What sort of king?

A Sermon preached on Sunday, November 25, at St. Augustine’s Church, Wiesbaden: Family Service

2 Samuel 23: 1 – 7, John 18: 33-37

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. A recent addition to the church calendar. RC in 1925, Episcopal Church not in 1979 BCP – came in the 1990s with the RCL.

What do we mean by King? How can we tell who is king? What are the symbols? [examples: crown, robe, mace or staff, throne]

Does Jesus use these? Some images of him do –> Christ the king crucifix. But he didn’t himself, in fact in the conversation between Jesus and Pilate that we heard this morning, he goes out of his way to deny that he is a king in a worldly sense:

“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.”

What does he mean? Is he just “king in heaven”? No. Jesus’ kingdom does not come from this world, but it is for this world. It is not from this world, because Jesus’ power does not come from the sword or the barrel of a gun and because Jesus’ interest is not to rule according to his own whims and wishes, as so many kings did then, and so many rulers, even elected ones do now, but for the good of all. Jesus’ power comes from rejecting the power of strength and might and turning to the power of love and redemption. His power comes from God who can turn even a shameful death into a triumphant new life.

That is the truth Jesus is referring to when he says, after Pilate asks him directly whether he is a king “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.” The truth is that God loves the world, all of it and everyone in it and that he is about to give his only Son to redeem it from sin and death. The truth is also, as we know from the prayer Jesus taught as, that God’s kingdom will come, on earth as in heaven.

So, if Jesus is not a normal king, if his throne is a cross and his crown made of thorns, does this Feast of Christ the King make sense, and why now, just before Advent and Christmas?

Why now? This is the last Sunday of the Church year and so it is a good day to think of what we call “the last things.” During the Christmas season, Jesus’ first coming as a sweet, innocent, unthreatening baby will be in focus. Later at Easter, even with the knowledge of the triumph of the resurrection, we remember the pain and suffering of Jesus’ death on the cross. The purpose of today’s feast is to look forward to the revelation of the King in all his glory, to the promise of Christ’s return in overwhelming majesty: From cradle, to cross, to crown. [hold up crucifix]

But Christ’s kingship is not just something for the possibly far future. We find the idea that he is King everywhere in the accounts of the birth of Jesus. He is the Messiah, of the house of David. Jesus fulfills the everlasting covenant with his house that David looks forward to in the reading from 2 Samuel. The word Messiah or Christ signifies the promised, God-appointed and God-anointed King. That Christ is King is a theme that continues throughout the Gospels and is declared with tragic irony by our friend Pontius Pilate in the sign he has placed above the cross: ‘This is the King of the Jews’.

We can look to the Gospel accounts to see what it means for Christ to be King. There we see, in the casting out of demons, the fact that he is King over every evil spiritual power. We see, as he stills storms and multiplies loaves and fishes, that he is King over nature. We see, as he heals the sick, that he is King over sickness and disease. We see, as he raises people from the grave, that he is King over death. We see, as he offers forgiveness, that he is King over sin. He is already King over everything …. And everyone?

The other purpose of this Feast today is to remind ourselves that Jesus is King over us and that we are first and foremost citizens of his Kingdom. He came to testify to the truth, we are called to live as people of the truth, bringing the Good News of a better, transformed, whole and holistic way of living in love to all.  Jesus came as a servant King, we are called to as servants of Christ the King: serving him by serving others, especially the stranger, the refugee and the homeless, those who have no other helper. Jesus came to bring hope, we are called to live as a people of hope. We live in the hope of change now, and we work for that change, while drawing our strength from our hope in the life of the world to come and from the promise of Christ’s return in overwhelming majesty as king of kings and Lord of all.

Amen.