Fourth Sunday Of Lent (Laetare Sunday) Series

Dominus vobiscum.

Brethren, today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, otherwise known as Latare Sunday. Jerusalem is an important place, as we all know, for all of the Abrahamic religions.

What makes Jerusalem important for Christians, at least in my opinion, is that the ultimate sacrifice ever presented to any deity happened just outside the walls in Cavalry. That is where our blessed Lord, the begotten son of God, became the sacrificial lamb to atone for our sins not just for those who died before him, nor just for the witnesses of his crucifixion. His sacrifice was for the sins that have yet to come. As God, Jesus of Nazareth knew what was to come. He prophesied what would happen to Jerusalem once Rome decided to conquer it. He also must have known how sinful the generations centuries upon centuries later, including those reading this sermon, would become. Irregardless, our blessed Lord went through agonies that no one in our time could understand.

Consider today’s Gospel reading. Anyone who knows the story of Christ knows about the feeding of the 5,000. The people followed him, and Christ knew that there had to have been hungry people. In fact, he was right. People were hungry, and Christ told his disciples to figure out how to feed them all. They come back to Christ saying that they only had some loaves of bread and some fish. Basically, they only had enough to feed a handful of people, not thousands. It was then that our blessed Lord took the fish and the bread, multiplied it, and fed everyone present. There was so much food left over that whole baskets were filled afterwards. The people were satisfied with the food, and Christ went on his way.

Take special notice at the end of the Gospel “Now those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said: This is of a truth the prophet, that is to come into the world. Jesus therefore, when he knew that they would come to take him by force, and make him king, fled again into the mountain himself alone.” (John 6:14-15)

Take him by force? Well that's peculiar. Read that part of the passage again. "When he knew that they would come to take him by force, and make him king, fled again into the mountain himself alone." This is a curious passage to me. We as Christians address Jesus of Nazareth by many titles. We call him Lord, King, Savior, the Christ, the Messiah, God the Son, God, so on and so forth. And yet had we been there at the time of this event, Jesus would have ran away, literally, than to be crowned king.

There are several reasons why, and for the sake of time I shall resort to three reasons.

The first reason he refused the title of King is because of the politics at the time. At the time of the Romans, only the Roman Emperor with the backing of the Roman Senate could declare someone as king. Harod, for example, was the appointed king at the time. If Jesus declared himself as a king, that would be treason against Caesar, which is a capital offense. Incidentally, this was the charge that Christ would be convicted of. This is why the Roman humiliated him by nailing the infamous sign INRI, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," above his head on the cross. His crown was the crown of thorns, adding to his torture.

The second reason is that he did not want his followers to fall into the same trap that the Israelites of David's time had. Remember in the Old Testament where the Israelites wanted a king. Recall 1 Samuel 8:18: "And you shall cry out in that day from the face of the king, whom you have chosen to yourselves. And the Lord will not hear you in that day, because you desired unto yourselves a king." We all know how well that went. As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son incarnate, who with the Father as found in Genesis 1:1. Imagine telling God that the creation will grant the title of King to the creator. That would reduce the value of the Kingship title that God already has being God.

The third reason is that the kingship that Christ is not the type of king that the people wanted. Consider what a king was during the time of Christ. In an absolute monarchy, the King's word is law and final. The King's power to judge, condemn, and absolve is absolute. The King is also meant to raise a standing army to not only defend the kingdom, but to also conquer more land for the sake of the kingdom. The Jews at the time deemed the Messiah would come as a king on a chariot to liberate the Israelites from all of their enemies, including Rome.