Christ the King Sunday
Proper 29
Jer 23:1-6; Ps 46; Col 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
"The Suffering King"
"And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."" Luke 23:33-43, RSV.
Grace and peace to you from the risen and exulted Christ. Amen
"A father took his son out into the field to fly a kite. The sky was clear, the breeze was fresh. The kite soared into the heavens, and soon all the line was played out. The boy held the stick and string for a while, feeling the kite dance and tug against its tether. Then he said to his father, "I want the kite to go higher " "
His father replied, "It cannot, for there is no more string."
"The string is holding it back," insisted the boy. "Let’s cut it so it will be free to fly higher. Without a word, his father cut the string and the boy watched with amazement as it fluttered to the ground! Then his father explained, "The kite is free to fly; because the string holds it back. It’s the line that holds everything together "
It s the line that holds everything together, it is the person, the Christ the King who holds all of life together for us as Christians. Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year, the Sunday in which we dwell on the kingship of Jesus. His reign as He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the father, the right hand of mercy and love.
It is that tension in our lives by Christ the King which keeps us going, which gives to life the right balance to keep us going in spite of all the noise we hear around us. Because Christ reigns as King, we live. It it s as simple as that.
All of our lessons this morning point to this kingship of Christ and what that means for our lives and it describes our response to this King of kings.
In our lesson from Jeremiah, the kingdom of God is described in terms of justice and righteousness. This kingdom is described as something different than usual something different than the world is used to. In Isaiah 61:1-4 the kingdom of God is described in this manner: "He has chosen me and sent me to bring good news to the poor, To heal the brokenhearted To announce release to captives, And freedom to those in prison He has sent me to proclaim, That the time has come, When the Lord will save his people..." or as Jesus says In Mark 1:15 "The right time has come, and the Kingdom Of God is near Turn away from your sins and believe the Good News!"
The kingdom of God which broke into this world through Christ brought a different order to life. The broken, the hungry, the poor, were released from their guilt and the burden rested on those who were blessed to be fair, to live with justice and righteousness all their days.
This radical kingdom of God was brought to earth by Christ and is now carried on through His body, the church, you and I. Paul reminds the Colossians of that in our second lesson. He says: "He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning,the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Through Christ, the visible part of the body of Christ is manifested through the church. Luke 17:20 says, "Do not say "Look here it is or There it is because the Kingdom of God is within you, among you.
Or in Matthew 16:16 it says "Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Good for you Simon, son of John" answered Jesus, "For this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven. And so I tell you, Peter, you are a rock on this rock foundation I will build my church and not even death will ever be able to overcome it. I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven: what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven." Yes the visible part of the kingdom of God is seen through the church. Not the walls, or the pews, but the people. You and I are the kingdom of God
As that kingdom, we are gathered together here in God’s house each Sunday as Psalm 95 says to worship it says: "Come let us sing to the Lord, let us shout for joy. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving... let us bow down and bend the knee and kneel before the Lord our maker."
As the body of Christ, you and I have the responsibility to worship, to praise, to bow, to bend our knees in honor and respect to this King of kings. Worship is a duty, a right and a privilege for each of us.
However, many see this time as useless or unneeded. Why worship? Why sing praises? Why follow the custom of the early church? Because we are commanded, we are duty bound to worship this King. Worship is a form of love and Jesus says we are to love the Lord our God with all of your heart, soul and mind.
A story is told about worship.
In a certain village in Europe several centuries ago, a nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He decided to build a church for a legacy.
The completed plans for the church were kept secret. When the people gathered, they marveled at the church’s beauty and completeness.
Following many comments of praise, as astute observer inquired "But where are the lamps? How will the church be lighted?"
Without answerings, the nobleman pointed to some brackets in the wall; he then gave to each family a lamp to be carried to the worship service and hung it on the wall. "Each time you are here, the area where you are seated will be lighted," the nobleman explained. "Each time you are not here, that area will be dark. Whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God’s house will be dark."
Jesus says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be also. He is here, through his word, through our individual faith lives, through the traditions of the church, through the promise He made to Peter, Christ is here, He is the Head of His church. We do worship a living God who suffered for us.
And that brings us to our gospel lesson the story of Jesus death. Now you might be thinking this text is out of place as we celebrate the kingship of Christ, but not so. What better way to see the truly radical nature of his kingship than the cross? What better way to see the suffering nature of our King? What better way to see the truly radical nature of this gospel message than through the cross? Yes, the cross is the sign and the symbol of the kingship of Christ.
Here on the cross in his conversation with the convicted criminal we see the kingdom in action. We see the suffering servant Jesus Christ bringing the good news, the gospel to this man in all of its splendor and wonder.
I have three ideas that I think describe this action of the gospel in this man’s life. To him, Jesus was declaring him not guilty as he repented of his sin, Jesus was with him in suffering so Jesus was also a victim and through Christ they both received victory. Let us look closely at these actions of Christ.
When the man said, "And we indeed justly for or we are receiving the due reward of our deeds:" that was his act of repentance. He knew he had done wrong. He was sorry. Then because of his repentance, he saw Christ for who he was and asked, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." He wanted to be part of that kingdom. And Jesus answered saying, "Truly, I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise."
In answering the man, Jesus was relieving him of his guilt as it says in Romans 4: 5 " and who believes in God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is his faith that God takes into account in order to put him right with himself." This kingdom of God causes one to examine himself/herself and then repentance comes. Jesus is there to declare the person not guilty because He paid the penalty for our wrongs through the body broken and blood shed on the cross. Notice that Jesus does and will continue to do the work of forgiving, not us. He declares us so by His work of salvation, not ours.
This is seen very clearly in the following "In a certain community lived people of being reverent, able to give and receive love that was unearned and undeserved. Then a teacher came who spoke of desperate evil of all people. He commanded legalism he demanded perfection
People discovered how sick, how evil how guilty they were. They now thought about how they "ought" to live and their lives grew depressed as they had heard nothing but "you must do this......
When they heard the words "forgiveness," "acceptance" "grace" they could not understand them because their minds were now too full of "ought" "should" and "how’ they could earn their forgiveness or how they could merit their grace.
Now guilt was always with them. Failure of falling short of their idealized perfection forever haunted them. Broken in mind and spirit, they knew themselves to be unacceptable, unloved, and undeserving of all that they most needed to live, love, acceptance forgiveness and a deep sense of self-worth."
Through the cross, Jesus releases us of such guilt and gives to our lives love, acceptance, forgiveness and a deep sense of self-worth. The only action you and I must do is accept it. But sadly, many stay in the land of legalism, trying desperately to earn, to achieve, to merit, to appease an angry God. Finding they cannot, they live lives of despair, failure and desperation. I invite you to leave that land of legalism and come into the kingdom of God where Christ the King rules with love, acceptance,forgiveness and a deep sense of self-worth for each individual.
Another aspect of the kingdom seen from the cross was Jesus being with, standing by, hanging with the criminal in his suffering. Because of the cross, Christ understands our suffering, our brokenness as no other human being can. He has been there for us. So he can say, let me walk with you through the brokenness of life. I cannot promise the way will be made easy, all I can promise is that I will be there. And he is my friends. Walking lock step with us as we face all the shadows of life.
Pastor Page says in his sermon on this text in a religious journal: "A copy of Sigidmundis Goetze’s art work, "Despised and Rejected of Men", has helped me understand the crucifixion in a more relevant light.
The painting centers around the thorn-covered and spear-riven Son of Man. The setting, however, not normal. The crucifixion takes place in one of the busy highways of this world. Like Times Square in New York. The people are of this world working putting up new buildings, business people rushing here and there, window shoppers walking slowly by store fronts, a football player in uniform, a scientist in his lab, a mother and child and a news boy selling papers on the corner. Even a church and its pastor are found in the picture. But out of all of these people, only one is looking at the Christ on the cross. It is a nurse looking at him not out of concern, but alarm.
Page says this painting serves as a reminder to me that I often thumb through the Christian faith and never spend the time to look at THE event. Perhaps each of us are in that picture passing by never seeing, never looking, never accepting the centrality of our faith, a crucified, and broken Christ."
Don’t we want to glorify Him so that we too can feel glorious?Don’t we want a Christ who can perform miracles at our whims, instead of a Christ who allowed the will of His Father to be performed through Him by dying on a cross? Aren’t we today more interested in glory than service, more interest in feeling good, than worshiping a God who reminds us of our brokenness as He died on a cross? Aren’t we more interested in a bed of roses than wearing a crown of thrones?
And finally, we do see the victory of Christ as he says to the criminal, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Yes there is a victory for us in Christ, but at His choosing, at His time, in His kingdom.
A closing story says this about the Resurrection, the victory of Christ in our lives.
A Muslim in Africa became a Christian and some of his friends asked him, "Why have you done such a thing?"
He answered, "Well, its like this: Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions. You didn’t know which way to go; and there at the fork were two men-one dead, and one alive-which one would you ask to show you the way?"
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale November 15, 2004
