Christ the King / Reign of Christ (Year B), 24 November 2024
Revd Rob Miners
2 Samuel 23.1-7; Psalm 132.1-12; Revelation 1.4b-8; John 18.33-37
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today, as we celebrate Christ the King Festival, we remind ourselves that Christ is King.
Think for a moment about the meaning of the word “King”. If you were an engineer, you would know that a king bolt is the main or central pin or pivot that holds things in place. The removal would result in the structure eventually collapsing. And the next time you go down Clyde Mountain, have a look at the hundreds of king bolts that put in place to hold the rock face in place after the last major slide a few years back. As an engineer, you would also be aware that a king post is the middle post of a roof reaching down from the ridge to the tie beam, again, without which the roof would collapse. A king post also refers to a strut to which aeroplane bracing wires are fixed. I don’t think you’d consider flying without it.
Would it be fair to say that the evidence is in, in our world and its powerful structures, are pointing to the fact that the king bolt and king post has been misplaced, which will inevitably bring about total collapse? If you agree with me, this may just have something to do with Jesus and the way in which he’s been gradually eased out of our world.
In today’s short Gospel reading, we see how Jesus did not hesitate to say he was a king. Pilate, whose cowardice in the face of the Jews came down to abandoning Jesus to the mob, is confronted with the heroic majesty of Jesus and asks, “You are a king then?” And all of us one day will have to face this fact. Immediately, Jesus replies to Pilate, “You are right in saying I am a king.” As Jesus stood before Pilate, he emphasised the difference between his kingdom and ours. “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.”
Relying on force has no place in the kingdom of Christ. The kingdoms of this world, in their pursuit to obtain and retain power, rely on force, killing those who oppose, on instilling fear, on lies, cover-ups, wheeling and dealing, the art of compromise. We know it all so well. It’s news every day.
Make no mistake about it, the governing bodies of this world are really Satan’s territory. Jesus recognised this from the very beginning of his ministry. In Matthew 4, verse 8, we read, Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Now if Satan did not have power in the kingdoms of the world, he would not have been able to offer them to Jesus. This attempt by Satan to compromise Jesus into an easy way out is an oft-familiar strategy in our world.
Jesus’ trust in God was uncompromised and unwavering. His angry and definite response was, “Away from me, Satan, for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ “ For Jesus, nothing came before God his Father. So the devil had showed him his best trick, all to no avail, and so he departed. It is obvious that Jesus saw the world as being rightfully his kingdom: “But now my kingdom is from another place.” Note those two little important words, “but now.” Didn’t our Lord ask us to pray, “Your kingdom come?” We pray this every Sunday and hopefully daily. “Your will be done on earth . . .”
Now this is not Pollyanna pie-in-the-sky stuff. We are told to fervently pray for the kingdom of Jesus to come into every aspect of life, and that includes our own. We are his partners in this. Our prayers and our actions either bring in the kingdom of God or hold it back. You might well ask, “Is Jesus the king in institutionalised Christianity?” We only have to look at the untold damage done to the cause of Christ by the sins of sexual abuse recently examined by a royal commission. Or look at a pope struggling with his cardinals in the Vatican, trying to bring about reform in areas that are really about reform and mostly about forgiveness and love, not forgetting retention of power.
In our own backyard, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, believes, and I quote, “The worldwide Anglican communion has become impossible to hold together due to arguments over power and sexuality and has, for the past 20 years been completely dysfunctional.” Now that was some time back. In the last fortnight, Justin Welby has announced that he’s stepping down. And I ask myself, “Self, is this a reflection of the kingship of Christ?”
Even so, faithful Christians in recent times have become the most persecuted faith group in the world. Eight per cent of all acts of religious discriminations are against Christians. Ethnic cleansing, motivated by religious hatred, is seeing Christians being driven out of even the ancient biblical heartland of Jesus. Many are tortured, raped and murdered for their faith. In Australia, we hear so little about that.
I ask, “Is the kingship of Jesus evident in this community of faith? Do people come ahead of rules and rituals? Where is the passion in this parish? Is there a longing for his kingdom of justice, love and peace to come?” Is it unfair to ask how faithful we, the community of believers, have been in passing on the beautiful message of Christ? How often do you pray, “Your kingdom come in my heart, your will be done in my life on earth as it is in heaven?” You see, we’re not given the message of Jesus to hide under a tub or to keep us safe or happy or separated from others.
What about the two commandments Jesus gave us? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Jesus said, “This is the great and first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Everything else is contained in these. If we keep them, we will not break any of the ten commandments. We will live by the Beatitudes and be one with God and one with each other.
This is the message that is so needed right here and now in our world. The media is in a feeding frenzy over the terrorist attack from the 7th of October last year on the Jewish people at a concert and it’s still reverberating around the world today in so many ways. And the process is whipping up fear and going dangerously close to causing a “them and us” mentality.
The government, on the other hand, is trying to hose all of this down, telling us our border security and intelligence is first class. It will keep us safe.
However, it is a war like no other. It is a war of ideology, a war of hearts and minds. And we need to quietly ponder these things with our God, with our King, and listen to his Holy Spirit. As King, he claims dominion over all creation, that he may present to you his Almighty Father, an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace. If we care, we must surely ask ourselves, how can I bring this good news? Who can I spread this good news to? Whose heart and mine can I win for our King, Jesus Christ?