Kings and Kingdoms

John 18:36-37

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 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. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

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No marigolds in the promised land
There's a hole in the ground
Where they used to grow
Any man left on the Rio Grande
Is the king of the world
As far as I know

"King of the World" by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen recorded by Steely Dan on "Countdown to Ecstasy"

Steely Dan often wrote in odd and exotic metaphor. Written in the early 1970's, this song was the Dan's vision of what could happen if the cold war suddenly got very, very hot. It's a post-Apocalyptic, post-Nuclear-Holocaust vision of what's left of the American Southwest.

It's a bleak and desolate place, there are few people and no marigolds. Just to make this more convoluted, marigolds historically represent Mary the mother of Jesus and Queen Elizabeth I. Being the Virgin Mary and England's Virgin Queen, marigold in this sense represents virginity. That's what they mean by no marigolds, no virgins. What they mean is the world is a place of extreme violence where no innocence survives. There is nothing short of rape and murder left in the world.

As for the hole, it represents the bomb crater, or worse.

Is it any wonder Jesus says he is not the from this world? Is it any wonder Jesus tells Pilate that he is not the King of this world? He's a king, he's just not the king of a world that is willing to blow itself up several times over or willing to kill God just to maintain the way we've always done things.

This is the horrible, violent, graceless sort of a world that only a human being can create. God made the world, but what has been made of the world is something else entirely.

Jesus says that those who belong to the truth listen to his voice. The next verse has Pilate asking "What is truth."

Truth walked the world. Truth shared not just his words and his works and his wisdom with the world, he shared his entire self with the world. The truth is that there is no sacrifice to small, no sacrifice too large for God. God seeks relationship with creation. God seeks the reconciliation of the world. This is the truth. God does not want the end that is oh so easy to see coming down the road from the early '70's.

Our Lord is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The kingdoms that we create are not the kingdoms God would have us create. That is not what God wants for this world. Don't worry though, this is not the Kingdom God established. This is the truth Pilate could not see. This is the truth we must seek.