"Art thou the King of the Jews?" A Pilate's momentous question to Jesus in the judgment hall at Jerusalem as the latter awaited the fateful decision of his enemies called forth from the discerning consciousness of the great Nazarene the counter-question, "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?" It was as if the Master, perceiving the governor's hesitation and unwillingness to condemn him, sought to arouse in him a moral courage capable of resisting the clamor of the populace; and perhaps even more did he seek to awaken him to the spiritual truths which it was Jesus' mission as the Messiah to reveal, both by his original utterances and by his demonstration of divine law.
At this supreme moment of his earthly career Jesus stood at the bar of human judgment, a judgment devoid of justice, influenced and inflamed by bitter hatred, fear, and ecclesiastical jealousy, and administered by one prepared to compromise Principle for popularity. It was then that he defined the kingship he represented in contrast to the earthly crown on which Pilate's thoughts were centered, in these words: "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth."
In the enunciation of this simple yet all-inclusive summary of his life-purpose, did Christ Jesus send forth for all time the message of his own high calling. He further clarified for every sincere seeker and would-be demonstrator of the Science of being, the mission of which he was the perfect Exemplar, the pathway in which his present and future disciples must faithfully and consistently walk in order to accomplish his purpose.
