Christ the What?

A Homily for Christ the King Sunday 

November 24, 2013

From the words of the Gospel:  "There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

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Today is another special day in the Church Year. Today is called ?????? 

(Christ the King Sunday) 

It is the last day of the last season of the Church year, which begins with the anticipation of the coming of Jesus as a baby, and ends with the anticipation of the 

coming back of Jesus as Christ the King. 

The Gospel Reading for the day is the story of the passion, the death, of Jesus.  However, the focus of the day is not on the passion, but on the references to Jesus as King. 

It’s not a day for celebrating an historical event, like the birth, or the death, or the resurrection, or the ascension of Jesus. It is more like the celebration of an experience or an idea, like the Holy Trinity, a doctrine which we celebrate on Trinity Sunday. 

Or even better, it’s like the celebration of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, which we celebrate on Good Shepherd Sunday.  Jesus as the Good Shepherd was a direct comparison of Jesus to those who had been anointed as the shepherds of Israel in the past (rulers and kings of Israel in the past), shepherds who had cared more for themselves than for the people, particularly the poor and needy; shepherds who, in fact, had oppressed the poor and needy.  Unlike them, Jesus was celebrated as the Good Shepherd.  

The experience we celebrate on Christ the King Sunday is very similar.  It is our experience of the Jesus of history as the Christ of faith, and the truest King of the truest Kingdom, compared with all the other rulers, who, even if they promise security and salvation, 

always fall short. 

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So how does that work for you? How do you relate to the archetype or the image of “King?”  How does that image help you to relate to Jesus?  How does it help you on your own spiritual journey?  That’s not a question that was turned in last spring when everyone wrote down their “one-thing-I-would-like-to-ask-God” questions.  But it seems to be the only direct question to ask on Christ the King Sunday. So let’s see what we can do with it. 

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What we first have to admit and honestly face into on this Sunday, is that it’s a giant leap for many people from the experience of the Jesus of history to the experience of Christ as king. 

For the religious people of his day, Jesus was, frankly, a big disappointment.  Jesus disappointed every group that tried to capture him for its purpose.

He disappointed the Zealots, hell bent on freeing the Holy Land from the pagan occupying power - the Romans.

He disappointed the Pharisees, who were a devout minority dedicated to the maintenance  of the distinctively Jewish way of life.  He disappointed the baptists, (those who, like Jesus, had followed John the Baptist) because his way was in sharp contrast to the rigid asceticism of John.

As Tony Kelly, an Australian Catholic theologian says:  “To the devout, he was irreligious. To the learned, he was untutored.  To the revolutionary, he was too idealistic.  To the priests, he was a meddling layman.  To the aristocratic establishment, he was a cause for alarm.”

For the world, the death of Jesus was just another death of just another revolutionary religious leader, of just another failed peasant revolution and religious movement. 

So for many, it is a giant leap from a teacher/ leader/ healer/ trouble-maker named Jesus,  squashed (executed) by the emperor,  to Christ the King.  

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Luke is taking that leap even more than the storytellers who wrote in the decades before him. In Mark, and then in Matthew, Jesus says things like, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Not very “kingley” of him. 

In Luke, however, generations later, Jesus says things like, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do,” and “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” 

Luke is taking the leap more than the storytellers who came before him. 

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So what happened? How did the Jesus the disappointment and the executed failure

become Christ the King? 

If Jesus wasn’t a military or a political King of a geophysical kingdom, what kind of King was he?  What kind of King is he? 

Historically, Jesus adopted the powerless ones, those whom he called the poor, the least, the 'lost sheep' of Israel.  And they adopted him. 

  The sinners,
  the prostitutes,
  the lepers,
  the demoniacs,
  the beggars,
  the diseased and the crippled,
  the hungry,
  the widowed...

All those his society had excluded, even the religious leaders themselves.  

And Jesus protected his realm. Historically, one of the things that a king does is to protect his dominion. Even the president of the United States is the Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces, and is charged with protecting our country’s welfare, and safeguarding national security. 

The historical Jesus protected the people who needed to be protected.  Not the the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, or the Saducees.

Not the people who had the most power, or the most influence, or the most wealth, but the powerless, the oppressed, the marginalized.  

And the way Jesus protected his people was not through brute force, but through calling attention to injustice, through exposing the domination systems. 

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The Jesus of history even liberated God.  Historically, kings kept the people of the realm connected with the God of the realm.  The better the king could function as a prophet and priest, the better king he was.  

Unlike even the greatest kings, the Jesus of history liberated God from the false images and expectations imposed on him by the people... 

Jesus’ way of life implied that God was not really interested in your wealth, your status, your virtue, your sacrifices, or even your sin.

His teaching and ministry made it clear that God was happy with your trust, (or the word traditionally used, faith).  If you had that, you had everything. 

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So you begin to see how the transformation happened?  The historical Jesus had the power 

to give dignity back to the oppressed. The historical Jesus had the power to free God himself from the false images imposed on him by the world. As the power and the presence of the Jesus of history became an ongoing experience for those who followed him after his death, they were able to see him as the Christ of faith, and as Christ the King - Christ the true King, the King anointed by God to change the world, to bring wholeness,  and love, and strength, and hope, and salvation,to a broken, hurting world that needed such divine healing, such divine caring, such divine salvation, such a divine King. 

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So how does that work for you? Does that help you relate to the archetype or the image of “King?” How does that image help you on your own spiritual journey? 

[DISCUSSION] 

It’s a great starting point for me. It works for me that Christ is King of the Universe if it means that, for all who follow him, Christ is King of our hearts, the true King of the true Kingdom ruled by love and compassion and wisdom.  

And for me, there are other qualities that transform the Jesus of history into Christ the King. 

One, for me, is that Jesus was centered.  All kings are understood by their people to be the center of the universe. They even build the palaces in the center of the town. I see the historical Jesus as a centered person, whose center was within.  

His kingship was centered within him.  When everything else was crazy and chaotic and spinning out of control, he was spiritually centered.  His confidence, and well being, and sense of purpose were grounded in deep, centering prayer and communion with God.  

That works for me, as a person who wants to be entrust myself to that spiritual center, as a person who wants to learn how to be centered myself.  

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And it works for me, that the historical Jesus blessed the lives of others.  

Historically, the worst kings were the ones who were more interested in their own personal power, prestige, position, or wealth for themselves.  And the truest kings were the ones who sacrificed their own interests for the sake of serving and blessing the people with whose welfare they had been entrusted. 

It works for me that the historical Jesus had no interest in being served, that he knew himself to be blessed to be a blessing to sinners and saints, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, male and female.  That he shared the sacred fellowship of the table with all types and classes. 

That’s the mark of a true King to me.  That’s the kind of King the universe needs if we are ever to become all that we have been created to be.  

For some, it’s a great leap from the executed teacher/healer/ peasant revolutionary, to Christ the King.  For me, the profound and ongoing experience of Jesus as one who is centered in God, as one through whom God is so profoundly manifest and revealed,  as one who protects, as one who blesses - in my mind and in my heart, that transforms the Jesus of history into the truest kind of king - Christ the King, the kind of king who blesses you and me to share his royalty, the kind of king who blesses you and me to be a blessing to others. 

That works for me. That image is very helpful to me on my spiritual journey of looking for Christ in, being Christ to, and receiving Christ from every person I meet. 

Unto him be worship and praise, dominion and splendor, forever and ever.  Amen.