“Checkmate”
John 18:33-38
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen
It is a memorable scene: Harry, Ron and Hermione enter a
large room. It is pitch dark and they
step gingerly around what seem to be huge statues. As the glow of firelight on the edges of the
room illumines the space they realize that they have
unwittingly stepped onto a huge living chessboard and shall have to play for
their life. The Wizard’s Chess Game begins: Ron is a black knight, Harry a
bishop and Hermione a rook.
The endgame of the movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone is replete with special effects.
Each move that Ron calls out triggers a dazzling display of explosions,
smoke and debris. Piece by piece the battle is waged until Ron, the knight
riding into certain danger, paves the way for Harry to make a strategic move
and he shouts, “Checkmate!” at the white King.
Checkmate: a king is threatened
with capture and has no legal move – no options available to avoid the
threat. As soon as the checkmate is delivered, the game ends. In John’s Gospel, Pilate, the
Roman governor of Judea from 26 to 36, steps onto a chessboard and moves
strategically between the Jews who stand outside his Headquarters and Jesus who
remains inside the Praetorium. Every move he makes is
calculated to preserve his authority and power as governor of
His contempt for Jewish leaders is held
in check by political imperative: the Emperor Augustus demands order at all
costs: a Jewish uprising in
Each question dangles in the air because Jesus replies with
questions of his own and teaches Pilate about another kingdom. For all his
power, Pilate’s moves are limited.“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,” says Jesus. Checkmate: the games end.
He cannot shift responsibility for Jesus to the Jews for
only he has the power to declare death by crucifixion. His attempt to release Jesus in the tradition
of a Passover Pardon fails, his appeal for compassion
as he presents an innocent but scourged and beaten Jesus to the crowd is
rebuffed. He cannot avoid coming face to face with Jesus and neither can we! He
cannot avoid coming face to face with the truth and neither can we!
Says Pilate, “What is truth?”
Indeed. The interrogator is now interrogated and
Pilate falls short. Pilate rejected Jesus. His words are
often interpreted as the last gasp of a cynical ambitious man that had
long ago traded truth for expediency to achieve success. We do not know his
motives and we ourselves make the same sort, albeit less grand, compromises
many times unconsciously.
For all of us, John’s account is that on
the night before Passover in Jerusalem in the 35th year of the first century a
sacred checkmate was delivered and all games ended, a king was captured,
captured and delivered up onto the cross and we hear his voice still – the
voice of our Savior and our King who says, “I came that you might have life,
life in abundance. “
Like Pilate we have question for
Jesus and we move cautiously to preserve our life and influence hoping to live
in two kingdoms at once. The Good News of the Gospel this morning is that we do
not need to try and live in two kingdoms at once. The
word kingdom only appears five times in John’s gospel - twice in chapter three
in the story of Nicodemus and three times in chapter eighteen the Pilate
dialogue. When John speaks of the kingdom he sets it right in the middle of Jesus’
relationship with two men: Pilate and Nicodemus.
The story of Nicodemus is unique to John. You may remember him. In chapter 3 Nicodemus, a Pharisee and leader of the Jews, comes to
Jesus by night, to listen to his voice.
Jesus teaches him with words that I am told are
the most oft quoted verse in the entire Bible.
“For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send his Son into the
world to judge the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
him.”
By chapter 7 Nicodemus musters the
courage to speak on behalf of Jesus in front of other Pharisees and by chapter
19 he is at the cross and anoints Jesus body with ointments before burial. The
The key to the passage is in the Greek word basileia it means kinship not kingdom it means reign not
kingdom it means the not a place but a relationship: a relationship between God
and man made possible through Jesus Christ.
We have choices to make. We can be like Pilate
and hold fast to our power and challenge God. However our power
is, as Pilate learned, quite limited. We
can be like Nicodemus, come to Jesus by stealth, haltingly clinging to our
world and our place in it, afraid to listen to His voice but strangely hoping
to relinquish our power to know His.
On this last Sunday of the church year
we stand on the threshold of Advent the start of a new year in Christ. In the season ahead
we shall herald the birth of our Savior and listen for his voice. Bishop TD
Jakes, in his inimitable style, gives us a lively picture of how to bring this
spiritual year to a close – how to let go of things that entrap us limit our
options with Christ. Says Jakes to all
of us this morning:
“You’ve got to know when its over.
Let me tell you something. I have the
gift of goodbye. It’s
he tenth spiritual gift, I believe in goodbye.
It’s not that I am hateful, it’s that I am
faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have He’ll give it to me.
So, if you are holding onto
something that does not belong to you and was never intended for your life then
you need to… let it go
If you are holding onto past hurts and pains…let them go.
If someone can’t treat you right,
love you back, and see your worth… let him or her go
If someone has angered you…let him or her go
If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil or
revenge…let them go
If you are involved in a wrong
relationship or addiction…let it go
If you have a bad attitude…let it
go
If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better…let
it go
If you keep trying to help someone who won’t
even try to help themselves…let him or her go
The object of chess is to trap the opponent's king. If a player's king is
threatened with capture, he is said to be in check. We might be “in
check” today. We may see many things
that threaten us and we may feel that we do not have options. But our life is not a chessboard. We have options and the option the Gospel
proclaims is that For God’s kingdom to come we have to let go of ours.
Let us pray
Lord, make us an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that wemay
not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born
to eternal life.
Prayer of St. Francis
The Rev. Elizabeth Kuehl