SCC Reflections by Fr. Donal Mcilraith
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."
Pilate has power of life and death in Judea. He wants to establish on what base, he must try Jesus. " Are you King of the Jews, he asked." Jesus question him in return asking where this question comes from. " We know that the Jews have handed Jesus over as King of the Jews." But Jesus has not tried to set up Kingdom with army and territory. When he was arrested, his followers did not take armies to defend him. Therefore, Pilate knows Jesus is a different sort of King. Pilate than asks, " Are you a King.?" Pilate wants to know what kind of King, Jesus is.
Jesus now clarifies his mission and what kind of mission and what kind of Kingdom he is establishing. “Yes, I am a King,” Jesus said. But my Kingdom is not of this world. The mission of this King, the reason he was born is to witness to the truth. “What is this truth that Jesus witness to? It is truth about God. A witness must have a first-hand experience of what they are witnessing to. Jesus had this. He knows God his Father. He alone can tell us truly about God. He brings us communion with God. God who is one. God who sent his only begotten Son to save us. Jesus knows directly everything about God, His Father and God plan of love for us. To enter in to this communion with God he must accept the witness of Jesus, we must accept Jesus.
A King, the bible tells us is a Shepard, one takes care of and improve the life of his people. In John 10”10, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. “ By witnessing to the truth of God, Jesus enables us to enter into communion with God, and have that fullness of his divine life, something that is beyond every human possibility. Pilate is not interested in God. He is not able to accept Jesus and his witnesses. He turns away from Jesus, with cynical remarks, “What is truth?”
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