Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ ³⁴Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ ³⁵Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ ³⁶Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ ³⁷Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘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.’

 
I thought today we might take a moment to talk about the calendar. What is a calendar – what does it help us to do? (Solicit children’s answers.)

That’s right. A calendar is something we use to keep track of time – but instead of measuring minutes and hours it measures the days of the week and the months of the year.

You might not know it, but we follow a special church calendar too and this week we are celebrating the very end of it with a special day. We call it The Feast of Christ the King - and it is the last Sunday before we begin a new church calendar year with the four weeks of Advent, which is the time we prepare for the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

Have you ever heard Jesus called a king? There are several different places in the Bible where he’s called one – and this week’s Gospel reading is one of them. Why do you think he might be called that? What does it mean when we call someone “king?” (Solicit children’s answers.)

A king is a leader of his people. That makes it a pretty good name for Jesus, doesn’t it?

Let’s pray.

Dear God,

Help us to prepare our hearts for advent and the coming of our king.

Amen