Christ the King

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Colossians 1:11-20 (Revised Common Lectionary Year C)

Welcome to the end of the year. Now don’t go thinking I’m a month or so early…I’m not talking about the calendar year. I mean the end of the Liturgical Year- the church year. Next week marks the start of Advent and with it, a brand new year for the Christian Church. So as is customary amongst our faith tradition and through our lectionary, today is celebrated as Christ the King Sunday. It’s a day to hear again the scriptures that foretell of the coming of the king and also to reflect upon what sort of King it is that we serve and worship.

What is a King??According to the Oxford dictionary… A male ruler of a country by right of birth; a man or thing regarded as supreme. Now to expand that a little further…our 20th century culture has crowned a few kings.. King George VI, King Of England and father of our current monarch..Then there’s the king from other countries like Monaco or Denmark. We’ve also crowned if you like a king of pop – Michael Jackson, the King of Country Slim Dusty and who can forget THE king – Elvis Presley.

So who is our King and what sort of Kingly attributes are there about him? Scattered throughout the Gospels alone, 24 times Jesus is referred to as King of the Jews. Now this is not always done so in a manner of reverence as you would refer to our Queen or to the King of another country…in fact a lot of it is said either in jest or in sheer contempt. But those passages also show what sort of a King Jesus is and was. This King has the privilege of being from a long line of Royalty… in fact the entire lineage of this King is traced back at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. He comes from the line of David…the little shepherd boy that fell a giant with a sling and a stone. David who went on to become God’s anointed one, the greatest and most powerful King of his time. So its no surprise then that this King has waited for expectantly. The Prophet Jeremiah foretold the coming of a great king. This king he foretold was a messianic king, one who would bring people to him, one who will gather the scattered sheep of the flock and reign over them in justice…unlike the kings whom Jeremiah dealt with in his time.

Paul tells of this King in the letter to church in Colossae as the beloved son of the Father…the Father who enables us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light and who rescues us from the power of darkness. This King is the image of the invisible God and the one from whom all things have been created and all things have been created for. He is also the head of the Body- the church and in whom the fullness of God dwells and whom God made peace with humanity through the blood of his cross. So just from the account of the Prophet and from the Apostle Paul, we begin to see an image of a powerful king, God like and mighty who rules over everyone and everything…human and animal. But as always when it comes to Jesus, things are not quite that straight forward.

The clue for us of course is in the words that Paul wrote to the Colossians (Col 1:19-20)…that through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things…by making peace through the blood of the cross. Here’s a big neon sign…blood and cross…a king who has suffered the agony of the Roman Empire’s worst way of execution…bleeding, hanging and dying on a cross.

This King we serve, the monarch above all monarchs as Paul will eventually describe in a letter to his young protégé Titus…the king of kings and Lord of Lords…is by far the greatest ruler the world has known, because he endured pain, suffering and death for it. Jesus was recorded in scriptures, fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah…the promised King of Israel. But this was a title Jesus refused to accept. He didn’t want to be served upon in the way a normal king would, he didn’t have a palace, he didn’t have a privileged upbringing. He was a simple carpenter’s son… a man who knew that he was not only fully human, but fully divine. But never did he exploit this. Never did he use his birthright as an excuse not to act. He healed the sick and the lame, fed the hungry, he associated with the lowest members of society and most of all, he showed Love. This King knew his people and knew their pain and was punished for it.

Now before you think that I am way ahead of myself and maybe preaching an easter sermon…I want to you to think about what lies ahead of us in the church calendar. Over the next 4 weeks, we will prepare ourselves for the birth of our King. To remember that this King was born to humble servants of God. But you can’t forget that the manger is meaningless without the cross and the cross was nothing if it doesn’t point to the manger. Christ the king…this King was worshipped at birth…and rejected as an adult. But his purpose was never to come and establish his kingship over us…his purpose was to point us to his kingdom. A kingdom given to him by his father, a kingdom that would never end.

I want to ask you a question now. How are you following the edicts of our King of Kings? Is the King’s example and rulings still visible in our world today? Across Australia today, thousands of churches are taking part in something called Abolitionist Sunday. It’s a campaign organised through World Vision that calls Christians especially to action. Christ the King, our lord and saviour came to change the world. As I said before… he didn’t live in a palace and have slaves working to fulfil his every whim. Quite the opposite. He was an activist who worked against injustice. Abolitionist Sunday takes its title from William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery movement he was part of over 200 years ago. Wilberforce’s Christian faith informed him of the injustices of slavery and kept him going when even he doubted the impact he was making to legally end slavery.

In verse 11 of Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he writes May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power and may you be prepared to ENDURE everything with patience… Slavery still exists in our modern world, and more and more of it is creeping back into pseudo-legality. The subtlety of the slavery is starting to get noticed. The clothes we buy, the food we eat, the goods we consume. Worst still was the case that was reported in the UK last week about a girl who had been a domestic slave her entire life!!

Now don’t for a second think that I am saying we do this knowingly…I am as guilty as so much of the modern western world. I am not always an ethical purchaser of clothing or food. The technology I use, I have no idea where it came from or at what cost. But I want to try. Christ the King set an example for us. When he turned the tables over in the temple and evicted the money changers, when he stood up for the woman caught in adultery and most of all, when he showed compassion and forgiveness to those that put him on the cross. Pontius Pilate recognised something in Jesus when he tried, some say valiantly, others half heartedly to save his life. Right at the end, as is recorded by the Gospel of John chapter 19 the Pharisees were enraged that Pilate would dare put a sign above the cross of Jesus saying “King of the Jews”…they wanted it to say he claims he is…king of the jews. But Pilate stood firm and the king of the Jews was crucified on the hill over looking Jerusalem.

I went to a Grant Norsworthy performance a couple of weeks ago and one of the many things he spoke passionately about was the name of Jesus. I don’t know why it lingered with me, but it has and it really highlights for me what today…Christ the King Sunday is all about. In Medieval times, when someone banged on your door and shouted “open up in the name of the King” a wave of fear or at the very least concern would have washed over you. The name of the King had quite serious connotations. You didn’t declare everything in the name of the king…and if you were a representative of the King, then you were treated with respect and listened to, maybe even feared – as a direct representative of your King and ruler. But Grant pointed out that these days, in the name of the king has diminished. Its just a phrase now. Even in church circles. When we pray, we pray in Jesus name..in the name of the King, but so often we feel the need to add to that name…Jesus mighty name, Jesus powerful, wonderful, holy etc etc. There was once a time when asking for something in the name of Jesus, the king of kings, was enough.

Our King is a powerful King. Not because he has millions of loyal and faithful subjects, not because he came from a long line of royalty and could trace his lineage back as far as the great patriarchs of the faith Abraham and Isaac. No our King is a powerful King because he changes us. When you become a subject of the King of Kings, when you lay down your life at the feet of the one king who has conquered death and who sits at the right hand of the creator of the universe; then something inside of you is going to change. Submit yourself to the king. Understand his edicts of loving those who need it the most, of working towards justice. Jesus showed us that being a king was about real and true love for his subjects…and that loyalty and love was returned.

Before I finish, I want to first encourage you to check out more about Abolitionist Sunday. There are a range of resources available to you through World Vision and other agencies that can help you take small but meaningful steps towards abolishing slavery. Something as simple as purchasing fair trade chocolate can make a huge difference in the fight against slavery.

Secondly I want to encourage you to discover for yourself what it means to serve Christ the King. Study the scriptures and find out about his reign and what it means to be part of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus transforms lives.

Lastly I want to share a story with you that shows the power of our king. Matthew West is a contemporary Christian Music artist from the US and one of his songs has for a while now really impacted me. But more than that was the story that inspired his song.

Out of the Darkness of addiction and into the light of recovery…. “Hello, my name is Jordan and I am a drug addict.” That was the first sentence of this young man’s story that he sent to me. He went on to tell me how for years that was how he identified himself. A two sport all star athlete in high school, Jordan received a college scholarship to run track and play football at a university in Kentucky. 

But during his sophomore season, Jordan broke his ankle. That is when he received his first prescription to Oxycontin. He wrote about how addiction quickly took a hold of his life and sent him spinning out of control. After two failed drug tests, the university kicked him out and removed his sports scholarships. Jordan had lost everything he had worked for. 

He landed at a place called Teen Challenge in North Carolina. Teen Challenge is a Christian rehabilitation center in the business of restoring lives with the hope of Jesus Christ. Jordan said it was during his time in Teen Challenge that he began to realize that God wasn’t done with him yet, and that all of those defeating titles like “addict,” didn’t have to be attached to his name the rest of his life. 

His story is far from over. He told me that in the years since his recovery, he went back and got his master’s degree from the very college that kicked him out. Now, he is a teacher and a coach and a newlywed. And he has recently felt God calling him into full time ministry. He closed his story by saying, “These days I introduce myself a little differently than I used to. Hello, my name is Jordan and I am a child of the one true king!” 


Matthew West - Hello, My Name Is (Lyrics) from matthew-west on GodTube.