Feast of Christ the King
Our gospel this weekend gives us an image of power, royalty, and the abuses of power that they can produce, when they are interested simply in fulfilling their own agendas. Rome, the scribes, and Pharisees are abusing their power by condemning an innocent man. They have colluded together to quiet Jesus, supposedly for forever. Jesus represents the opposite of their values which are based in power and control, judgment, and condemnation. Jesus’ life is based on compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and inclusion. And those who wish to follow in footsteps must base their lives on these qualities. "In the winter of 1940, German bombers reduced the English city of Coventry to ashes. Only the jagged shell of its thousand-year-old cathedral remained. When the war ended, the people decided not to erase the ruins. They built the new cathedral beside them. The altar was shaped from the broken stones; a charred wooden cross rose above it; and overhead they engraved two words: Father, Forgive. The new and the old now stand side by side—one roofless and scared, one bright and reborn. Together they preach single sermon: that mercy always has the last word."1
In the gospel account from Luke this week, Jesus is the victim. But it is Jesus who truly holds all the power- “I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up again"(John 10:18). “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.” (John 2:19). The Jewish authorities’ plan is that the Jews will look at Jesus' crucifixion, on the tree of the cross, as the same curse from the ancient text in the Old Testament found in the book of Deuteronomy- “The one who hangs by the tree is cursed by God”. (Deuteronomy 21:23). But that plan will never be fulfilled. In fact, the opposite will the become the reality, as attested to by the Old and New Testament texts- “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”(Isaiah 53:5) “He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’”(1 Peter 2:24) “…having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15)
The authorities of Jesus’ day felt that
by his execution that that it would be the end of his story. However, his story is about to be
completed and honored by God through the resurrection that will occur in three days’
time. The resurrection is God’s stamp
upon Jesus’ life, for Jesus truly was
the example of the “shepherd King” that is referred to in the Old
Testament. He chose David his servant,
took him from the sheepfolds. From tending ewes God brought him, to
shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his heritage.” (Psalm 78:70-72). The resurrection shows that Jesus is truly is
the son of God and all that he has told us should be what people believe.
Jesus, even in his execution, is
about compassion and mercy. From the cross, he forgives those who have executed
him “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” ( Luke 23:34), and even toward those who were executed with him he shows mercy
for those who ask for mercy, (i.e., the good thief). “Remember
me Jesus when you come into your kingdom." (Luke 23:41) The other, of the two thieves,
only mocks Jesus and dares him, like the
pharisees and scribes, to use his power to come down from the cross. “Are you not
the messiah? Save yourself and us” (Luke 23:30). Both men are being justly
punished for their crimes, but one chooses to join the crowd and mock Jesus, while the other chooses to ask for
forgiveness from Jesus. That is all he
had to do, just ask, and Jesus will do the rest. “This day you will be with me in
paradise.” (Luke 23:43). Note that Jesus
doesn’t just say “you will be in
paradise.” No, he says “You will be
with me… Jesus, himself is going
to lead this good thief into paradise simply because he asked for it. Jesus shows by his actions that even at the
point of our death, that the choice of who we want to be with, is always ours. The choice, to seek mercy or to seek to do it
our own way, is always ours.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians this Sunday, we see
what Paul, who was formerly a Jewish Pharisee, has come to understand through, his own
conversion, and his own ministry to the Jews and the gentiles, what is the
truth about Jesus. He has come to finally
understand who Jesus truly is and profess it with all conviction– “He is the image* of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For in him* were created
all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible…. all things
were created through him and for him. He
is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. (Colossian 1:15-30). What Pilate and all the authorities sought to
do, in hopes of destroying Jesus , ultimately fulfilled God’s plan and made Jesus
the King of the Universe “And He put
all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body,- the fullness of the one who fills
all things in every way. (Ephesian 1:23) Indeed, then, Jesus is our King, "The Alpha and the Omega, the first
and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 23:13). Amen and Amen!
1. 1. Sundaysermons.com
