Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that 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.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
John 18:33-38 NRSVue
Okay, how was that for timing? Yesterday millions of Americans took part in more than 3,000 No Kings rallies and marches across the country with an estimated eight to nine million people involved. They were protesting the autocratic rule a president who styles himself as an emperor. This wasn't the first No Kings Day and probably won't be the last because of the growing dissatisfaction with Trump.
Today, on Palm/Passion Sunday we are reminded that peasant Jesus road into Jerusalem mounted on the colt of a donkey, lauded by a Jewish crowd assembled in the city for Passover/Pesach. Some scholars say that Pilate, the regional ruler of the Roman Empire arrived the same day in a procession designed to demonstrate the might of the Pax Romana to quell any possibility of insurrection.
A few days later Pilate asked Jesus --twice --, "are you a king?" and heard "My kingdom does not belong to this world." The scene was an intimate yet cosmic reminder of the justaposition of seemingly insurmountable power and the upside down reign of God embodied in Jesus, the Christ.
4 Ride on! Ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
bow thy meek head to mortal pain,
then take, O God, thy power, and reign.
Voices United 127
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