Christ the King

Today we celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – the penultimate celebration, the final Sunday, the capstone of our liturgical year. Christ, the King of the Universe, will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead – it’s one of the central themes of our Christian beliefs. But this feast shouldn’t be focused only on Christ’s glorious dominion at the end of time – it’s also about Christ’s kingdom today. We need to take a hard look at Christ’s kingshipin our own lives today, because where we stand when Christ the King returns in glory will depend on how we help build his kingdom today.

In the middle of St. Peter’s square in Rome, there’s a solid stone obelisk. It’s almost 84 feet tall and weighs over 300 tons, and it’s more than four thousand years old. The Egyptians originally built it as a monument to their sun god Ra. with a round gold ball on the very top to symbolize the sun. A thousand years later, the Egyptians were conquered by the Romans. The obelisk was brought to Rome as war tribute, and erected in the middle of Nero’s Circus, a place where thousands of early Christians, including St. Peter, were tortured and executed. But after a few hundred years, barbarians overranthe Roman Empire. That massive stone obelisk – like its owners – was toppled,/ thrown down, / and forgotten for over a thousand years, until Pope Sixtus V had it restored and moved to its current location in the late 16thcentury. But instead of the ball of the sun, the obelisk is now topped with the cross of Christ – and around its base is inscribed “Christ has conquered, Christ now rules, Christ reigns supreme.” A pagan symbol for over 3000 years, that obelisk now stands in front of St. Peter’s Basilica as a monument to Christ’s eternal kingdom.

The story of St. Peter’s obelisk gives us a metaphor – a lesson perhaps – on the reality of our earthly existence and on Christ’s everlasting dominion. In their times Egyptian Dynasties and the Roman Empire were seen as supreme, permanent, and dominant authorities in their own time and place. Yet today that obelisk, this symbol of worldly power and domination is topped by the cross of Christ – a reminder that man and all things of man – empires, nations, governments, and even us – they all pass away. Only Christ and his Kingdom will prevail.

Today we celebrate the eternal Kingdom of God that is to come, with the resurrected Jesus Christ coming in glory and majesty to take his rightful place as our King. At the same time, our Gospel reading shows us a very different view of that Kingdom.

When we envision Christ the King of the Universe, it’s usually along the lines of what we just heard in our readings from Daniel and Revelation. Christ the triumphant King robed in majesty, coming at the end of time to judge the world – coming with dominion, glory, and kingship, bringing an everlasting reign, a kingdom that shall not pass away. THAT’s the king we long for – a king triumphant over all earthly kings, all-powerful and just, bringing salvation to all true believers. Christ OUR King will RULE for all time.

There is great power and comfort in that image of Christ the King. Too often though we look past the other reality of Christ’s Kingdom and kingship, the very human Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate in John’s Gospel today. Pilate, like many of Christ’s supporters at the time is perplexed and trying to understand, and he asks flat out, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Because Pilate’s a politician - he understands earthly power, the dominion and authority of being king over a people. But Jesus professes a different kind of kingship, a kingdom not of this world. And Pilate, like many of the Jews, is stymied

This is the other side of Christ’s kingship, the kingship for which he came into the world – a kingship of truth, service, and sacrifice. It stands our idea of triumphant kingship on its head, because it is rooted not in physical power, armies, or brute force, but in unbounded love and complete self-giving to others.

Unlike the “end of times” majestic, triumphant king in our first readings, this is Christ the King for US in the here and now. As Christ tells Pilate, this is the kingship for which he came into the world – to testify, to bear witness, to the truth. A bit later Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” But we, the people of Christ, KNOW the answer to that question. Christ our King has shown us by his life and his teachings. “Love God with your whole heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” Christ’s truth is all around us. We see it when someone reaches out to the needy or feeds a hungry person. We embrace it in the love and caring we foster in our families. And we support it when we take a stand against injustice or ignorance.

We have been called to build Christ’s kingdom not in some future state, but here and now. To do that we need to:

1. Take a hard look at our commitment to Christ in our lives. Are we Christ centered, or do we try to fit him in when it fits our schedule? Our lives are busy, with calendars jammed and way too many demands on our time. But unless and until we give Christ center stage in our daily lives, we’ll be hard pressed to begin to build his kingdom.

2. Surrender to the will of God – Many of us are old enough to remember WWJD – “What Would Jesus Do?” It was mostly a Protestant thing, but it’s not a bad mantra for figuring out how to live our lives. Because until we’re willing to let go of our ego a bit, we’re NOT going to be open to doing God’s will. John the Baptist said it pretty well in the third chapter of John’s Gospel – “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

3. We need to become Christ’s hands and feet. Jesus’ ministry was all about meeting the needs of others. Jesus showed us how to be a servant-leader – feeding the hungry, comforting the sick, ministering to the sorrowful. He is calling us to continue his ministry in our world today. Because as we know from Matthew’s Gospel: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

4. And finally, we need to live in Christ’s love. God’s love for us is unconditional, everlasting, // and completely undeserved. Christ loves us so much that he was willing to DIE for us on the cross– what a wonderful gift! But more than a gift, Christ’s love // is a LOAN. Christ showers down his love upon us, but he calls us to be a pipeline for that love rather than a bucket, because only by sharing that love do we cause it to take root and grow.

Christ the King is calling us to become his kingdom TODAY by bearing witness to the truth – about God and his unbounded love for his people; about us; about who we are, and who we are called to be. Through this feast, Jesus is calling us to share not only in his witness today, but in his ultimatevictory at the end of days. Because where we stand when Christ our King returns in glory will depend on how well we help build his kingdom today.