OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING B

[cappie]

As we celebrate the feast of Christ the King this Sunday, the liturgical year comes to its close and we look forward to the beginning of Advent the Sunday after.

Whilst the secular world around us, and especially that incarnation of it present in the shopping streets around us leaps to celebration of Christmas for weeks before 25th December, the Church calls Christians to prepare for the birth of Christ in an altogether different way, and at an altogether different pace.

Our Churches will be bedecked in purple from Sunday 1st Dec onwards as we look with penitence of heart and eagerness of spirit to God for salvation, and yearn for the coming of his Son.

 Through this past year, we have travelled the course of the Gospel. We have stood at the stable, at the cross, in the garden of resurrection, and in the upper room as the Holy Spirit swept down like wildfire.  

For the Romans, to be king really meant one thing: you have the power to force others to submit to your will. So, when Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king, Pilate is not asking if Jesus wields symbolic power or will someday inherit a kingship. Instead, Pilate is asking: Do you really have legions of troops at your command? Are you really planning to overthrow the power of Rome?

And Jesus understands the logic of Pilate’s question perfectly: He says, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” If my kingdom were this world kind of kingdom, my disciples would be staging a jailbreak, a coup, or a confrontation in the streets, but instead, here I am, alone, powerless, at the mercy of Roman Law… or so it seems.

Jesus doesn’t deny his kingship. Jesus doesn’t deny that he could, in fact, overthrow the Roman Empire or, for that matter, all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus is not merely powerful, he is the source of all power, the Alpha and the Omega, God the Son incarnate.

 But if this is the case, we can as then why did he allow the Romans to arrest him, to beat and humiliate him? Why does he allow the crucifixion to happen at all?

Couldn’t Jesus have just shown his infinite power to Pilate and called it a day? For that matter, couldn’t Jesus have just transformed every human being into a paragon of goodness and love, avoiding the following 2,000 years of bloodshed, poverty, political wrangling, and robocalls? If so, why didn’t he just do it? Why endure the suffering of the crucifixion?

This question gets to the heart of the greatest difficulty about Christianity: If God wants us to be faithful, to be transformed, to do his will on earth as it is in heaven, then why doesn’t he do something about it? Why does he speak only in the still, small voice? Why not overwhelm us with his power, make us  perfectly good, so that evil is forever wiped out from the world?

With Christ as all powerful King with his infinite power and might he could make us fear him, he could force us to obey him, but the thing is… God doesn’t want our fear, God doesn’t want our obedience, God only wants our love. Therefore, God the Son sets aside his glory, he sets aside his infinity and eternity, he sets aside all that he is and all that he has, and he comes to us in humility, in poverty: as a helpless baby, as a kind rabbi, as a beaten and humiliated prisoner, so that we can truly fall in love with him. “This is,” said Soren  Kierkegaard, “the God as he stands upon the earth, like unto the humblest by the power of his omnipotent love.”

If we fall in love with this quiet teacher, this gentle friend, we will not do so coveting his power or fearing his wrath. Instead, he will be our hearts’ delight. To obey him will be our second nature, to rejoice in him will be our constant occupation.

Do you fear God? Fear that he will punish you for your sins. Do you hope to gain something from God? Hope for God’s Favor in this life? Happiness in the life to come? What if God doesn’t care a fig for your fear or your hope of gain, but only wants you to fall in love with him?

What can you do to open your heart to the love of God? To fall deeper in love with Jesus through prayer, through serving your neighbours? Through hearing his word and receiving his sacraments?

Today, Christ the King stands knocking upon the door of your heart. Why not let him in?

I wish you all a joyful feast of Christ the King  and a holy beginning to Advent as we seek to prepare our hearts together for the Lordship of Christ, the Prince of Peace.