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Face to face with Jesus, Pilate wanted to ask him, “Who are you?” We ask the same question every time we start a relationship: “Who are you?” Today, Christians are still being asked the same question: “Who are you?”
We often politely answer this question, without revealing who we actually are. We give a standard, courteous answer because we are afraid that people might think we are proud or conceited. And so, we give a modest answer.
If we look at our lives, we can answer this question in three ways. We can say, “I am an engineer, or I am a dressmaker, or I am a contractor. I am what I do.” Some people answer it by saying “what people say I am.” They feign humility and say,
“Well, people say I am handsome, they say I am pretty, or gracious, or kind, or hospitable.” And there are some people who answer this question by stating “I am what I have.” “I have money, I have education, I have clout, I have influence, I have popularity.”
So, there are three ways people answer this question: “I am what I do. I am what people say I am. I am what I have.” In other words, “who I am” is: “I am my success. I am my popularity. I am my power. My power is me. My success is me. My popularity is me.”
I hope you realize how fragile this kind of self-identification is. If you only identify yourself with success, popularity, and power, when you die, you are just dead. When you die, you are perceived as having been defeated by death. When you are dead, you would want to still be remembered, so you decree that a monument be built for you. People will recognize the monument as a work of art, but they often forget the person for whom the monument is erected.
This kind of self-identification is weak. Pilate thought he was what other people thought of him. He said, “I am governor of Judah. I have the trust and confidence of the emperor of Rome. I can decide on your life or death.” Pilate had power, but what happened to that power?
Jesus did not like to identify himself with popularity and success. Jesus wanted to say, “I have no need for power, success, and popularity, because when I was baptized in the River Jordan, a voice was heard from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.’” And because of these words from heaven, money, power, success, popularity are no longer important. We cannot even refer to them as icings on the cake, because icings make the cake beautiful. But power, success, and popularity do not add to our beauty. They do not make us more beautiful than others. They simply distract us from the fact that we are God’s beloved ones.
The beautiful thing is this: what the Father said about Jesus – “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” – is also being said about us. When you and I were baptized, a voice was also heard from heaven saying, “You are my beloved. You are special to me. I am well pleased with you.” That gift of being the beloved of God is even more beautiful than the love you receive from your parents, because long before your parents started to love you, God has already begun loving you. And long after your loved ones on earth have stopped caring for you, God would still be there, caring for you, understanding you. “You are my beloved,” he tells us.
That is why Jesus did not have to answer the question of Pilate, because Pilate would not understand him. But you understand the Lord. You understand that being God’s beloved is the greatest honor that you can ever receive. And all other things become unimportant and useless. And because Jesus is the beloved Son, you share in what he has. And because Jesus is King, you and I are also kings, because we are God’s beloved.
Let us be proud of this truth. Let us be thankful to God for it. Let us ask God to deliver us, to safeguard us, to protect us from the destruction that power, popularity, and success can bring us. Success can intoxicate. Power can make us blind. Let us not fall into that trap. You and I are kings because Jesus is king.
And when you close your eyes and imagine Jesus as king, do not put a crown of gold on his head, or royal robes on his back, or a glittering scepter in his hand, because stripped of all that Jesus is still king, and is God’s beloved. Stripped of your power, success, or popularity, you are still the beloved.
We have been chosen by God and all other things become unimportant and unnecessary. The power, the popularity, the success that we may gain all amount to nothing compared to the truth that we are God’s beloved. Let us allow Him to reign supreme in our hearts.
WE ARE BELOVED
Jn 18: 33b-37
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