Anybody out here remember when the last Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday before Advent was called “Christ the King Sunday?” We’ve sort of walked away from that official way of referring to this day, but it still holds on a bit. I think that’s why we’re careful to not do anything more than a couple of times in the Church because if we do, then it becomes a tradition. Which reminds me of a joke: How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? Four, one to hold the ladder, one to screw the light bulb into the socket and two to sit around and talk about how good the old light bulb was.
The Feast of Christ the King was introduced into the church year in 1925 by Pope Pius XI to counter what he regarded as the destructive forces of fascism and the totalitarian claims of the Nazi ideologies in the Church. I am fascinated by that and it’s a great way to end the Church calendar before we begin, next week, with a new year and the beginning of Advent. As you know, Advent prepares the way for us to celebrate Christmas by hearing the stories of John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph and the preparations for the birth of the Christ child in Bethlehem. It’s also a time we hear the prophecies of the second coming as well.
So, to challenge our thinking we turn, not to stables and shepherds, but to the final trial of Jesus. If we are to live in God’s Kingdom(Realm), we, like Pilate, need to know who this man Jesus is, “are you Christ the King?”
The gospel explores that Jesus is not a king that the world would ever recognize. This is a king who speaks to the lowly and the rejected. This is a king who serves rather than being served. This is a king who enters the holy city, not triumphantly on a horse, but seated on a donkey (John 12:14). This is significantly important to us because if we don’t recognize him as King, then we ignore the one thing we are called to do as a follower: participate with him to be part of God’s realm that yearns to break through into our world. It’s not a call to moral perfection, but a call to a revolutionary love where the lost, least, the lonely and the last are not only accepted, but celebrated.
He is a king unlike any other king, and his kingdom is unlike any other, for it is not of this world. What is this kingdom, this reign, like? That is the important question for us today as we reflect upon Christ as our king.
Pilate asks Jesus what he has done. Why have the authorities handed him over to be killed? What terrible thing has he done? Jesus then, in a seeming non-sequitur, declares to Pilate that he does have a kingdom, but it is not a kingdom of this world.
We know that Jesus is the Word of God that has become “flesh and lived among us.” Jesus has come from God and has come “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16b). We also know that, in order to recognize this king, this only Son, we must be “born from above” (John 3:3). Unless we have experienced this new birth we are unable to recognize the reign of God that surrounds us on all sides. And if we do accept that Jesus is the one who has come from God, if we are willing to listen to the truth he speaks, then one is no longer part of this world, but is a part of the reign of God.
Pilate is busy doing a lot of mocking in the story this morning, both the Jews and Jesus. He struggles with his understanding of what a King is and can’t quite get his head around the fact that Jesus is a different kind of King. Yet, he ultimately refers to Jesus as a King when he announces to the crowd, “Here is your king” (John 19:14). Later, he also highlights this by placing a placard on the cross which read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19).
What ultimately happens here is a clear choice is put before the crowd about who to follow: the Empire or Jesus. It’s a question that we face as well. Who’s your King? Is it all the concrete and tangible benefits of the earthly empire, or is it God? Frankly it’s easier to choose the Empire because it can at least be seen and its power is clearly defined. When it comes to God, it’s more difficult because God’s Realm (Kingdom) seems to be less manifest. In reality, it’s the only true Kingdom but the Empire continues to hold its allure.
When we come face to face with the story as it unfolds, we too are faced with deciding. Are we willing to accept Jesus as our king? Or maybe better, is our allegiance to the Empire or to the King of Kings? And so, for the crowd, according to John, and the Jewish leaders reject their faith and give their allegiance to the empire, “We have no king but the emperor” (John 19:15). At least they were honest.
Sitting here over two thousand years later it is easy to look down on those who made such a choice. But before we do that, perhaps we should examine our own hearts. Frankly, the temptation to choose the same way as the leaders and crowd did still is there. These people weren’t bad people they just chose badly. We’re not bad people either and often we go down the same path as they did. It’s easy to cash in our chips at the dealers table and walk away. It’s easy to look for tangible evidence of power and put all our hope into that. The Empire is alluring. It promises everything we want: health, peace, hope in a prosperous future, and can I say even “glad tidings of a great joy for all the people.” The Empire is strong and usually reliable. Who wouldn’t want that? We go through election cycle after election cycle hoping we’ll get it right this time. Our political leaders, our economic leaders, leaders in the public square all promise a future we all want. Of course, we’ll say yes. Indeed, we’re about to enter that time leading up to Christmas where all our hopes and dreams rest with the promise that if we just buy enough then all will be right with the world.
The Realm (Kingdom) of God is different. First of all, we need to reframe a bit. Kingdom values stand in stark contrast with the values of the Empire. Things like “might makes right,” “Nice guys finish last,” “Do unto others before they do unto you.” Those are all Empire values. Kingdom values hit us as almost counter intuitive.
Everything is topsy turvy. Or perhaps a better way to see it, in the Kingdom, the Realm of God, everything is right side up. The weak are the strong, those who mourn are comforted, the meek inherit the land, the hungry and thirsty are filled, those who show mercy are the ones who receive it, the pure in heart see God, the peacemakers are the children of God and those who are persecuted, inherit the Kingdom of God.
This even has an effect on the way we see the reason that Jesus came into the world. He didn’t come to satisfy the wrath of God by having to die to satisfy that. Somebody had to die to deal with our sin, so Jesus volunteered. No. That’s a pagan understanding of how a deity may work. I think that Jake Owensby, the Bishop of West Louisiana, has it right, that God created all that is and then revealed God’ self in Jesus because of one thing: love. Here’s what he wrote:
“Jesus was not God’s reaction to sin but God’s first thought in creating all things, because God’s motive for creation is love. God yearns to be in seamless union with the creation. Jesus was God incarnate: God and human at once perfectly distinguished and yet inseparably intertwined. God’s purpose in creating the universe was to love all things with an infinite, inextinguishable love. Up close and personal. The risen Jesus is the crowning achievement of the creation. He is the same as and yet infinitely more than the Jesus who walked the streets of Nazareth two millennia ago. Christ actually inhabits and animates every earthly body.” Yes, he is infinitely more because of the paschal mystery, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, he is found in the most unlikely places: not up there somewhere past the galaxy, but right here in the midst of us, especially when we love the unlovable.
So today we remember Christ the King, who as it turns out turns everything we know about being a King on its head. And as King, Jesus issues us an invitation to be part of God’s Kingdom, God’s realm. As we hear that call and risk living into the values of God’s Realm, God’s Kingdom, it equips us to begin preparing for Christmas and the celebration that changes everything. But even beyond that, it is the door through which we pass from meaninglessness to significance, from anxiety and despair to meaning and from loneliness into community.
In Jesus name.