John 18:33–37
In the Gospel for Reign of Christ, we find Jesus deep in the carceral system of his day. He has been betrayed by one of his own friends who conspired with the police to arrest him. Most of his community, particularly his disciples, abandon him in the face of his incarceration even before his trial. The trial itself is a sham, something Jesus plainly recognizes. Now, the police have dragged him before the imperial authorities for sentencing.
At no point is there any logic to Jesus’ incarceration other than imposing the will of the powerful on him. There is no concern for justice (certainly not restorative justice) in this process. There is no concern for what’s best for the community. There isn’t even a significant concern for truth (confoundingly, the lectionary omits Pilate’s famous quotation from v. 38).
The primary concern in this carceral system appears to be preservation of the powerful hierarchy at work in it. When Jesus testifies for himself earlier in this chapter, the police strike him and demand “Is that how you answer the high priest?” (v.22). The high priest’s power is threatened by Jesus and the police respond with violence. Jesus’ accusers defer to Pilate’s authority when they want to put Jesus to death to preserve their uneasy alliance with the Romans (v. 31). Interrogating Jesus, Pilate famously doesn’t seek truth but the best way to preserve imperial power in the face of one accused of claiming kingship.
One of the most important things for Christians to recognize about incarceration, policing, and criminal justice in the United States and around the world is what the primary concerns of these systems are. The default assumption is that they exist to keep us safe, but that often doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Private prisons exist to preserve the profits and power of those who own them. Elected law enforcement officials must appear “tough on crime” and follow through with policies to that effect to maintain their power. Whatever the quality of actors within law enforcement and incarceral systems, the priority is preservation of those systems’ status quo.
Christians, however, are not called to the maintenance of that status quo. Jesus explicitly appeals to a “kingdom … not from this world” (v. 36). This characterization of the Reign of Christ has frequently been spiritualized, but the whole witness of the New Testament doesn’t suggest that. The Reign of Christ has material consequences and should manifest itself in a different order of things, including cared for and freed prisoners (a consistent theme in both Jewish and Christian Scriptures). Particularly on Reign of Christ Sunday, Christians should question the reign of present principalities and powers. Is their status quo godly and holy or is it the same imperial and carceral system that rejected and executed Jesus?
Wesley Spears-Newsome (he/him/his)is a writer and Baptist pastor in North Carolina.