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34th Sunday – Christ the King
11-25-18
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In today’s Gospel we have an ironic scene.
The irony was lost on most of the bystanders: God himself was standing a
prisoner before a representative of the super power of the day. Indeed,
we might have to remind ourselves that this Jesus who was born in
straw, who worked as a carpenter and walked dusty roads preaching and
healing, who was killed as a convict, this Jesus is king of the
universe.
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Yes, He was born in a stable but the prophet
Isaiah announced, a child is born to us, but the scepter of a king is
upon His shoulder. He worked as a carpenter, but Daniel would prophesy
that God gave Him power and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, tribes
and tongues shall serve Him. Jesus taught and preached in a tiny corner
of the world, and yet the psalmists foretold, He shall rule from sea to
sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. He died the death
of a convict, yet an angel told His mother of His kingdom, there shall
be no end.
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Jesus is king because He is what He is. Not a
mere man, but the God man, God with us, God in human form. And Christ
is king because He did what He did: He purchased us at a great price. As
St. Peter tells us, you were redeemed not with perishable things, with
silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
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Millions will say Jesus is Lord and Christ
is their king, but for some, they mean the modern concept of kingship
called the Constitutional monarchy. The constitutional monarchy is a
figurehead who reads the policy of the government in power, reads it
without comment or opinion. Every public statement of the constitutional
monarch must meet the prior approval of the elected government.
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The constitutional monarch is a person who
is head of state, one who puts the people in touch with their past, but
has little baring on their daily lives. Too often we try to turn Jesus
into one who does our bidding, one who reads to us only the messages
that we have approved. It’s okay to do this or that, because Jesus will
understand. Yes, He will understand, but will He approve?
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Jesus has the right to command, and we have
an obligation to obey. Yet Jesus is not like kings of old, He is not a
tyrant. This king had pity on His subjects, and so He stepped down from
Heaven and put on flesh. He walked, and worked and slept. He learned
what hunger and thirst feel like. He was sold for silver, slapped and
spat upon, whipped like a dog and nailed to a tree.
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This king died that His subjects might live;
those who love Him, as well as those who hate Him. This king welcomes
you into His kingdom on earth at baptism. He knows that it is not by
bread alone that you live and so He feeds you with His flesh, for
otherwise you shall not have life, at least not God life. This king
unites Himself so intimately with you that He can say, I am the vine,
you are the branches.
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No, this king is not like the kings of the
earth. You are His slave and He treats you like a friend. You were dust
and He lifted you a little below the angels. You were homeless, and He
gave you His church. Orphans, and He gave you His father and mother.
Hungry, and He gave you His body. You were His enemy, and He died for
you.
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And what does this king demand of us? What
tax does He levy? What this king wants most is the only thing you can
really refuse Him, the one thing he will never take from you unless you
give it, and that is your love. Like any king, He does make demands on
His subjects but He does not send legions of angels to see that you keep
them. He merely says if anyone love Me, they will keep My word and My
father will love them and We will come to them and make Our home with
them. He demands that you make yourself one with those around you, that
you show love and concern for all because all of them, whether they look
like it or not, were redeemed by His blood. His royal command is love
one another as I have loved you.
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The church continues to proclaim that Jesus
is king, and in spite of our attempt to make Him into a constitutional
monarch, the Gospel shows us one who would rule our lives by suffering
and through service. This is a king who asks that we look after the
elderly and the sick. This is a king who asks that we stop and listen to
the troubled and the alienated. This is a king who asks that if we are
among those who need help, that we turn to Him and knock, and the door
will be opened. Seek, and we will find. For He is a king who loves us
with an everlasting love, a king who is full of mercy and compassion.
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Jesus before Pilate discloses what is of
ultimate importance. It is not the state nor the nation. It is not self.
It is Christ the King who summons us to truth, to justice, to love, and
sometimes to suffering on the cross. Pilate was in a dilemma, and so
are we. At some point in our lives we have to make a decision: either to
accept and worship this kingly God and all that entails, or like
Pilate, to wash our hands of Him.
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| Yours in Christ, |
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| Fr. Bob Warren, SA |
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