Today is Christ the King Sunday, the day we celebrate and recognize that Jesus is the Christ, the messiah and King, or that he is the King of king and Lord of Lords, a phrase most of us are familiar with from the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah, but actually is found in the 1st letter to Timothy and also in the book of Revelation. And so this title of King is an early title given to Christ, and not just by the church, but even by others, even if ironically, remembering that the charge that appears over the cross, the reason why the Romans sought to crucify him, was that he was said to be King of the Jews. And of course in Matthew’s gospel this claim about Jesus being a king goes all the way back to the nativity story when the wise men come seeking the one who was born King of the Jews, which is the reason that Herod sought to have him killed. And so this was a title not only that was applied to Jesus, but which had significant ramifications in proclaiming it, and still should today. Because although there are lots of people who say that we should never talk politics in church, the simple truth is that is impossible, because to proclaim Jesus as King, Jesus as Lord, is a political statement. It was a political statement in the first century, and it is a political statement today.
Because to proclaim Christ as King means is to claim where our allegiance belongs, and also where our allegiance doesn’t belong, to the things of the world. As I said, the reason I decided to do this series talking about the offices of Christ after the election was to help us remember that neither political party holds a monopoly on truth, nor is any politician going to save us. We have a savior and he is not running for election. Christ is our hope, our salvation and our King, and that is a political statement, even if we don’t comprehend that as much today. But what we have to understand is that most of the titles that got applied to Jesus, also happened to be titles that were applied to Caesar Augustus, including that of Lord, Son of God, bringer of peace, savior and even the beginning of good news, to name just a few. Even more importantly, even though we talk about the Roman Empire, that’s not how they referred to themselves. Instead it was called the Kingdom of Rome, which also makes the emperor a King, whereas Jesus was talking about and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, and of course a kingdom needs a king, whom was found in Christ. And so the question the early church posed to its followers, and still poses today, is who are you going to follow, Jesus or Caesar? Who is Lord, Jesus or Caesar? To whom do you pledge allegiance, Jesus of Caesar? That is not a rhetorical question, because it demands an answer.
And it demands an answer because it’s about whom we think
Jesus is, what role he plays in our lives and then what we are going to do
about it, because it’s one thing to say who Jesus might be, but it’s something
entirely different to live differently because of it. And so after Jesus’
resurrection, the early church sought to explain who Jesus was and why it
mattered, and they attributed to him three offices, that of prophet, priest and
king. These three offices had historic importance within Judaism, and were also
offices in which the person taking the office was either anointed by the Holy
Spirit or by oil, and remembering that messiah literally means the anointed
one. And so the church was seeking to explain how Jesus filled the role of the
Messiah through these three offices.
And so we started with that of the prophet, and when we
talked about Jesus as prophet, we talked about the expectation that there would
be a great prophet to rise up like Moses or Elijah, but this person would not
be just any prophet, or just a prophet, but instead would be the prophet, the
one who would fulfill prophecy and be the last prophet, the one who not just
calls for repentance, but can bring that repentance into being. In light of the
resurrection it is this role as the prophet that the disciples and the early
church claimed for Jesus. And so in
light of that, we should see everything that Jesus says and also what Jesus
does as a prophetic witness, as the words of God come to us and to be treated
with the seriousness that entails.
Like with the expectation of a prophet, there was also an
expectation for a great high priest who would rise up and purify the faith and
bring fulfilment to the law. But the problem with the old priestly model, at
least according to the letter to the Hebrews, was that because the priests also
sinned, they could never bring wholeness or fulfillment to the law because they
were broken themselves. So, to complete the law we needed to be someone
different, someone who, although tempted and therefore understood our plight,
was without sin themselves. And because they were without sin, then no
sacrifices needed to be made on their behalf. But Jesus could make a sacrifice
for us in giving of his perfection, and because of that his sacrifice was good
for all time. So, Jesus’ eliminated one of the major rolls for priests by
abolishing the need for sacrifice, and set-up that there was no longer any need
for humans to act as intermediaries with God, because Jesus, as our high priest
acts as our intermediary, our intercessor. And while we might not know the
theological language, every time we pray and say something like “in Jesus’ name
” we are invoking Jesus as the high priest.
But it is the final office of Jesus, that of King, that we
probably use and think of the most.
While there were some who thought that the Messiah would be a great high
priest, or even a prophet, by far the greater expectation was for the Messiah
to be a political leader who would bring about the Kingdom of God here on
earth. Someone who would come from the line of David in order to restore the
Davidic rulers to the throne of Israel as had been promised by God, and that
was clearly how the disciples and apostles came to understand Jesus, and was
probably even true during his life, and thus the name of Christ was an easy appellation
given to him from the earliest days, and when we say that Jesus is the Christ,
we are also saying that Jesus is King. And if we are saying that Jesus is King,
it also means that we are going to follow what the king says we are to do.
Because if you aren’t willing to follow the king, then you aren’t really going
to be loyal to the king, which is where the passage from Matthew plays such a
key role.
Just a little bit earlier in Matthew, Jesus tells a parable
about two sons. One says he will do what his father asks, but doesn’t, and one
says he won’t, but does, and then he asks “which of the two does the will of
his father?” The answer, of course, is the one who actually does what’s asked
of them. If the king tells you to do something, and you claim to follow the
king, then you actually have to do what the king commands. And since Jesus
tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is just
like it, and that is to love our neighbor, then it seems that that is what we
are going to be measured by. And I know some people then try and wrap
themselves, or others, up in knots about salvation by faith alone or work's
righteousness, but they are missing the point entirely.
As James says, and I think the apostle Paul would agree with
him, show me your faith apart from your works and by my works I will show you
my faith. We are saved by faith alone, but if we have faith, if we follow
Christ and pledge Jesus as our king, then we have to be doing the things that
he tells us to do. That is the only way we can be following the orders of the
King, is by following the commands, the decries of the king. By feeding the
hunger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, not because of
what we gain from it, but because it is the right thing to do. It’s not even
that we should see Jesus in others and use that as the reason to help, because
we should see others as they really are and help them because that’s what Jesus
has told us to do. So, as another alternative, it’s not asking what would Jesus
do, it's asking, as a follower of Jesus, “what are we going to do?”
Because if we pay attention to what happens in this story of
the separating of the sheep and goats, those who help others don’t do it
because of what it might get them, because they are surprised by the outcome
and ask when was it that they helped the King. They do it because they saw a
brother or sister in need and had to respond. They didn’t think about kings or
kingdoms or eternal rewards, they simply did what was right in the moment, and
in doing that they then followed the King and sought to bring the Kingdom of
God here and now, which is what the good news is about, that we are called to
repentance, we are offered the words of God, and the love of God through the
sacrifice of Christ, and given the opportunity to be in right relationship with
God and with each other, and when we answer that call, then we say we are going
to follow Christ as our Lord, our Savior our King, and that has real world
consequences. It’s not just about the life to come, but about life here.
All four gospels record Jesus appearing before Pontius
Pilate and Pilate asking Jesus whether he is the king of the Jews. How Jesus
answers that question is up for debate, although none of the gospels have Jesus
out and out denying the title. In John’s gospel, Pilate asks Jesus this
question twice. The first-time Jesus asks whether the accusation is being made
by Pilate himself, or if it has been made against him by someone else, to which
Pilate says that since he is not a Jew it’s clearly an accusation made by
others. But the second-time Pilate asks, Jesus gives an entirely different
answer. The second time, Jesus says his kingdom, and we might say his
authority, is not from this world, which all too often gets interpreted as him
saying not of this world. There is a big difference between saying it’s not
from this world, versus not of this world. When we say that it’s not of this
world, it means that God’s Kingdom is about some time to come in the future,
probably as the afterlife, and therefore that it’s not something we are working
for here and now. It makes everything we do about the afterlife.
But although that seems to be the message that many
Christians preach, Jesus actually talked about the afterlife very little.
Instead it's about the Kingdom of God here and now. God’s Kingdom come on earth
as it is in heaven. Because when Jesus says that his authority and Kingship is
not from this world, it means it was not given to him by humans, by the
political establishment, or by a portion of the populace voting for him. His
authority comes not from us, but from God. His Kingdom is not from this world,
but it is of this world, and it is greater than any kingdom of the world
because there are no geographic or tribal boundaries, note that is today’s
passage that all the nations appear before the King, not just one or two,
because he is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is over all of it, and
what Jesus came to proclaim and what he came to bring about was the reign of
God, the vision of God not of who we are, but of who we are called to be.
What that means is that there is a call of allegiance that
is different from what the world wants and desires of us. There are lots of little Caesars that want us
to bow down to them, and I’m not talking about the pizza place. There are lots
of things and people which want our allegiance, which want us to see them as
our savior, our safety net, or security, that want us to see them as the place
where we find hope, and want us to believe everything they say and pledge our
loyalty to them. But they are not our savior, they are not our redeemer, they
are not our hope, they are not our king. Our allegiance is to, and only to
Christ. Jesus says that you cannot serve God and mammon, which is translated as
money, but could be representative of anything else, because you will love the
one and hate the other. This is our call to allegiance. Whom are we going to
serve? Whom are we going to follow? Where will our allegiance be? Will it be to
Jesus, or will it be to something else? Will it be to the kingdom of God or
will it be to some other kingdom? Will it be to live into our name as
Christians, or will some other identity or tribe or ideology become more
important? Because Christ is the one who has come to fulfill the law and to
bring the reign of God, it means that he is King. So, if we are going to say I
am a Christian, it means that we have to proclaim that Christ is King and that
nothing else takes that place, nothing else takes that priority, nothing else
claims our allegiance.
We are called to work for the Kingdom of God, not for some time in the future, but in the here and now, and to say that we are working for that kingdom means that we are not doing work on our behalf, or even at our own initiative, but on behalf of the King. The reign has begun, it’s here right now, and we are called to participate, to be witnesses to the Kingdom and to work towards its completion because it’s not quite yet here as well which is why we wait for it with expectation, and seek to welcome it again, which do starting next week with Advent, which is our wait for the coming of Christ. But all that begins when we choose who we are going to follow. Are we going to follow and pledge allegiance to the things of the world, to the powers and principalities of the world, to all the little Caesars that want us to bow down to them, or are we going to follow and pledge allegiance to Christ the King? May we reaffirm that loyalty this day, and every day so that we may proudly say “Christ is our King.” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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