Pantocrator

Would we be surprised to hear that he was removed from office because of excessive cruelty and brutality during his term of office as prefect of Judea?

We don't have contemporary Roman records about him, only a few hints in the New Testament and some comments by Josephus, that notorious Jewish collaborator with the Romans.

Everything was about power, and Pilate used brutal efficiency in keeping control of that rebellious province.

The incident mentioned in our Gospel today, about Pilate murdering some pilgrims as they were presenting their sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem, fits with the other things written about him; although not recorded elsewhere, it is perfectly plausible.

Like using a catapult to swat a fly, Pilate seems not to have used a little force when a lot was available.

He was so violent that even the Romans couldn't stand it anymore, and the emperor recalled him to Rome, and he was forced by Caligula to commit suicide about the year 39.

Pilate is matched in despised memory by Herod the Great, who had been client king of Judea around the time of Jesus' birth, who ordered the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem [Matthew 2], and who put to death anyone whom he held in paranoid suspicion, even his wife and other members of his own family.

Oh, yes, he was a great builder...of the renewed Temple, of the Herodium palace, of the harbor of Caesarea Maritima, and many other great monuments, but he was hated all the more.

According to Josephus, he died a horribly painful death, rotting away with gangrene.

Raw, brute power; that is the way with kings.

The old saying seems to be true: power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But not at the hand of Jesus.

When he is confronted with the story about how unjust Pilate was, Jesus is not dragged into an argument where he could be accused of slander against Pilate.

Instead he turns the question to those who brought the story.

Hey folks, a similar outcome might happen to you, unless you repent!

And then the next little report about people killed in a tower collapse.

Don't bother speculating about how evil they were or were not, consider your own situation and what you have been doing, and whether a similar fate might befall you.

Jesus the king does not use his power to condemn this one or that one, but instead uses the opportunity to challenge those who would delight in some one else's misery to consider and turn around their own situations.

The point is made even more firmly with the story that follows, about the gardener who uses his power to tend the fig tree and to give it another chance to produce fruit.

The power is to both judge what is needed, and to tend and care for it so as to accomplish that need.

That would be a different sort of king than we will find anywhere else, one who both judges and cares.

Above the doorway of many Romanesque churches there is a semicircular area called the tympanum which was often the spot for statuary.

Often it pictured Christ seated on a throne, dispensing justice.

In front of him was a scales on which the lives of persons were judged.

Some went to heaven where they were welcomed by St. Peter at the door, and some were condemned , where the losers were forced into a monstrous open mouth, while Satan stood by, grinning.

It is a fear-inducing scene; Christ the judge who causes the viewer to wonder, doubt, or perhaps despair if he or she could ever measure up.

But there is another approach.

In the apse of many Orthodox influenced churches there is an icon of Christ Pantocrator, ruler of all.

One of the most dramatic of these is in the cathedral of Monreale, Sicily.

I haven't been there, but I have seen many photographs of the church.

Christ Pantocrator, Christ the ruler is a huge mosaic made of uncounted thousands of pieces of ceramic, stone, glass and gold which looms over the entire east end of the church.

Its size, strong colors, and placement means that the mosaic is visible from every part of the building; it dominates the room.

The little icon print that we have in front of us today makes a similar point.

Yes, Jesus is enthroned, even as God was enthroned on the wings of the cherubim who guard the ark in the Temple's holy of holies.

But the point of it is not that God shuts himself away from us, but in Jesus makes himself available to us.

That is what cross and resurrection guarantee.

Is he judge? Yes, however, in the Monreale mosaic his hand is raised not in condemnation, but in forgiveness and blessing.

Are we judged and found wanting? Yes, our record of fruit-bearing is very thin.

Jesus takes time with us, however, and tends to us so that the situation is changed, that there is time for amendment of life, that there can be forgiveness and a fresh start.

Both of these things are kept in tension: God's judgment and his mercy, his being holy and separated from us and at the same time his desire that we be in deep communion with him.

It would be foolish to try to turn things around and join the world in trying to judge Jesus and ask questions such as Do God's demands make sense, are they reasonable?

The demands come after God has already announced his promise I am the Lord your God.

God has already given us good things and has every right to judge how we use them.

At different points in history, people have missed the truth.

For many in the Middle Ages, it seems as though Jesus was only seen as the fearsome judge.

Some in the 19^th century turned Jesus into a sweet, sentimental sap.

Some in the 20^th century thought of Jesus as my good buddy and pal.

For a great many in the 21^st century, Jesus is just an unnecessary memory.

It would be well for us to listen carefully to this Gospel reading today and discern here both God's justice and his mercy.

Jesus is judge over us; he is not a sweet nonentity, nor our buddy, nor a figment of antiquarian imagination.

Jesus is judge, and we dare not forget or minimize it.

But Jesus “...does not desire the death of his servants, but that all might turn to him and live,” as we observed in the Ash Wednesday liturgy.

And by his Holy Spirit he will do what is needed to turn us around, whenever we allow him the opportunity.

Gardeners know that a good harvest depends on more than once upon a time planting something.

The seedlings have to be fertilized, tended, and watered throughout the season, until there be harvest.

That is the other side of God's relationship with us, and what Good News it is!

We will hear both sides of Jesus' work in the hymn we sing next.

With your living fire of judgment

Purge this land of bitter things, we sing in the first stanza. [LBW418.1]

As we discover as we're reading CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters on Thursday mornings, the evil one would love for us to doubt the power or resolve of the Lord Jesus to judge us and find us wanting.

But then we delight in the other side of the Lord's work:

Feed the faint and hungry peoples

With the richness of your Word. [LBW 418.3]

May our prayer in this Lenten season have several facets:

Lord Jesus, Pantocrator, you made us and give us what we need.

Judge us and find those places where we have failed and what we lack.

Clean us, feed us with word and sacrament, renew in us your blessings.

Join us with your whole body, the church of all times and places,

so that we can sing our hymn in the church on earth and the whole heavenly host.

Let all the people say Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.