CHRIST OUR KING!
MATTHEW 25:31-46
Introduction:
Today is a wonderful day in the Liturgical Calendar of the Church, an opportunity for a very deliberate focus on Christ and the fact that he is our King. Unfortunately it is also one of those Sundays that most modern churches have neglected, thinking it’s too traditional and ceremonial, many churches have opted to make this just a regular Sunday on which we come to church, get our spiritual fix and move on to the new week. But if we pay careful attention to the season we’re in, if we pause for a moment and recognize that next week we begin our advent celebrations and reflections, we will realize that the old tradition of this Sunday is actually wonderfully appropriate and can be tremendously meaningful.
So what is today then, you might be asking? ... Well, according to the Church’s calendar today is known as Christ the King Sunday. Always observed on the last Sunday before Advent begins, it was set aside in ancient times as a day on which the Church should reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ is her King, our King, and that it is the birth of the eternal King that we celebrate during Advent, and that it is for Jesus as returning King that we will wait during advent.
But, in all honesty, I must confess that I have some sympathy for why the church in many parts of the world chooses not to observe today as a particular day of celebration (I don’t think that it’s ok, but I can understand why); because the fact is that most of us today are quite unfamiliar with the image of a King. We don’t know what it’s like to be ruled by, to submit to, and to depend on the gracious provision of a King, so the image of Christ as King can be quite a foreign concept to us.
It’s like the story a certain aunt once told about her nephew: “Each Christmas our church presents a concert featuring a live nativity scene. My five year-old nephew was up in the balcony on one occasion, not paying much attention. As the Wise men began marching down the centre aisle toward the manger, his father leaned over to him and whispered, ‘Curtis, look! You’re missing it! Here comes the king!’ Curtis jumped up, looked over the balcony and asked, ‘is that Elvis?!’”
The image of Jesus Christ as a King is difficult for us to imagine, so for the sake of being relevant and wanting not to confuse anyone we avoid such reflections altogether. Perhaps for the sake of relevance we do so, but it is done at the expense of meaningful worship, at the cost of learning more about who Jesus is, and it results in a loss of appreciation for the beauty of the Church’s worship. And, as foreign as the image might be, today is the perfect opportunity worship Jesus Christ as our King, to pray to him as our King and to reflect through the readings and sermon on him as our King.
This is Christ the King Sunday and today we will focus on that then... We will read our passage and reflect on that passage with this image of Christ as our King firmly in mind.
Message:
Now it is true that some have described this particular parable as one of the more terrifying stories Jesus ever told; that the truths contained in it are by no means comfortable or easy to bear is obvious; and that this parable falls especially harshly upon the ears of us modern readers – because we live in a world of inclusivity and almost dangerous tolerance and we find it difficult to deal with those texts in which Jesus quite clearly says that some will be excluded.
In light of this it is important for me to say right at the outset that this morning our intention is not to cast judgement upon who might and who might not be included – we will not try to determine who are sheep and who are goats – this is a task reserved for Christ our King and we have no place usurping him in it. We must deal honestly with the text and admit that, despite our modern tendency to want to include everyone, Jesus obviously teaches here that there will be some who are lost.
Nevertheless, we make a grave mistake if we get stuck on this point and imagine that this is all the text says... As we so often do... Most of us end up reading this text blinded by our own position and desire, we all want to be considered sheep and so we become pre-occupied with who the sheep are and who the goats are. But the fact is that this text is more about the King than the sheep and the goats! Every text in Scripture is more about Jesus than it is about us; the text tells us about Jesus primarily and only secondarily or by implication, about us. Friends, I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating at this point too, because this parable especially is almost always in danger of being reduced to what it says about humanity, when, in fact, our primary concern should be to reflect on what this parable teaches about Jesus Christ – and him as our King – this is, after all, Christ the King Sunday!
So let us then do that today... let’s reflect on this admittedly difficult reading with the primary and paramount intention of wanting to see Jesus and wanting to learn more about him as our King.
When we read this parable carefully, and pay particular attention to what it reveals about the One described as King, we will begin to see a fuller picture of who Jesus is. Firstly, that he is the eternal King who rules in perfect glory, generosity and humility; and secondly, that his Kingship holds certain very real and practical implications for our lives.
1. The King who rules...
For a reflection such as this to be meaningful and faithful to the truth we must begin it at the right place – first things must come first – and in this case that would be the King. As I’ve mentioned already, we must first of all appreciate the fact that this parable is primarily concerned with Jesus as the King, and what sort of King he is, before it has anything to say about us.
When we read this text carefully we will soon see that even at a chronological level the King comes first. The text begins with the words, “When the Son of Man comes... then the King will say...” Before the sheep and the goats are separated the King comes and says; it begins with him because he is the One who is paramount, first and foremost, and the beginning of all things!
But in beginning with the King what is it that this text tells us about him – apart from giving him the place of honour as the first and foremost – what sort of King does this text portray him to be?
[a] He is Glorious!
Firstly, listen to the words of the first verse we read:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,
he will sit on his glorious throne.”
From our text we learn that Jesus is clothed in and surrounded by glory! He is the glorious One whom even the angels bow down to in worship. They follow him as he comes to his sheep and while he sits on his throne in heavenly glory.”
Jesus is the King who is glorious beyond all our wildest imaginations. He is the perfectly and eternally glorious King.
[b] He is Eternal!
And this brings me to the second characteristic of him as King that we encounter in this parable... in verse 34 we are told the King will give an inheritance to his sheep, an inheritance that has been “prepared for [us] since the creation of the world.”
See friends, as amazing as it may sound, Jesus is not only perfect in glory; he is also eternal in glory!
Before the foundation of the world, he was there. In fact, in the very act of laying the foundation for the world he was there, for through him the Father created all things (John 1:3).
[c] He is Generous!
Now apart from these more abstract principle characteristics of our King, Christ Jesus, the text also presents him to be a King of wondrous generosity.
Again, in verse 34 we read that the kingdom of which he is king is a kingdom that has been prepared for us! We spend our entire lives trying to build our own kingdoms and legacies, yet here we read these remarkable words of Jesus, when he says that the kingdom prepared, the kingdom to which we will be invited, the life eternal in which we will share is a kingdom and life prepared for us!
Isn’t this too good for words friends? That this King we encounter in the parable is not only perfect and eternally glorious, he is also gloriously generous to us! What a thought, that God, the great King of all kings would be generous to me.
[d] He is Humble!
Finally we encounter what is perhaps the most striking, and certainly most surprising, characteristic of the King – his humility. When we read this parable carefully we will see that Jesus identifies with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. What King of glory does this?
Jesus, our King, does! See friends, this is the King with which we are presented in the parable, a King of perfect and eternal glory, who is gloriously generous and humble – this is the King we come to worship today. This is the King we recognize as the One who came, and whose coming we celebrate at Christmas, this is also the King we recognize as the One who will return and for whose return we wait at Christmas – this why today is Christ the King Sunday!
2. The King who is to be served...
Now, having begun at the right place and given primary importance to Jesus, we might ask what this text has to say about us and our lives. In other words, if the text tells us first and foremost that Jesus is our glorious, eternal, generous and humble King, then what does this mean by implication for us, for the way we live and relate to him as King? This question forms the basis of our second point for reflection this morning; and the answer is a simple yet resounding one: obedient service!
If this is the type of King that the text presents Jesus to be then surely there can be no other response from us than to offer him our complete and humble, obedient service.
The late Presbyterian Minister and scholar, William Barclay, once wrote of this same parable saying: “this is perhaps one of the most vivid parables Jesus ever spoke, and the lesson is crystal clear – that God will judge us in accordance with our reaction to human need.”
For Barclay the central message was that we ought to respond to the King in obedient service and that the shape of this service should be that of responding to human need, in other words, to serve the King means serving others; and there can be no other form of this service.
See friends, it is one thing to acknowledge the great glory of this King, to accept his generosity to us and to stand amazed at his humility in giving himself so entirely for us. It is a different matter entirely, though, to allow all of this to become real for us and change the way we live. It is not enough to give mental ascent to the things we noted in the first part of our reflection, in other words to think we know them to be true, no, we must allow those things we know about our King to translate into real belief and a faith that will change the way we live – for he is who we say he is, who we think he is, then he deserves no less than our obedient service, a service that takes shape in service to others.
But having said that, what does that shape look like? What does this text teach us about what our service to the King through others should look like? Two things are worth noting in this regard:
[a] It must be service in simple things. The things which Jesus picks out – giving a hungry man a meal, or a thirsty man a drink, welcoming a stranger, comforting the sick and visiting the prisoner – are things which anyone can do. It’s not a question of giving away all we own, or of writing our names in the annals of history; it’s a case of giving simple help to the people we meet every day.
[b] It must be service which is uncalculating. Those who served in this parable did not think that they were serving the King and thus piling up eternal merit; they served because they could not stop themselves. It was the most natural, instinctive, quite uncalculating reaction for those who truly knew the King. Contrast that with the attitude of those who failed to serve; it was as though they were saying "Well, if we had known it was you we would gladly have served; but we thought it was only some ordinary guy."
How true is it that there are some of us who will serve only if we are given praise and thanks; but friends, to serve like that is not to serve at all, it’s nothing more than disguised selfishness. The service which the King deserves is given for no other reason than the sake of serving.
Friends, perhaps the most challenging aspect of this parable is the fact that Jesus confronts us with the wonderful truth that all service given to others, is service given to him. If we want to serve our glorious, eternal, generous and humble King, then we must realize that we can only do so by serving others.
How can this be true, you might ask? Well, perhaps the simplest example possible would help... If we really wish to delight a parent's heart, if we really wish to move a father to gratitude or a mother to joy, the best way to do it is to help their child. It is no different with our great King; the way to delight him is to serve and help his people, especially those who are most desperately in need.
There was once a man, Martin of Tours, who was a Roman soldier and also a Christian. One cold winter day, as he was entering a particular city, a beggar stopped him and asked for alms. But Martin had no money with him; the beggar was shivering with cold, and Martin decided to give what he had. He took off his soldier's coat, cut it in two and gave half of it to the beggar. That night Martin of Tours had a dream. In it he saw the heavenly places and all the angels and Jesus in the midst of them; and Jesus was wearing half a Roman soldier's coat. One of the angels said to him, "Master, why are you wearing that battered old cloak? Who gave it to you?" And Jesus answered softly, "My servant Martin gave it to me."
Friends, today we celebrate and reflect upon the fact that Jesus is our glorious, eternal, generous and humble King – when we see him in that way we can do no other but to serve him obediently – and the best; in fact, the only way to serve our King is by serving others. Let us always remember this truth... we cannot celebrate Jesus as our King, we cannot worship him as our King, if we are not willing to serve others as though they were him.
Conclusion:
So this is the beauty of reflecting on such a difficult parable as this on a day like today; we come to see more of Jesus, that he is our King and that his Kingship demands a certain way of life from us. All this is important because on this day, Christ the King Sunday, we focus not on whom we are or what this text tells us about ourselves, but on whom Christ is and that he is our King.
A certain amateur poet, Michael Hudson, wrote the following poem as a reflection for Christ the King Sunday and I would like to conclude this morning’s sermon by reading it to you:
Down the ages saints ascended
to Jerusalem to bring
songs and psalms of expectation
for a long-expected king.
Cry hosanna, high hosannas,
join the pilgrims as they sing:
Cry hosanna, high hosannas
for a long-expected king!
On a donkey he comes riding
toward the buoyant clamouring;
cloaks and praise are spread as honour
for a long-expected king.
Cry hosanna, high hosannas,
hard the heart that does not sing:
Cry hosanna, high hosannas
for a long-expected king!
Prophecies, in faith remembered
into flesh and Spirit spring;
all the gathered weight of glory
greets a long-expected king.
Cry hosanna, high hosannas,
stones themselves are poised to sing:
Cry hosanna, high hosannas
for a long-expected king!
Songs of saints well up and waver,
incomplete our offering;
then and now the praise inconstant
for a long-expected king.
Cry hosanna, high hosannas,
our unfinished songs yet ring:
Cry hosanna, high hosannas
for a long-expected king!
Friends, our long expected King has come – he came two thousand-odd years ago when in his eternal glory he generously chose to be born of a young virgin girl, in perfect humility. He is also still coming – for his great and wonderful return we wait. So let us then sing high hosannas and give him praise this day! The most appropriate praise is in the form of obedient living, obedience to his charge for us to serve and help others as we would wish to serve and help him.
To Christ the King be all glory and honour, both now and forever.
AMEN!
