Jesus is (what kind of) King?

Christ the King Sunday

We remember today and Christ is King. And we turn to the Scriptures asking “What kind of King is King Jesus?”

Two readings today - one from Ezekiel the prophet, and one from the Gospel of Matthew. In both cases, we hear God speak.

In Ezekiel, God is addressing his children who are in exile and wondering what on earth has gone wrong. God, through the prophet, is reminding them that their Shepherd is good and trustworthy - and still present.

In Matthew, we hear Jesus, the Incarnate God, teach his followers that small actions will matter in the Kingdom of God.

Two reminders that “the people of Israel” in Scripture is not the same thing as the modern day state of Israel. In light of all that is going on our in our world right now, it is more important than ever to make sure that we do not fall into oversimplifications and false equivalencies.

Second reminder: we will hear talk of “shepherds” in our Old Testament reading = which is a way of saying “king” or national leaders in the ANE. The kings have neglected the weak and failed to restrain the strong. The kings have been irresponsible shepherds. God doesn’t feel good about this ... God is angry.

Stephen & Lorina, will you come and read for us?

Please stand.

[reading]

Ideal circumstances. Or even just “normal” circumstances.

I don’t know about you, but in my life, I often wonder what God thinks of a particular situation...and with the prophets, we get to hear it. And when we get an answer, it can be uncomfortable and confusing.

I am more comfortable with addressing God in praise, gratitude, confession, questioning and complaint. Speaking my thoughts and questions. But when the Holy One speaks back to us, it is disconcerting.

We open up a book like Ezekiel and we meet a pretty strange guy who God asks to do some pretty strange things and for reasons that are unclear.

And then God speaks a lot of judgment. The people have been unfaithful The first 24 chapters of Ezekiel are repetitive... the message keeps coming over and over and over again: “Jerusalem will fall to the Babylonians”.

By the time we get to chapter 34, it is 587 BC, and Jerusalem has indeed fallen after a two year siege.

The people have been forced from their homes in three deportations to Mesopotamia.

So God, through Ezekiel, is addressing a people in exile. They must be remembering all the warnings from the first 24 chapters.

They must be thinking that they’ve missed their chance for salvation.

God tried to get their attention and they did not listen.

They need to hear what God is thinking about their situation.

They need the prophet to help them re-imagine their future.

Left on their own, they are displaced, dejected and disillusioned.

They are also clearly in danger.

Like refugees all through history, the children of Israel are living in a refugee camp in the valley of the shadow of death.

Less than ideal.

When things are “less-than-ideal” … we wonder whether God is taking care of us.

And we may struggle to trust that THIS is the right path.

Like the people of Israel, we may be able to trace

how the circumstances in which we find ourselves

are the result of our own choices (good and bad),

the choices of others, (again, good or bad)

and the harder to see systems and institutions that impact our communal life,

whether at a local, national or global level.

But also, like the people of Israel, we can listen for God’s voice.

This week, as we take a closer look at Ezekiel 34, God is addressing people

who are in less-than-ideal circumstances.

Terrible, in fact.

Understandably, the people of Israel are in desperate need of reassurance that God, the ideal Shepherd, is still taking care of them.

Much like those to whom this prophecy was first addressed,

we too find ourselves in less than ideal circumstances,

questioning whether God is taking care of us

and finding it difficult to trust that we are on the right path.

But into less-than-ideal circumstances, God speaks and says:

You are Mine. You live in My world. And I am yours.

The people who first heard these words

are coming to terms with their own part in their exile,

that is, exile as judgment for their disobedience.

God, through Ezekiel,

tells them all the different ways they have been unfaithful,

allowing idolatry in the temple,

rebelling against God.

But the people who first heard these words are also coming to terms with the ways in which their national leaders

have contributed to their wanderings from the True God.

People they trusted.

People who had a God-given role

to help and lead and take care of them.

The people of Israel are in exile.

Driven from their land and their homes by an exploitative monarchy.

The same monarchy they had asked God for.

In 1 Samuel 8, we read of the people of Israel

speaking to the aging prophet Samuel,

who had led them by God’s word for so many years.

They are asking, begging for a king.

And God tells Samuel, who is upset by their request,

that it is not Samuel they are rejecting, but God.

Until now, God Himself has been the ruler.

God has been the king.

God has been the shepherd of these people.

But God gives them what they want.

And what follows is civil war and division

and a long list of kings.

Kings who rule in a variety of ways, but who all fail in some way, some of them quite spectacularly.

-There were conservative kings, liberal kings,

even a couple of NDP & Green kings ☺

Kings who, even if they manage to follow God to some degree, ended up serving themselves above their subjects. They turn out to be not very good shepherds, who consistently neglect the weak and fail to restrain the strong.

And now the people of Israel are wondering why they are in exile

and whether God has anything good for them in the future.

Through Ezekiel, God speaks. He tells it like it is. He lets us know what He thinks about the situation, and what He intends to do about it.

Looking at the text, there are four sections to this chapter:

-vs 11-16 a word of judgment and a word of salvation

-vs 20-24 an announcement of salvation and a promise of a single shepherd

About the shepherds or national leaders, God says,

They have not fed the sheep. They have not strengthened the weak. They have not healed the sick. They have not bound up the injured. They have not brought back the stray. They have not searched for the lost. And in case we missed how this makes God feel, He’s pretty explicit: I am against them. I will remove them from tending my flock. They’re fired. I will hold them accountable. They won’t get away with this.

And then, what follows is an overwhelming expression of what God’s intentions are. Of how the Divine character expresses itself in the face of such failure...

In verse 11, we read two important words… “I myself…” And then in next five verses we are bombarded with promises:

I will be the shepherd.

I will search for the sheep.

I will look after them.

I will rescue them from all the places to which they’ve been scattered.

I will bring them out.

I will gather them.

I will bring them into their own land.

I will pasture them.

I will tend them in a good pasture.

I will tend God’s sheep and have them lie down.

I will search for the lost.

I will bring back the strays.

I will bind up the injured.

I will strengthen the weak.

I will shepherd the flock with justice.

These statements are not just a description of what a good shepherd would do, these are a direct description of the Divine character.

This describes WHO God is. And we see it in the best revelation of who God is…

-we can see Jesus,

gathering to Himself those pushed to the margins of society

by disease and infirmity and social rejection;

cleansing lepers, restoring sight, enabling a lame man to walk,

eating with ‘sinners’

-and again, we see Jesus

feeding the five thousand with just a few loaves and fishes,

we see Him reclaiming Sabbath as a place of restoration and healing and re-creation

-And we hear Jesus ask,

“Who among you can cast the first stone?”

bringing mercy for a woman condemned.

We hear Jesus call up to Zaccheus the tax collector,

“Come down, Zaccheus. I must stay at your house!”

“Give Me a drink,” we hear Him say to the woman at the well, beginning a real conversation about her less than ideal situation.

In verse 20, we hear the same two words that we heard in verse 11. “I myself…”

I will judge.

I will save my flock and they will no longer be plundered.

The words of judgment are again set right next to an announcement of salvation. All is not lost.

Here we reach the apex of the chapter: in vs 23-24 we hear the promise in a nutshell…salvation is in God alone.

“I will place over them ONE SHEPHERD.

My servant David will be prince among them.”

This phrase “My servant David” is a way of pointing to the Messiah. The Son of David.

The One who was to come from city of David.

The Holy One is pointing His people towards a time

when the Messiah would come and reign

as the Good Shepherd-King.

We hear in this an echo of John 10 in which we hear Jesus say:

“I am the Good Shepherd.

I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”

God promises one shepherd.

God promises that He will come and be the Shepherd

that will embody God’s description of what a good shepherd is.

And indeed, we see these things in the life of Jesus. We see the Shepherd-King in action in Immanuel, God with Us. God made flesh. (cue Advent. cue Christmas. This is WHO we are waiting for!)

In the life of Jesus as recorded for us in the gospels, we read account after account of Jesus doing just what He announces in the beginning of His ministry.

In Luke 4, we hear Jesus quote from Isaiah, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because He has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners,

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

And then Jesus does heal all kinds of people from all kinds of diseases.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does set people free from all sorts of prisons.

He raises the dead.

He restores people to society

after they’ve been scattered to the margins

by disease and infirmity.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does call people to follow Him.

To turn their backs on their known ways of life and go with Him to search for the lost and bring back the strays.

He eats meals with people society has deemed ‘unworthy’ –

in their own homes!

He tells stories. Lots and lots of stories.

Because the Kingdom He brings is so unlike any kingdom we know.

And then, in an ultimate display of what a good Shepherd-king does, He lays His life down for His sheep.

And why?

Why does this act of the Shepherd-King so perfectly depict who God is? Why does the cross occupy such a central place in the revelation of God’s character?

Because of God’s great desire that the Created order exist in a way that relates rightly.

And Matthew 25 reminds us that this is going to include small actions like a cup of water. Clothes for those who don’t have what they need. Food for the hungry. Paying attention to the lack of others. And discovering that we meet Jesus in the faces of those we are given the opportunity to serve.

A different kind of King. And thus a different kind of Kingdom.

Jesus demonstrates how and invites us to participate in this different kind of Kingdom. How does it happen?

It happens when power and privilege and rights to power are laid down.

It happens when dignity is seen in the face of those on the margins. (Those we marginalize!)

It happens when our everyday living is marked by right relationships

Right relationship with the God who is the Creator and Sustainer of our universe,

Right relationships with the people with whom we live,

and right relationships with/to the places where we live.

And so, on this Christ the King Sunday…

We are God’s sheep. We live in God’s world. And God is ours. Because God gives Himself to us.

Can you hear the Holy One speak into your life right now

into your own particular version of less-than-ideal

into your less-than-ideal health scenario or mental health scenario

into your less-than-ideal relational realities?

into your less-than-ideal marriage or family situation

into your less-than-ideal job situation?

into our less-than-ideal national and international political situation?

into our less-than-ideal church situation?

Can you hear God saying,

You are Mine.

You are my sheep.

You live in My world.

You are the sheep of My pasture.

And I myself am yours.

I am your God.

And being God means giving myself away.

I long to give you Myself.

The prophets give us a glimpse of what God things.

And it can be uncomfortable and confusing.

But, we need not fear, for even proclamations of judgment and accusation contain words of salvation.

And so we are assured that:

Christ is King.

And He is a the One true Shepherd-King.

And His kingdom is full of goodness and justice.

We belong to God.

We live in God’s world.

God gives us Himself.

And so we can live lives of openhanded generosity. Eyes open to seeing the needs of others.

Amen.