Checkmate

Pilate asked [Jesus], “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king.” – John 18:37a (NRSV) 

Our games of chess played out the same way, over and over again: the opening moves; the hope by the sister that her little brother wouldn’t do the same thing he did last time and the time before, moving his queen forward two and over one, just like the horse-shaped knight; the patient explanation of the rules; the downward spiral into an argument over the move; and finally, the throwing over of the board. 

(By me. I was the sister.) 

When Jesus came, he didn’t play the way people expected a messiah to play, so the religious authorities played against him. They got his piece off the board and thought they had won. But the game did not end simply because crucifixion looked like checkmate. Christ came as a different kind of King, a monarch who changed the rules of the game. 

Hear how he talked to Pilate: My power does not look like the world’s power. If my power looked like the world’s power, I would let my pawns die to keep me safe from earthly power structures. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from here. You don’t understand who I am. 

Pilate replies, “So you are a king?” 

Check. 

“You say that I am a king.” 

Checkmate comes from a Persian phrase meaning, “the king is helpless.” In earthly terms, Jesus allowed himself to be. He did not raise an army. Christ threw the board over not because people broke the rules but because the rules themselves were broken. 

This King would sacrifice himself to show God’s love—his love—for us. 

Prayer
O God, may we play by your rule of love. Amen.