Solemnity of Christ King of the universe: “It is you yourself who says that I am king” – Year B

At that time Pilate called Jesus and said to him: “Are you the king of the Jews? » Jesus asked him: “Are you saying this about yourself, or have others told you this about me? » Pilate replied: “Am I Jewish? Your nation and the high priests have handed you over to me: what have you done? » Jesus declared: “My royalty is not of this world; If my royalty were of this world, I would have guards who would have fought to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. In fact, my royalty is not from here. » Pilate said to him: “So, you’re king?” » Jesus replied: “It is you yourself who says that I am king. I was born, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to my voice. »

► Understand

What is truth?

Obviously, “the truth” to which Jesus testifies hardly interests Pilate. He is in a completely different register than this so-called king of the Jews… This misunderstanding also threatens us. To hear what it means “to bear witness to the truth”, we must get out of our Cartesian mentality and take the word in its linguistic and biblical context. The Aramaic that Jesus spoke being, like Hebrew, a very concrete language, the word translated into Greek by “truth” means first of all: that which is stable, that which we can rely on, that which we can trust. Concrete, in a way! This is the basis of the word “Amen” and can sometimes be translated as “fidelity”.

In the Bible, the true God is the one whose Word is reliable and whose love does not fail. It is to this Truth that Jesus came to bear witness, he who is “way, truth and life” and through whom “grace and truth” are given to us. He came to bear witness to the unshakable Covenant of God’s love: truth which fills the mind and heart, truth which establishes our lives.

► Meditation

What royalty?

“I am king”, Jesus says here, and this is the only time he says it in the entire Gospel. Previously, when the crowd, satisfied with bread, had wanted to take him and make him king, he had fled into the mountain. Now he has allowed himself to be taken by the soldiers, he has allowed himself to be crowned, and a writing from Pilate will declare him king in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The hour of his royal investiture is that of his failure in the eyes of the world, of his condemnation and his elimination from the face of the earth.

At the level of the text, if we count the words of the Passion story which covers two chapters, the arithmetical center is the expression “crown of thorns”! This is not an accidental detail. There is indeed an insistence from the evangelist which invites us to reflect and contemplate Jesus the king. Like the newborn in Bethlehem, the condemned man crowned with thorns must astonish us, disconcert us and bring us into the dark light of Revelation. What face of God does he reveal to us?

What is His kingship that the entire Old Testament proclaims, and whose advent Jesus announces in words and deeds? It is the reign of Him who has only His love to give, and not the solution to all our problems. There is no question of abdicating our freedom in his hands: he will never impose himself by force, he will never become an “influencer” to win our support. Because what he wants is not power over us, but our life and our freedom. He knows that if we choose other “kings,” we become their slaves. Making himself prisoner, he frees us. Scorned, crowned with thorns, he gives us back our dignity.

Do we want such a king? What do we fear more, oppression or true freedom? And do we, all of us who want to have some power, at least over our own lives if not over those of others, want to reign in his own way? Will we adopt his way of taking responsibility and exercising power?

► Pray

Look at you, Jesus, crowned with thorns, for a long time, until your truth penetrates the depths of my mind and my heart.
To worship You, beyond what I can understand, You, the Amen, the King of the universe, the One in whom all was created, You in whom all is redeemed and accomplished.
With all the love I am capable of, call you “my King, my Lord, my God”.
Humbly ask to reign like you, with you.