A King not of this world

 

A KING NOT OF THIS WORLD

Mario D’Couto

            When we think of a king, the image that comes to mind is that of royalty, abundance, wealth and power. Yet, when we speak of Our Blessed Lord who is indeed, the King of Kings, none of these apply to Him, at least not in the sense of what we would think of in our normal way of human thinking and if you have read my previous blogpost/reflection “With greater power comes greater responsibility” [here's the link to the blogpost/reflection, https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2022/11/with-great-power-comes-great.html] this is something that I try to highlight, where the focus of Christ’s Kingdom was a spiritual one and not political nor was it about bringing economic prosperity. In as much as food, clothing, shelter and the basic needs of human life are important and have their place, it would be wrong to restrict human life to only the material since human life is definitely much more than that and so with that being said, given that today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, the focus of this blogpost/reflection is on how we are called to emulate the virtues of Our Lord in terms of His humility despite the fact that He is God.

            When the husband leaves his wife for a long journey, there are more tender acts of devotion shown than in the continuing presence in the home. Likewise before the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord, He addressed His Apostles as His own, which is to imply the dearest kind of relationship (John 15:15). His affection for them was such that not all the glories of Heaven in the act of opening to receive Him could for a moment disturb His warm and compassionate love of them. Just when this was happening, a quarrel broke out amount the Apostles about who ranked the highest (Luke 22:24). It is in this situation that Our Blessed Lord steps in to explain as to what counts as true greatness.

            In Luke 22:25 – 27, we find Our Blessed Lord saying to His Apostles, “The kings of the Gentiles dominate them and those who hold authority over them are called beneficent. But it must be so with you. Instead, whoever is greater among you, let him become the lesser. And whoever is the leader, let him become the server. For who is greater: he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is not he who sits at the table? Yet, I am in your midst as one who serves.” Through these words, we see that Our Lord admitted that in a certain sense, His Apostles were kings nor was He denying their instinct for aristocracy. Yet theirs was to be the nobility of humility, the greatest becoming the least. To drive the lesson home, He reminded them of the position He occupied among them as Master and Lord of the table and yet one in which every trace of superiority was killed. Many times He told them He came not to be served but to serve. To bear the burden of others and particularly their guilt was the reason He became the ‘Suffering Servant’ as foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

 

           His exhortation on making themselves servants was reinforced by His own example which can be seen in John 13:3-5. In fact, we may just say that John 13:3-5 was like a summary of His mission on earth. Before we go into that let’s take a look at it,

“Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He came from God and was going to God, He rose up from the meal and He set aside His vestments and when He had received a towel, He wrapped it around Himself. Next He put water in a shallow bowl and He began to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them with the towel with which He was wrapped.” 

            The minuteness with which every action of Our Lord is noted is striking, for no less than seven distinct actions are mentioned, namely, rising, laying His garments aside, taking a towel, putting around Him, pouring water, washing the feet and wiping with a towel. Co – relating these actions with Our Blessed Lord’s mission, we can say that the rising up was the rising up from the Heavenly Banquet in intimate union of nature with the Father, the taking of the towel and putting around Him was the wrapping around of His Divinity the towel of human nature which He took from Mary, the pouring of the water, washing the feet and the wiping with a towel was the washing of the souls of His disciples and followers through the shedding of His Blood on the Cross through His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

            As we read this passage further, we find Peter couldn’t accept the fact Our Blessed Lord had to wash his feet so much so that when he said, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8), our Blessed Lord then said to him, “If I do not wash you, you will have no place with Me” (John 13:8). A refusal to accept Divine cleansing is exclusion from intimacy with Him. Not to understand that Divine love meant separating himself from the Master. The idea of having no part with Our Lord humbled him unspeakably, as he committed not his feet but his whole being to the Master as he said, “Then Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9). It was not only his feet that were dirty but even the deeds of his hands and the thoughts of his mind that needed purification. When Our Lord had finished washing their feet, He put on his garments, sat down and taught them the lesson that if He Who was Lord and Master renounced Himself and even His very life, then they who were His disciples must do the same as we see in John 13:12 – 16. Yet even though He fulfilled the office of a menial slave, He was still Master and Lord, for nowhere do the Apostles address our Blessed Lord by His name but rather address Him as Lord as did Peter when drowning (Matthew 14: 28 – 30) or as James and John did when they sought to destroy the Samaritan town (Luke 9: 52 – 56) or during Easter where they would say, “the Lord is risen” (Luke 24:34) or Thomas calling Him “Lord” (John 20:28) when He appears to His Apostles after His Passion, Death and Resurrection or John recognizing our Blessed Lord at the shore (John 21:7) and so on and while the Gospels describe Our Lord by His name ‘Jesus’ like, ‘Jesus was tempted by the Devil’ (Matthew 4:1), since they were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, His name was often to be referred to as ‘the Holy Name of Jesus’ as we see in Philippians 2:9 – 11 where it is written, “God has exalted Him and has given Him a name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bend, of those in heaven, of those on earth and of  those in hell and that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in the glory of God the Father.”

            Our Blessed Lord was not some mythical figure. He is God – incarnate, the Word made flesh.The early martyrs and even Christians who are persecuted today for their faith did not give up their lives for a lie. Our Blessed Lord definitely walked among us and accomplished powerful works that even hostile, non – Christians sources confirm and affirm His existence. He took on human form to redeem mankind from the pain and suffering caused by sin by suffering Himself. Historians, poets, philosophers and others have regarded Him as the centerpiece of history. He Himself made a statement that was very dramatic and daring when he said to the apostle Thomas, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). A person like Deepak Chopra would equate this to the attainment of the ‘god consciousness’ like as though it can be attained by anyone through meditation or some form of spirituality but is that possible? Would the disciples have laid down their lives to support Jesus’ claim that He attained a certain status if all humanity can also attain such status as their own? There certainly would be nothing unique in that, nothing worth dying for. Is it not a shame and a sham to make such a pathetic distortion of the facts when it is clear why He died and that His claim to be uniquely God was understood by His persecutors? Did they all get it wrong whether it was His disciples, His persecutors, Pilate and the millions throughout history who have believed?

            The cumulative evidence for Jesus’ claim to divinity and the prophetic specifics that had to congeal clearly make for a book with the power of the supernatural. That is why writers of the New Testament such as Peter, Paul, John, Jude and Luke, from highly different backgrounds, nevertheless paint a similar picture of the Word of God who became flesh and dwelled among us, whose pure impeccable life accompanied His teaching and that He was the fulfilment of the prophetic voices from Moses to Malachi, who, over more than a thousand years, predicted His coming, His death and His resurrection. From carpenters to fishermen to educators to theologians to civic leaders to a medical doctor, all of them converge on the same truth. These don’t sound like people who would make up a story and one by one go to an early death to support it! Take the example of St. Paul who was a Hebrew by birth, a highly educated man who studied in Greece, was a leader in his community and a citizen of Rome. There was nothing he wanted to do more than to disprove Jesus as the messiah which was evident from the many persecutions he carried out before his conversion. Yet he ended up writing one-third of the New Testament and paid for his faith in Christ with his life. Why would he make up such a thing? Was he out of his mind?

            Bart Ehrman who is known for his textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus and the origins and development of early Christianity, said that Jesus could not have been God because When He was asked about His return from heaven, He answered that no one knows about that day, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father. It is fascinating how coloured one’s glasses of perception can be! If our Blessed Lord were a charlatan, why would He have answered the question that way? If He were a charlatan, He probably would have said something along these lines, “I know the date but I am not going to tell you” or maybe He may have said, “Almost 40 years from now” when He wouldn’t have been around to face the embarrassment.

            Instead, He said the most extraordinary thing …….. that He didn’t know. So often He spoke of emptying Himself of His divine prerogatives and of denying Himself access to the power that was legitimately His in order to become the Word of God in the flesh. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant …..” (Philippians 2:7). In His self – denial, that knowledge was not His to demand as He humbled Himself before His creation, even to death. Is this any more of a mystery than His agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane? Renouncing His rights as the Son of Man, He made it possible for the Son of God to be the sacrifice that He was. Everything about His story has the ring of authenticity to it.

            If we look at the implicit claims of John 14:6, we can infer the following,

1. First and foremost, He asserted that there is only one way to God. Such a claim can come as a shock to post – modern minds. For instance, Hinduism, with its multifaceted belief system, vociferously attacks such exclusivity and has long challenged the concept of a single way to God or take the Bahai faith that speaks about the unity of all religions as one. All religions are not the same as all religions do not point to God. At the heart of every religion is an uncompromising commitment to a particular way of defining who God is or is not and accordingly of defining life’s purpose. Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best – known ones; every religion at its core is exclusive. This is not to cause disunity or promote hatred but as we shall see in the following points, every religions or faith or belief – system at its core is different.
2. The words of our Blessed Lord as seen in John 14:6 unequivocally states that God is the Author of life and that meaning in life lies in coming to Him wherein such an assertion would be categorically denied by Buddhism, which is a non-theistic if not an atheistic religion.
3. Through these words said by our Blessed Lord as seen in John 14:6, He is revealing Himself as the Son of God who leads the way to the Father to which such a claim would come across as blasphemous according to Islam since according to it, God cannot have a son. This type of understanding is based on the notion of sexual union as a necessity for a child to be born. What they fail to realize is God, who is Spirit, is in fact, Being – in – relationship. In Christ the Word becomes flesh. He alone, who dwelt in eternity could consecrate the flesh while differentiating between the inherent power of creation and the bestowed power of procreation, even as He transcended the means by which He was bound. In His Infinite Being, relationship was intrinsic, without the fleshy prerequisite of physical consummation which is why the birth of our Blessed Lord is not by natural means, for communion and the power to give life existed in Himself.
4. Lastly, through the words of our Blessed Lord as found in John 14:6, He is claiming that we can personally know God and the absolute nature of His truth which is something that can baffle the minds of agnostics.

            From the above it would seem that Christianity is about us taking the step towards God but the truth is quite the contrary. In fact, unlike other religions which seem to portray man’s search for God, in Christianity, it is “God’s search for man”, not because He lacked anything but because of His unconditional love for us and so when Pilate asked our Blessed Lord, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33), our Blessed Lord testifies that His Kingdom is not of this world for if it were of this world, His ministers would not have handed Him to be crucified (John 18:36), He came into the world to speak the Truth and whoever belongs to the Truth hears Him (John 18:37). The death of our Blessed Lord was the realization of the Kingdom of God for the entire world.

            The incarnation of Jesus did not create Him; it brought Him down into the context of our human condition. He did not need to attain God – consciousness; He was God in the flesh, the incarnate expression of God. He did not reach a pinnacle by doing what He did. Rather it was because of ‘Who’ He already is that He did what He did. In fact, as already alluded before, in the book of Philippians, we are told that although Jesus “existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). The very thing the New Age spiritualists (such as Deepak Chopra) make of Him, a man who has attained God – consciousness is specifically denied in the Scriptures. The Bible goes on to say in Hebrews 1 that in previous times God had spoken to us through His prophets but now in the latter days He has spoken to us through His Son, the Word of God made flesh Who lived among us.

            The American philosopher Thomas Nagel, who was a professor of philosophy at New York University wrote in his book, “The Last Word”, the following words, “In speaking of the fear religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entire reasonable hostility toward a certain established religion …… in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper – namely the fear of religion itself ….. I want atheism to be true and make uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well – informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and naturally, hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” Such is the unabashed, committed unbelief as seen in the words, “I don’t want there to be a God.” While there are sceptics who may genuinely be seeking out an honest search of reason, this kind of scepticism is the distortion of reason, masquerading as candour. To such a disposition, nothing would serve as sufficient evidence whatsoever. Contrast this with the words of the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon who said, “The proper study of the Christian is the God – head. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the doings and the existence of the great God which he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in the contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject as vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self – content and go on our way with the thought, ‘Behold I am wise’. But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb – line cannot sound its depth, amid that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, ‘I am but of yesterday and know nothing.’”

            In a debate between Alex O’Connor and Michael Jones on “Does God send people to hell?” (you can check out the video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOzmwGmiDHQ&t=236s), Michael Jones contests that people bring hell on themselves when they choose to live unrepentant lives even after being given enough evidence for the truth. This is so true because sin makes sense only in the context of human freedom. Judas, the man who betrayed our Blessed Lord, His very own disciple, was given the opportunity to repent when he and our Blessed Lord dipped and ate from the same dish during the Passover (which took place just before His Passion, Death and Resurrection as seen in John 13:26 -27) and yet when our Blessed Lord held open the door of repentance, Judas would not enter.

            Satan can possess only willing victims. The mark of mercy and friendship extended by the Victim should have moved Judas to repentance but he did not. Even though our Lord revealed His knowledge of the treason, there was still his fixed determination to do evil. Notwithstanding the revelation of the knowledge of the crime and the fact that his evil was stripped naked, he was not ashamed to consummate it in all of its ugliness. Some men turn away from horror at their sins, when the sins are put bluntly before them. But here even though Judas saw his treachery described in all of its deformity, he chose to do it anyway (John 13:27), as Nietzsche would put it, “Evil be thou my good”. 

           Some atheists and agnostics or those who have been heavily influenced by relativism may criticize the Church not because it follows the Master but because it follows Him too little and while there may be some level of truth in it, the area in which they contradict themselves is where they think that because the Church follows Him too little, they feel authorized not to follow Him at all. We cannot believe in Christ and refuse the services of His Church. It would be like wanting water and refusing the water the mains guaranteed by the owner of the source itself. In fact, our Blessed Lord wanted His Apostles and bade them to preach to all people ‘to the end of time’ (Matthew 28:20) and promised His help. He never said that His Apostles and their successors would always be faithful to Him in how they lived but only in teaching. Moreover, as regards action, the examples of weakness of the Church were evident from the beginning as He told Peter, the one in whom He chose to build His Church, “I tell you solemnly, this very night, before the cock crows, you will have denied Me three times” (Matthew 26:34) but yet adds at once that Peter’s faith would be helped so that He might strengthen his sisters and brothers, “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and once you have recovered, you in turn must strengthen your brothers and sisters” (Luke 22:32).

            How many of us, like Judas, choose to ignore the truth even when our Blessed Lord has given us ample evidence of His love and mercy, exhorting us to turn to Him and follow Him as the French political philosopher Jean Bodin once said, “Simple folk and Christians but never philosophers can be brought to believe that the Eternal God should stoop from the high excellence of His nature as to clothe Himself with a body like ours composed of blood and nerves and bones and then in this new figure, should expose Himself to the horror of an ignominious death …..?” The message of our Blessed Lord is totally relevant in connecting the greatest distance in life, namely the distance from the head to the heart, a journey that each one of us must take. The intellectual rigour of the Gospel does not rob us of the mystical and mysterious depths of the very person of God. Knowing this God and having Him work in us is the difference between life and death.

    If our Blessed Lord, the King of Kings, the One from whom everything has its being, the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 22:13), became like us in all aspects except sin, who are we? In as much as we would like to pride ourselves with our various achievements and accolades, the fact of the matter is that everything still comes from Him. He is our True King and if He renounced His royalty just so that we could be saved, we would be digging our own graves if our hearts are hardened to the extent that we choose not to heed His voice despite the various spiritual nudges and exhortation He may send our way, be it directly or indirectly. May it not happen that we become like Judas whose mind was fixated on evil despite our Lord and Master exhorting him to repent but rather like Peter, for even though, he knew he was not the perfect man, yet in humility, he pleaded with our Blessed Lord to wash not only his feet but also his hands and his head (John 13:9). Our Lord was very clear and did not mince His words when He said, “If I do not wash you, you will have no place with Me” (John 13:8), may we not fail to harken to the voice of our Blessed Lord and Master, our True King! Wishing you a happy feast of Christ the King! God love you! Stay blessed!