History tells us that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by a Roman prefect on the political charge that he claimed to be “the King of the Jews.” Now that may not sound so ridiculous to us today considering controversies surrounding human trials even these days, but anything that could claim authority against Roman rule in those days was seen and treated as a real threat. As we know, Pontius Pilate could not find anything wrong with the accused and yet went ahead and sentenced him to death. The harsh authority of Rome is an example of how the Kingdoms of the earth work. They deal with everything using force, fear, they lie to get what they want, and a lot of people follow without a second thought. Could it be that there are invisible spiritual forces pushing people behind the ideals of these Kingdoms of the earth, full steam ahead mind and soul? In my case, why would a peaceful country like my homeland suddenly descend into hell, where people hack each other to death? Why? I am convinced there is an invisible reality of which we only see the smoke, but the real fire is in the spiritual realm! To the Kingdoms of the earth, there is no truth, there is just expediency, use force, and create fear! Look at Rome, a confident conqueror of the world, and in their brief unguarded moment, they clashed with the truth. Pilate asked: “what is truth? Was He trying to hint that the truth is ultimately what he makes it to be? Possibly! Haven’t we seen this trend a whole lot? Oh yes! After all, Pilate is known to be a smart politician. He did say: Don’t you know that I have the power to release you or to crucify you? There, the scene of the slaying of the lamb of God on the Passover Day was set… On the cross we meet Jesus, our King! No pretentions, no make-up, no masks! Just you and me: confronted with the truth, not the convenient false truth, but the uncomfortable truth about ourselves and about how our world really works. The truth about what we were meant to be, minus all the dross and wounds accumulated from the world and its lies and injustices. And Jesus wants to heal us from that! Pilate in the face of truth, ended up declaring Jesus as King of the Jews even at Jesus crucifixion. Meeting Jesus changes us because of the truth. On this Christ the King Sunday, don’t look at the hot mess this our dysfunctional world has made, rather, look intently to Jesus the King of Kings, whose intention is to restore the image of God in us every moment of our lives. Proceed to ask God forgiveness, prioritize your relationship with Christ, proceed to seek divine truth, divine wisdom. Leave the fate of the world’s Kingdoms to God. Amen

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