Pilate would never have understood the kingship of Jesus Christ. Nor any of his enemies. They were all so earth-bound that anything that went beyond the limits of the physical and the material was likewise beyond their grasp.
Christ's kingship comes in terms totally opposed to the world's notion of what it means to be king. The idea of kingship necessarily attached to service would undoubtedly sound ridiculous to Pilate, to the Pharisees and the scribes, all wanting to get rid of Jesus. But the kingship that God has in mind is nothing new in the bible. Take Daniel and his visions. What he tells us in the first reading is not the ravings of a fevered mind. Psalm 93 and especially Psalm 132 speaks about the Kingdom as God intends it to be.
The one basic prerequisite towards an acceptance of that Kingdom and eventually finding oneself entering its portals is, of course, faith. Without that faith, one cannot hope for the kingdom, let alone live here and now its demands. The kingdom is growing in the hearts of people who can follow and live the way of love, who is Jesus, God. Love makes us like Jesus Christ, King, who first must empty Himself so that His people may live. The kingdom of Jesus is arrived at only by following Him - the Servant of the servants of God.
Would Pilate and the rest have understood what self-emptying and self-giving was all about? Would people given to greed and worldly ambition, people given to accumulating material possessions do?
Fr Jess A. Enciso
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