christ the king year C

Jeremiah 23: 1-6 NRSV text
Luke 1: 68-79 NRSV text
Colossians 1: 11-20 NRSV text
Luke 23: 33-43 NRSV text

For this week’s theme of Christ the King, I’m presupposing the content of my study of Luke’s Passion Narrative in grace 3. We need to read this week’s two gospel passages in the context of the narrative framework that Luke gives the story of the cross, in order to see the very distinctive way in which he portrays Jesus as the High Priest of the New Covenant on the cross, and Golgotha as the new Holy of Holies. Let me just say here that I don’t subscribe to the “Jigsaw Theory” of the Passion narratives – the notion that we get the most complete picture of Jesus’ crucifixion by conflating the 4 gospel narratives. This is the method of reading that gives us Good Friday meditations on The Seven Words from the Cross – as though Jesus spoke on 7 different occasions and each evangelist has only retained some of the words.

Reading the Passion narratives in this way does fundamental violence to the different emphases each evangelist works so hard to bring out. When we read each gospel as a story in its own right, it quickly becomes clear that each portrays the cross in very different lights. Each story has its own integrity, and this is what is lost when we try and piece each of the 4 narratives into one wider whole. All four evangelists understand the cross as the defining, saving event in the long history of God’s salvation of the world. Salvation, however, is enormously broad because it encompasses all that God is doing to transform the world into the Kingdom of God. It embraces both this life and the life to come. For this reason, it cannot be reduced to one single, all-embracing account; rather, it is like a multi-faceted stone that needs to be turned this way and that to appreciate each aspect for what it is.

When we read the gospels in this way, it quickly becomes clear that each sets out to tell the story in such a way that the meaning of the cross is brought out, and that each feels a remarkable freedom to shape the story in such a way as to do that. We need to respect the integrity of their intention, rather than demand (exegetically) that they do something different.

Christ the King: political dynamite
We speak so often and so easily about the Kingdom that we forget the obvious: a Kingdom has a king! “Kingdom” is thus densely political. For the Jews of his time, “Kingdom” referred to the restoration of Israel and the dethroning of the occupying power (the Romans). For Jesus, “Kingdom” refers to the entire creation under the rule of Yahweh and thus the dethroning of all other kings and authorities.

This is what Paul writes about to the Colossians:

“for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

The vision of the Kingdom stands as criticism and rebellion against every minor ruler who claims allegiance, and against every other pretension to power or ultimate claim over people’s lives. To call Jesus “Lord” is to deny the lordship of Caesar. To embrace the hope of the Kingdom is, in the deepest sense “unpatriotic” – it means that one’s ultimate loyalty is to someone else and somewhere else.

That is why, when the leaders haul Jesus before Pilate, the accusation is one of political rebellion: “We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.” (23:2). Note Pilate’s insistent, immediate response: “Are you the king of the Jews?” His question is this: “Are you claiming to be the true king of the Jews? Are you explicitly denying Caesar’s authority? Is it your intention to set up an independent, Jewish kingdom?” Pilate knows well what Jewish nationalism and messianism means in the context of his day. He is asking Jesus whether or not he intends to lead an armed revolt against Roman rule.

In this context, Jesus’ enigmatic reply (“You say so”, or “That’s one way of putting it”) is quite enough for Pilate. Whatever else Jesus is, he isn’t your typical Jewish rebel leader. If he were, he would have launched into a tirade about being the rightful king, about the abomination of Roman occupation, and the inevitability of the success of his proposed rebellion.

Pilate, in other words, recognises that, whatever Jesus’ Kingdom is, it isn’t about the establishment of a Jewish national state. Jesus may style himself a king, but it isn’t this sort of kingship that he envisages. Pilate doesn’t have to worry that he is dealing with an insurrectionist – and that is his only concern. That is why he moves immediately to dismiss Jesus.

A different sort of King and Kingdom
Jesus is declared innocent by Pilate of being an insurrectionist – 3 times (23:22). That is not the same thing as saying that Jesus’ Kingdom is not a threat to Rome! As we have noted, the Kingdom preached by Jesus makes a far more audacious claim than any insurrectionist vision: it demands the allegiance of the whole earth! Pilate understands only insurrection and rebellion; he does not understand the true nature of Jesus’ Kingdom. His only concern is military confrontation. Jesus’ Kingdom is different and comes about by different means.

Look back to the Last Supper:

“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (22: 25-7).

Here’s the key: Jesus is indeed a King, but not like the Gentile kings. He is here not to be served, but to serve. The Kingdom of God is ruled by a king who dons the garb of the lowliest household slave and washes feet.

The disciples fail to recognise the sort of King Jesus is because they look for the wrong things. “King” means all the trappings of royalty and power. It means being great. It means having servants. It means commanding armies and courtiers, and having people fawn and grovel. They do not recognise Jesus’ kingship any more than Herod does!

There is a wonderful irony to Luke’s portrayal of Jesus before Herod. Herod is a king – but has no ultimate authority. Rules by Rome’s grace and with Roman permission. He surrounds himself with all the trappings of power, yet needs the patronage of Rome. The outward signs of kingship are there to mask the fact that he is not so much a king as a servant of a greater king. Hence Herod cannot see the threat that Jesus poses. Herod is like one of the “Gentile kings” that Jesus describes to his disciples. And so, in ironic mockery, “…even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him; then he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate” (22:11). They are in effect saying, “Call yourself a king? This is what a king should be like and look like and behave like! You’re no king!” They prove exactly the truth of what Jesus says when he says, “Yes I am a king – but not like that!”

Forgiveness: the key to Jesus’ Kingdom
Look at Zechariah’s declaration in 1: 72-9:

“Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Jesus, whose coming John the Baptist will announce, is indeed a deliverer who will rescue the people from the hands of their enemies. Yet the liberating victory comes not by military might, but through the forgiveness of their sins. This is a Kingdom of peace that is promised – a peace won not through crushing the opposition and maintained through coercive legal and military means, but through the tender mercy of a forgiving God!

Here we are drawn into the conflict between the unexpected grace of God in Jesus and the anticipated role of the Messiah as judge and agent of God’s wrath. John the Baptist won’t be able to get his head around the difference between what he expects and hopes for in Jesus, and the grace-filled reality that emerges in Jesus’ ministry. He will die, agonising over whether or not he had got the whole thing wrong and whether he ought to have looked for someone else (see grace 1 for details).

Where do we find Zechariah’s prophecy finally fulfilled? On the cross (cf Colossians 1: 13-14: “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”)! Luke makes the point that there is an inscription – a declaration – above Jesus’ head that reads, “The King of the Jews” (23:38). But this is patently absurd! How can Jesus be a king if he is hanging on a cross? This is the absolute antithesis of kingship. The cross was designed as an act of final, absolute humiliation. A victim of crucifixion was no longer viewed as a human being, deserving burial; rather, he was a piece of sub-human refuse. Hence the taunts of the crowds: “If you are a king …”

How are these taunts answered? Jesus does not argue: Jesus pronounces forgiveness! Jesus’ first words from Luke’s cross are “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing!” (23:34) Indeed they don’t! They are crucifying the King. They do not understand the Kingdom of grace, mercy and forgiveness. They assume that the inscription is an ironic mockery. Jesus’ forgiveness proves otherwise: this is God’s King. Jesus is indeed the King on whom God has conferred a Kingdom (22:29). It is because he is on the cross that he will eat and drink anew the meal with his disciples in the full glory of the Kingdom – not in spite of it!

And then there is that wonderful, breathtaking exchange between Jesus and the thief. The thief recognises the King because Jesus’ words of forgiveness create hope. He is not there because of doing things in ignorance. He has done what he did in full knowledge of the consequences. He is getting what he deserves. There is no hope for him – until Jesus speaks those dramatic first words! Why, if Jesus can forgive like that, then maybe there is hope for him after all. And, in the hope born out of forgiveness, he turns to the King and says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom!” And King Jesus responds: “Truly, I tell you; today you will be with me in Paradise”.

The Shepherd King

^“I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ^“In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety” (Jeremiah 23: 4-6).

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1: 68-9).

That Jesus is spoken of in terms of the promised, messianic Davidic king is well-known. Only Luke’s Christmas story has Jesus born in Bethlehem – “because he was of the house and lineage of David”. In Luke’s gospel (as opposed to Matthew’s), Joseph’s role is reduced almost entirely to his Davidic ancestry, so that the pair travel to Bethlehem (the place of David’s birth) for Mary to give birth to her son. Luke is about as subtle as a sledgehammer in stressing to us that Jesus is the promised Davidic figure – the Ideal King.

It is important, though, precisely what aspects of David’s life are stressed. Like David, Jesus is a deliverer – a liberator. Yet it is not David’s warrior prowess that is being stressed: Jesus, like David, is “a mighty saviour”. Yet his might, like David’s, is seen in God’s actions through him. David’s greatest “mighty act” is the slaying of Goliath. Here he eschews Saul’s armour (the trappings of military power) and goes to meet the Philistine giant as a shepherd boy defending his flock. He carries only his sling (with which, as he reminds Saul, he has slain a lion and a bear) and trusts not in his own strength but in Yahweh the Deliverer.

This is David’s defining moment. For all his future deeds as a warrior, it is this clash that captures the imagination and gives rise to the deeply-embedded tradition of the Shepherd King. David the king is most like Yahweh the King when he is dressed as the Shepherd of his people. This is the image of Yahweh’s deliverance that Jeremiah invokes in his oracle of salvation: “I will raise up shepherds … a righteous branch for David, and he shall reign as a king”.

It is to shepherds in Luke’s gospel that the angelic news comes of the King born in a stable. We have translated this into twee pictures of stable sheds, with angels, shepherds, wise men and donkeys, set to carols that create sentimental mist and conjure up images of innocent children dressed in towels acting out the nativity.

Yet Luke wants us to understand something very different. The child who is born in the manger is the liberating power of Yahweh incarnate. This is the Messiah – the King. He has come with a mission – the establishment of peace and justice. He has come to dethrone the powers that hold the world hostage to sin, despair and death. This is the beginning of the End – the fulfilment of all that God has promised. To us is born in the City of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. This is the King of the Universe, in whom the fullness of God dwells bodily. This is the King promised of old. He has come, and nothing will be able ultimately to stand against him. Why? Not because he comes at the head of armies to crush and destroy his enemies, but because he comes in grace, breathing forgiveness, giving hope to the hopeless and the guilty. He comes as Servant, Shepherd, and crucified Lord. Behold your King!

Amen.

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