Colossians 1.11-29, Luke 23.33-44
Sunday 24 November 2019: Christ the King
Austwick, Clapham, Keasden
Once upon a time the people of Israel asked their old judge Samuel to give them a king. ‘Give us a king to govern us. All the other nations have got one, we want one too,’ they said. And when Samuel reported this to the Lord, the Lord said, ‘If you appoint a king, this is what he’ll do: he’ll take your sons into his armies; he will put everyone else to work for him, to plough his ground and reap his harvest and make his weapons of war. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers - and he will give them one-tenth of your produce too. He will take your workers, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.’ [1]
Can you guess how the people responded to that? Yes, of course: ignoring the best advice God could give them they said, ’We want a king. All the other nations have got one, so we want one too.’ They got a king… and guess what happened then…
… All the way down through the ages to Herod the Great, the jealous king who ordered the first-born sons of Israel killed when he heard about a new king being born in Bethlehem; and further on to his son Herod Antipas, the compromised king who succeeded where his father failed in plotting the death of Jesus - though leaving it to Pilate to make the order for his execution.
The scriptures seem to be telling us, watch out for kings, they’ll take away your freedom, they’ll make your lives a misery, by shaping the legal and economic systems to fulfil their own desires they’ll chew you up and spit you out, these kings of the world. And yet today in the Church’s calendar is Christ the King Sunday - a day in which we make the claim that our God is also our King. The respected writer N.T. Wright says that this is what the Gospels are all about: that God has become king through Jesus and established the divine reign - his kingdom - as the power of renewal and transformation that is bringing Creation to fulfilment: [2]
In telling us this story of “how God became king” the gospels raise the question: what would our lives look like, what would our Church and our world look like, if we really believed that the living God was king on earth as in heaven? [3]
The gospels portray God in Jesus as a completely different kind of king than all the other human kings in history. If God exercised kingly powers in those sorts of ways then it would make little difference if God is our king on earth as in heaven. But not through the ways of Trump the messiah or Johnson the messiah or Corbyn or Swinson or Farage the messiah; not through the ways of the Market or the Nation or other such messianic cults - but through the way of Jesus the Messiah God redefines kingship, leadership, and power, and in doing so fundamentally changes the shape of the world.
He does this in his life and ministry where he preaches a kingdom centred on the outsiders - the poor, the meek, the lost, the criminal, the oppressed, the damaged ones, with whom he spends much of his time, scandalising the respectable ones of society whilst at the same time inviting them too, to come and share the life of this liberating kingdom.
And through Jesus, God redefines kingship, leadership, and power on the cross of Calvary, where it becomes clear that the power this king exercises does not consist in possessing and punishing, but in giving and forgiving. Absolute self-giving, complete forgiveness. Forgiveness, says Terry Eagleton, is ‘the most strikingly gratuitous act’. It punctures ‘the reciprocities of justice’, ’the eternal cycles of vengeance’ and the ‘wild justice’ of revenge which are the basis of every other kingdom, and inaugurates a new order, one in which equivalence gives way to excess… an excess of giving; an excess of grace. The gospel writers show us how Calvary is ‘both poison and cure’ - ‘Jesus’ execution involves the unjust spilling of human blood; but since it is also the act of pardoning it’, the way of the world’s kings and their kingdoms - the demanding, diminishing, demeaning cycle of ‘crime, guilt, sacrifice, reparation and yet more crime - is brought to a close’. [4]
We see that so very clearly in Jesus’ exchange of words with his fellow-criminals, fellow-sufferers, on the cross. The first man is wrapped up in the world of sin, guilt and condemnation which is the way of the kingdoms of the world; the second man accepts that he, too is condemned to receive his just deserts. But this man also senses that the innocent Jesus is doing a new thing here, and says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” That kingdom, it has already come, says Jesus, to his fellow-condemned man. Today, you join me in it.
Do you really believe that the living God is king on earth as in heaven? The power of God’s kingdom, the power of overflowing grace shown in undying forgiveness: is that the power which drives your behaviour through each day? Is that the power which defines the shape and direction of our Churches and our Christian institutions?
Speaking of which, in the kingdoms of our world today the Church has moved from a position of power to a place of weakness; from a position of strength to a vulnerable situation; once well-respected, the Churches are now viewed suspiciously; once influential, few believe the Churches are worth listening to any more.
And yet - if we believe that in Jesus, God became king, we understand that the weak things, the despised things, the forgotten things of this world are at the very heart of God’s reign. We may understandably lament our decline and bewail our losses; but if we really believed that the living God was king on earth as in heaven wouldn’t we see that our position of vulnerability is at exactly the same time also our strength? It’s the meek, not the strident, who inherit the earth - if we believe that God is king. It’s the humble in spirit who receive God’s blessings - if we believe that God is king.
We might still ask, “If God is really king, why is there still cancer? Why are there still tsunamis? Why are there still tyranny, genocide, child abuse, and massive economic corruption?” We might worry about the idea of God as king being triumphalist; or that it could lead us toward “theocracy”- that dreaded world where priests are the ones in charge - just as they were in the days of Samuel, and doing it very badly: which is why the people wanted a king instead. [5]
Questions like these are important. But the underlying question which will help us understand them is that gospel question. That question we should keep on asking each other, we who care so much about the future of the world and the Church: the question of how God became king, and what our world could look like if we really believed that the living God was king on earth as in heaven.
Notes
[1] 1 Samuel 8.
[2] Paul Nuecterlein, Girardian Lectionary. Reflections: Christ the King C. Discussing N.T. Wright, How God Became King - Getting to the heart of the Gospels.
[3] N.T. Wright, How God Became King - Getting to the heart of the Gospels. pp. ix-xi. Adapted.
[4] Terry Eagleton, Radical Sacrifice. p.124-125.
[5] N.T. Wright, How God Became King - Getting to the heart of the Gospels. pp. ix-xi. Adapted.
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