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The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
As the visions during the night continued, I saw
one like a son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
when he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
the one like a son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
R. (1a) The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
The Lord is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the Lord and girt about with strength.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O Lord.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed;
holiness befits your house,
O Lord, for length of days.
Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes. Amen.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, " says the Lord God,
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."
Pilate said to Jesus,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "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."
King of Truth
The passion narrative was the original gospel, later backgrounded by Mark with his opening words: "The beginning of the good news...", as if to say, 'This is how it all began.' The passion narrative is the most uniform section of the three synoptics. To see them side by side, check out: https://sites.utoronto.ca/religion/synopsis/meta-4g.htm
John expands the account of the trial, reconstructing exchanges between Jeshua, Pilate and the 'Jews' (https://www.jpost.com/Christian-In-Israel/History/The-Book-of-John-and-the-Jews-308397). The narrative is not primarily an account of the awful sufferings Jeshua underwent for our sins but an attempt to explain what it meant. It is common for people on the margin of such an event to confess or complain: "I don't know what's going on." They feel there's something more than just another voice being silenced, be it Julian Assange, Alexei Navalny or David McBride. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/7-30/series/0/video/SEGS2024104627002
That was certainly the feeling among the disciples as they talked it through, over and over until a pattern began to emerge. John's account brings out the tension between the main protagonists: the religious establishment v. the civil authority as the occupying power, and the hero/victim Jeshua caught between the two. Reflection on this dynamic will allow us to see what's going on here.
The key is truth itself. Jeshua declares that he stands there in witness to the truth. That is his whole purpose. And incidentally this is his last statement, a final declaration that sums up his entire life. It can be considered, then, to be the purpose and goal of every Christian. Each of us is called upon to witness to the truth.
You don't need complex theologies of incarnation to see that it is God who is on trial here, for truth is divine. Just as God is Love, so God is Truth. Divine truth is violated by impertinent human judgements. The high priest, faced with something he could not understand, instead of withholding judgment presumes to declare Jeshua a blasphemer. Pilate likewise fails to withhold judgement but goes ahead and hands Jeshua over to be crucified, while even in the same act washing his hands of the case to absolve himself of responsibility. So we treat God's truth!
Today it is the fashion for God to be kicked around like a football. Mention 'God' around the BBQ and you're likely to be met with the rejoinder: 'Oh, I don't believe in god or that religion stuff.' You might wish you could reply: 'How easy! And truth and justice?' The response will be: 'Well, justice is a farce, and anyway my truth is as good as yours. It's all relative. Means nothing. Who do you think is gunna win the Cup?'
The battle to defend the truth, at the moment, surges around the ubiquitous social media where truth is totally rubbished. This is a fight we've all got to take up. To succeed, the government's present efforts to control these media will need to become popular demands. Constraints will be felt by children and will engender complaint and rebellion, but the harms are so great that we must stand firm against the orchestrated protests that will eventuate. This is a fight that will be lived through in every family at every age level. Everyone who is on the side of truth needs to get into it.
A few thought-starters; others will be added by contributors:
1. Freedom of Speech is not an absolute right in the sense that it is without any constraints or limitations. Lying to deceive, to the harm or to the detriment of another, is always wrong. The practice of using misinformation as a kind of entertainment to capture the minds of the young, making providers wealthy in the process, must be brought under control. A system of licensing and regulation, similar to the licensing of food, health, business, transport, etc., etc., is needed, urgently.
2. The objection that I have a right to speak my truth, and my truth is as good as yours, is as infantile as it is spurious. Privately you can think whatever you want to, but harnessing the social media, seeding them with addiction-forming algorithms, and broadcasting lies across the world so you can compete in the race to be the richest person in the world is not acceptable. Complicit are those businesses which flood this captive audience with advertisments for their products. Worst of all are the predators who make sport of causing harm to vulernable people.
3. Society itself needs true information to live. Misinformation - lies - will corrode the very structure of society and bloody chaos will be the outcome. Informationi is to society like oxygen to the body. If the air we breathe is polluted we will die. We have a great fear of fire but in fact people die of asphixiation well before the body catches fire. While the world fears a nuclear conflagration, are we already half way to unconscious, the air poisoned by misinformation to the extent that noone knows what to think any more?
4. The proposed government regulations won't be perfect, and they will be very difficult to implement; success will be patchy at best. However this is no reason not to make a start. This argument, in fact, only highlights the urgency of the situation.
Without truth society dies. Better to speak out now and be laughed at than to end up caught in a world in chaos. People may turn their back on you; you may lose friends, but the truth sincerely spoken has a power that the lie can never match. We have to fight to defend the truth under attack from all sides. This is our fight for survival.
God is true. Truth is divine. It is not acceptable to play around with truth.