Scripture:

Pilate summoned Jesus and asked him "Are you the king of the Jews?" (John 19.33)

Reflection:

The story of the Jews as it unfolds in the Bible is a story about the successive failures of a family cum nation to live by the rules. It tells of individuals and tribes who aspired to live in harmony, to act justly and to obey the ethical precepts of the Ten Commandments but went astray. The plan was that this would be a beacon nation ruled not by a King, a President, an Emperor, but by common obedience to religious principles, a theocracy. As the plan failed, Israel turned to individual prophets like Samuel, then to Kings like Saul and David, only to fall victim to more powerful kings and emperors.

Jesus refused those who wanted him to become king. The kingdom he talked about was "not of this world". The Church's feast of Christ the King is a celebration and reminder that we owe our moral values and loyalty to an other-worldly God.

David Harmsworth