Christ the King
Once upon a time in a land not far from here, there was a choice to be made for the leader of the land. A woman was placed in contention for the prime leader of the whole nation. Her platform was not well-defined, but one thing was clear from every word out of her mouth. She had no respect for human life as it was being formed inside the mother. She demanded that no protection of any kind be afforded to girls, from the conception of their children until birth—and maybe even for a time after birth. She was asked about exceptions. There would be none was her response.
In one of the rallies supporting this candidate, she was speaking forcefully on this issue. A man’s voice was heard in the crowd: “Jesus is Lord!” He yelled. His voice prompted another to belt out, “Christ is King.” The candidate, who to other challenges usually took some time to think of a response, said forthrightly and without hesitation, “you guys are at the wrong rally.”
Now I’m not going to claim that this response, which generated a huge, positive response from her supporters, cost her party the election. No data supports that claim. But it certainly woke me up in the moment and caused me to buy a couple of “Jesus is Lord” signs for my front yard. And let’s be clear, the other party and candidate was better on the life issues only in the sense that they didn’t try to foist guilt for that murder onto the entire American electorate.
Our solemnity today is that of Christ the King. When we claim that Christ is the King of the Universe, we support that claim with a passage that seems to be quite crazy. Pilate asks Jesus if He is not just A king, but THE king of the Jews. Jesus then responds by asking if he’s asking it from his own prompting, or the accusation of others. Pilate answers with the obvious “Am I a Jew?” That would be unthinkable to a Roman official. He asserts that Christ’s own people accused Him, and He asked what on earth Jesus could have done to lead to this. Jesus asserts that His kingdom is not of this world. Pilate queries, “then you are a King?” Jesus says that not only is He a king, but that to bear witness to this and every other truth He came to earth, and that everyone committed to the Truth would hear Him. The whole dialogue, between a criminal about to be executed and a Roman official, seems to be crazy.
Yes, Jesus is Christ, Messiah, and Jesus is King, but His coronation took place with a tight skull cap from a thorn bush, and His ascension to His throne was on a stinky high place outside town as He was elevated on a cross. But Pilate, the local official, after a debate with the Jewish leaders, made it official. Above Christ’s head were the words, in every official language, “The King of the Jews.” But that's not His final enthronement!
He is the one who will come with the clouds, with every eye on earth focused on Him, everyone who pierced His side by sin—and that’s all of us, isn’t it? Before the moment of His final enthronement, we each must repent of our sins, declare Him Lord, and live by grace in love of God and of neighbor. That must be the number one activity on our bucket list, and anything else won’t matter a bit.
