Underground Kingdom

Homily for November 24, 2024
The Last Sunday After Pentecost
“Christ the King Sunday”
John 18:33-37

In his 2019 book Underland, author Robert MacFarlane writes about experiences underground:  in Paris, his visit to the catacombs; in Italy, his exploration of an underground river; in the highlands of Slovenia,sinkholes; in Norway, sea caves; in Finland, a nuclear containment site.  In the chapter called “Understory,” MacFarlane stays closer to home and drives from Cambridge to the Epping Forest just outside London.  Epping Forest was established in the twelfth century as the private hunting grounds of King Henry II and today is managed by the City of London Corporation as a public park.  In the Forest, MacFarlane meets up with one Merlin Sheldrake to speak about the trees.  They speak not about how large and towering and majestic some of them are, but about what lies underneath them.  Though unseen by the vast majority of visitors to the park, Sheldrake says that it’s the trees’ root systems and their surrounding “fungal networks” that really make the forest.  Beneath the forest floor, the trees’ roots and their expansive fungal networks connect one tree to another such that trees “communicate,” passing nutrients along to another and alerting each other to the presence of harmful insects such as aphids.  More than the trees towering above, the roots and the unseen fungal networks below are really what make a forest a forest, Sheldrake says.

Jesus’ kingship is a theme that – like the root systems and fungal networks beneath a forest floor –[Jesus’ kingship is a theme that] that runs underneath the length of St. John’s Gospel, with occasional bursts (like trees) through the surface that enable us to see it more clearly.  For example:

-        In chapter 1 Nathanael exclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!” (1:49).  Here, Jesus’ kingship is above ground.

-        “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” said Jesus (10:11). Here, Jesus’ kingship is below ground.

-         “When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (6:15).  Here, Jesus’ kingship is above ground.

-        “Very truly, I tell you,” said Jesus, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit” (12:24).  This is below ground.

-        “So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!’” (12:13).  This is above ground.

The theme of Jesus’ kingship that runs throughout St. John’s Gospel comes to a head in the story of Jesus before Pilate, a portion of which we heard in this morning’s Gospel lesson:  “Are you the king of the Jews?” Pilate asks Jesus.  Here, now that Jesus’ “hour” has come, Jesus’ kingship is fully “above ground.” And John uses Pilate, an earthly ruler, to highlight how Jesus’ kingdom is different and “is not from this world:”

-        Pilate has soldiers who fight; Jesus told his followers to put away their swords (18:11).

-        Pilate orders and commands people; but Jesus, when he is lifted up, will draw people to himself (12:32).

-        Pilate judges according to human standards; Jesus says, “I judge no one” (8:15).

-        Pilate asks questions to interrogate and to perhaps put to death; Jesus asks questions (as to Nicodemus in chapter 3) so “that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (3:16).

-        Pilate has power to crucify and to take life; Jesus came “that they may have life and have it abundantly” (10:10).

-        Pilate does not know the crowd, and they do not listen to him, but insist that Pilate “Crucify him;” Jesus knows his sheep by name; and they listen to him and follow him (10:4).

-        Pilate has to ask,“What is truth?” whereas Jesus himself is Truth.

The list could go on...  Here, at Jesus’ crucifixion, in contrast to an earthly ruler, the nature of Jesus’ kingship becomes clear:  Jesus is (as John said in chapter 1) “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29).  His kingship is not about being served and,say, having his feet washed, but rather is about washing others’ feet(13:1-9).  The power of Jesus’ kingship is not marked by force, but rather by servitude, by his willingness to do the Father’s will and to complete his work (e.g., 4:34; 5:30).  The glory of Jesus’ kingship does not derive from displays of power and riches, but rather because he is the Father’s only son, “full of grace and truth” (1:14).  His kingship is not about exaltation, but rather, like a seed, it is about falling into the ground and dying (12:24).  His kingship is not about raising himself up, but about being “raised up,” being crucified.  Jesus is a king, says John,because, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so [is] the Son of Man lifted up,” crucified, so “that whoever believes in him might be saved” (3:15).

The kind of kingship Jesus offers is not readily seen by our world; for the most part, Jesus’ kingship is “underground.”  As John himself writes,“[Jesus] was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him” (1:10).

As we live in a world filled with earthly “kings” and despots, with would-be “Pilates” and strongmen, even though it may be hard to see the kingdom and kingship that Jesus’ offers, the real “forest,” the place that truly nurtures life and gives growth, is this often-unseen kingdom in which Jesus reigns and into which he invites us.  The strongmen and dictators, says John, the“rulers of this world,” in Christ have been condemned and will be driven out(16:11, 12:31) – they cannot offer us life.  But Jesus – who won his kingdom, not through power or wealth or by force or through lies, but by testifying to the truth and by offering himself, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world – [Jesus] offers us life.  May he be our “king” enthroned in our hearts, so that we know his forgiveness and love, so that we need not live in fear, and so that following our Shepherd – who knows us by name and whose voice we know and who speaks to us truth – [so that following our Shepherd] we may“have life, and… have it abundantly."