Sermons
25th November 2007 - Christ the King
If you are the King of the Jews save yourself
At the time of the crucifixion of Jesus one gets the impression that nobody really knew what was going on. The disciples all fled, the Romans thought they stringing up just another political trouble-maker or religious crackpot, some of the Jews thought they had unmasked a fraudulent mock-Messiah, and the so-called penitent thief on the cross next to Jesus seems simply to think that the man hanging next to him is a victim of wrongful arrest. And it must have been terribly noisy - all the violence and shouting, the banging of nails into place, the fixing of that mocking inscription above Jesus’ head, the other criminal telling Jesus to get on with saving everyone if he was truly the Messiah, the soldiers gambling over who would have Jesus’ clothing. It is a chaotic and awful scene.
There can be few human displays of emotion more undesirable to watch than mocking, gloating over someone’s failure, and particularly in this case where there had been so much promise. And everyone in this scene is mocking Jesus, the leaders of the people mock his claim to be the Messiah the chosen one, the soldiers have fun with his absurd politico-religious title ‘king of the Jews’, and the criminal ridicules his claim to be the Messiah who has come to save his people. People tend to gloat in a particularly vicious way if the one who has been toppled has in some way un-nerved them, the rejoicing at someone else’s failure seems to be magnified if there has been an attraction that has been somehow disappointed, somehow let down.
And hadn’t Jesus been a let-down! What a disappointment. Hadn’t he said he was bringing in some kind of kingdom, even the kingdom of God? Weren’t all his good works, and healings, and wise words supposed to lead up to something? Surely not this though, flung on a cross and derided by all and sundry. It would have taken a brave person indeed to stand by him in this situation. After all, what sort of kingdom has so little power and what sort of king was Jesus supposed to be when he seemed to let himself be put to such an ignominious death (particularly for a Jew) without a struggle? And in the midst of all the violence and noise all he can do is ask his father’s forgiveness for the brutes having their murderous fun, and promise the criminal hanging next to him that he would be entering paradise that day. They must have thought he was quite mad. No wonder the disciples fled.
As so often with St Luke there is a huge amount of irony in the way he pieces together his story. All gather around, shouting at Jesus to save himself and not understanding that in this death salvation truly comes into the world, the savages at the foot of the cross are the very ones in need of God’s saving touch through the forgiveness of their sins, which Jesus offers them quietly in the midst of the hubbub and the semi-penitent thief who makes no profession of faith in Jesus or trust that he can draw him to God is nevertheless promised paradise on this very day. And Jesus is mocked for not being the sort of king that would have suited the situation; in a situation of religious repression and Roman overlordship surely God would send some sort of dynamic military hero to throw out the foreign rulers and restore political power to the hands of the religious leaders of the Hebrew people. They were looking for Rambo and they got a little lamb. But this lamb of God shows them through his obedience and sacrifice that the kingdom which has been proclaimed is not one where power and strength and military might are going to count for anything. The strong men and women in this new kingdom are going to be the ones who know how to forgive their enemies, they are going to be the ones who know how to sacrifice their own well-being, even their lives, for the sake of others, they are going to be the ones who can give assurance of God’s gentle love to all around them.
And that is our calling, good Christian people. Christ the King? Certainly. Has this king authority and power? Certainly. But his power is exercised through love, and only through love. On the throne of the cross, wearing his crown of thorns, with a title above his head proclaiming his identity for any who can see through the irony, on this throne Jesus shows us what sort of kingdom he is bringing in and what sort of citizens we are to be if we are to take our place in that kingdom. Forgive your enemies, sacrifice your well-being for that of others, assure people of God’s love, acting in the knowledge that we follow Our Lord’s pattern who taught us to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.