Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
SUNDAY, November 22 Last Pentecost: Christ the King
John 18:33-37. Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
It is jarring to read John's account of our Lord's interrogation by Pilate on this last Sunday of the church year. What "king" answers to an occupying governor?
But it is precisely our Lord's powerlessness before earthly rulers that reveals his true nature. His life is of a whole. We cannot separate his execution from what precedes and follows it. The annunciation, incarnation, baptism, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are inseparable parts of the prophetic testimony of his coming among us, and of God's action in the salvation history of humanity.
To be one of us, yet unlike us, is the very essence of Jesus' life. How else could God have experienced what it is to be human? How else could God have shown us a more unconventional way to save us?
It could have been different. But it was not, it is not. The mystery of why God decided to reveal his Son in this way is unsolvable--from the human perspective. We now look through the mirror dimly. Some day we shall know. In the meantime, accepting Jesus as Savior is enough. And his kingship, though not of this world, is one worth serving.
PRAY for the Diocese of Wau (Sudan)
Ps 132:1-13(14-19) and 2 Samuel 23:1-7 –OR– Ps 93 and Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1:4b-8
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