Jesus’s Kingdom of Truth and Love

“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.’” — John 18:37

On the last Sunday of the liturgical year, Christians worldwide celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. This relatively recent addition to the Church calendar, established in the 20th century, holds a profound purpose — to acknowledge the reign of our king, Jesus Christ, over all of creation and every aspect of our lives. 

Historically, the feast emerged in the aftermath of World War I, a time marked by immense suffering, secularism, and the rise of authoritarian regimes. Today, the significance of the Feast of Christ the King endures, as modern society grapples with challenges of conflict and division. Celebrating this feast encourages Christians to embrace Christ’s reign in their lives and to look forward to God’s promised return, affirming that God’s kingdom will have no end.

We are given an opportunity to proclaim faithfully what we believe and to be challenged by what we say. We hover on the edge of a season of expectation. Who is it we await and prepare for?

Pilate enters the headquarters and asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

This is our work: to commit ourselves to Jesus, ‘the way, the truth and the life,’ the king who is a servant.”

Jesus answers Pilate’s question by saying that the kingdom he has been preaching about, teaching about, and leading people into is not of this world. Jesus differentiates between worldly kingdoms and the religious implications of the kingdom of God. Then we discover what the kingdom is like. Jesus’s kingdom, according to John’s Gospel, is a kingdom that affects the world. The kingdoms of the world will fall away, as those who follow Jesus transform the world through their faith and proclamation of the truth. This kingdom of God will not be of this world but will be from above. It shall be a kingdom ruled by love and truth.

Pilate misses the point.

But the point is not missed by those who sit in our pews nor by those who will dare and proclaim this fact. We are Christians and we proclaim a unique Jesus and a unique kingdom. This is our work: to commit ourselves to Jesus, “the way, the truth and the life,” the king who is a servant. Who comes, teaches, heals, reconciles, dies, and rises again, who lives through us and who will return.

As we celebrate this Christ the King Sunday, we are called to offer a vision to the broken, divided, and hurting world. Let us embrace the reign of Jesus in every part of our lives, and let us hold fast to the promise that he will come again in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 

Read all of Sunday’s scriptures

Step Into the Story

Here are some ways to think about how Jesus’s reign in our lives:

Music

In the soaring hymn “The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended,” The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, sings: So be it, Lord! Your throne shall never, like earth’s proud empires, pass away; your kingdom stands and grows forever until there dawns your glorious day.

Visual Art

Christ wears a crown of thorns on the second panel of this 19th-century painted icon from Ethiopia.

Poetry

In “Welcome Morning,” poet Anne Sexton sees the kingdom of God in the ordinary rhythms of her day: All this is God, right here in my pea-green house . . .

Theology

Does the kingdom metaphor for Jesus’s reign hold up for today’s Christians? Writer Abby Rampone explains the context of Jesus’s life and ministry — a world of imperial power — and offers an alternative metaphor from theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz: a kin-dom, or inclusive family of God.

Mother Yein is Priest and Associate Director, Sacramental Life and Membership, at Trinity Church.