Christ the King???

Feast of Christ the King
Sunday, November 21, 2010

After her divorce from Prince Charles, a journalist asked Princess Diana if she would miss being Queen of England. Her response was that all she ever wanted was to be “queen of people’s hearts.” That’s an interesting take on royalty, and perhaps the only one that makes sense to us today. In this twenty-first century, the institution of monarchy seems very out of place, old-fashioned, certainly undemocratic, and often contrary to the best interests of the people of a country. In England, there has been for some time a growing movement to “get rid” of the monarchy and let the royal family fend for themselves. Every year, there is debate in parliament over the amount of money (billions of dollars) that the country gives to the Queen for her household and duties.

When you think about it, what exactly is a king or a queen? Historically, they have been someone who only had to be born in order to have the right to govern a country. No personal qualities (and some of them have been very lacking in integrity and morals), no education or life experience, no real reason to rule except being born as the heir apparent to the previous king or queen, has ever been taken into account. To make things worse, kings have been overthrown frequently, either out of jealousy or because they did a bad job (or lost a war). It is no surprise that Shakespeare wrote, “uneasy the head that wears a crown.” [Henry IV Part II, Act 2, Scene 1]

So, we might rightly ask what we are doing dedicating one Sunday of every year to the notion that anyone is our King! We Episcopalians have only celebrated the Feast of Christ the King officially since our new Prayer Book came out in 1979, although some Anglo-Catholic parishes began much earlier. Today, many Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians also recognize this day. So how did it come about?

It was Pope Pius the eleventh who instituted the formal celebration of Christ as our King in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1925, several things were happening. The First World War had only been over for seven years. It was a war started because a crown prince was assassinated, fought almost entirely by kingdoms allying themselves against other kingdoms, and which had resulted in the largest loss of life of any war in the history of humanity (as well as the overthrow of several monarchies). The memory of that terrible conflict was still fresh, and the role played by kings in bringing it about was very clear. In addition, Italy – where the Pope lived – was falling under the sway of Benito Mussolini and the Fascist political party. They were a group who blamed everything bad on liberal ideas, who believed that the only safe way to operate a country was for the government to have complete control of everything, and that any opposition to the government’s policies should be considered treason, punishable by death. The notion of monarchy had quickly been replaced by that of dictatorship – instead of ruling by virtue of inheritance, rulers now ruled because they took control and exercised crushing power against their opponents.

In this environment in 1925 Italy and Europe, the Pope wanted to remind people that Christians have a “higher allegiance.” In a world where kings and queens were overthrown and murdered, where people acting in the names of earthly rulers could arrest and execute their opponents, and where power was the only thing that mattered, Pius the eleventh reminded everyone that we are citizens of another place.

Jesus used the phrase, “the kingdom of God” or “the reign of God” many times in the Gospels, but he never identified himself as the king of that kingdom. Instead, he usually referred to himself as “the Son of Man.” He was not playing games or being modest. Jesus may have known what his role in eternity would be, but while he was preaching, teaching, and healing on earth, he only saw himself as a child of God and our brother.

It took Pontius Pilate to mockingly proclaim Jesus as “King of the Jews” [Mt 27:11]. Later, Paul referred to Jesus as the “King Eternal” [I Tim 1:17], and “King of Kings” [I Tim 6:15]. The Book of Revelation calls Jesus, “King of the Ages” [Rev 15:3] and also “Ruler of the kings of the earth” [Rev 1:5]

That may help us to put today’s feast in perspective, but we are an independent people who recognize no king, so how do we even understand Jesus’ kingship?

Pope Pius actually wrote that Christ is King of all creation – not just of Christians. To support this, he quoted an ancient Christian teacher and bishop, St Cyril of Jerusalem: “Christ has dominion over all creatures, a dominion not seized by violence or usurped, but by his essence and by nature.” [Quas Primas, 1925] Let’s take that statement apart.

Jesus is Lord and King because of who he is. I am not referring to the miracles he performed or the wonderful sermons he preached. They were certainly for our benefit and we learn much from studying them. Rather, at the same time that Jesus was a gentle teacher and humble preacher, he was also something much more. That is the “essence” that Cyril and Pius are referring to. One key to understanding this is found in our Creed. We begin by saying that God the Father created everything. We immediately move to Jesus, and the first thing that we say about him is that he is Lord. Here, we are using the word “Lord” in the sense of “Lord and Master,” i.e., “King.” While the man, Jesus of Nazareth, was human and limited to 33 years on this earth, Jesus the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, was with God when all things were created [Jn 1:1-3] In a sense, we might think of it this way: the Father created all things, but the Son is Lord over them. Jesus is our Lord, our King, and he has the right to be that because of who he is, not because he won a war, or because his family has always had the throne – not even because he was born once, a long time ago.

What, then, are we called to do in order to recognize Jesus as Lord and King, and how should that be shone in our lives?

First, we must submit to Jesus’ Lordship. It means nothing to say “Jesus is Lord” and keep on acting as we always did. Acknowledging Jesus as our King must mean that something is different in our lives and spirits. We can relax – Jesus will take care of us. I don’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen again, or that we won’t suffer pain or sorrow. But through it all, we can be assured that the One in whom we have placed all our faith and hope will be there to comfort us, to help us in our struggles, and to receive us when we leave this earthly life.

Second, once we realize that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, our relationships with the world around us change. Jesus is Lord of all creation – it all belongs to him, and we are mere stewards of what we have been given to take care of. Destroying this planet, polluting the air and water, ignoring the hunger and needs of those around us – all these are failures to recognize that all creation belongs to our King, and that we, his subjects, are responsible to take care of it until he returns. Caring about our planet and every creature on it is not optional in the Kingdom of Jesus.

Finally, we know only too well that we cannot control what happens in this life. Other people, often with loud voices and strident philosophies, will shout us down and push us aside as they work to advance their own agendas. Like the kings and queens, and dictators, of this earth, they work only to achieve their own goals and to increase their own power. Don’t worry – it’s a false power. It will pass away as quickly as it rose up, and it will take them with it if they’re not careful. We cannot win the battles, wars, arguments, and debates with such people. They either never realized or have somehow forgotten that they are subjects of the King, just like you and me. The saddest thing is that many of them actually believe that they are doing the right thing, the things that God wants them to do. If they would only read the entire message of Jesus, rather than grabbing on to single verses in an effort to prove that they are right! If only they would allow Jesus to speak in their hearts, to remind them that he came to preach love, tolerance, and acceptance, rather than law and rejection!

Today, we remind ourselves that Christ is our King: not in the sense of an earthly ruler whose only right to rule is birth-order, or who is imposed upon us by the power of an army. Jesus is our King because he is eternal, because he is God’s Son our Lord, and because he has only reached out to us with love. Our response is to accept him, to acclaim him, and to serve him, as long as we live, knowing that we will be with him forever. Amen!