Christ the King, Thirty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr C 2025

Title

He Reigns and Conquers by a Cross

Outline

It is clear that Christ has Kingly Power

He has it by right of being as the image of God, firstborn of all creation, he has it by right of having created all this, he has it by right of being the one in whom “all things hold together.” He has it by right of being the beginning of the new creation, firstborn from the dead. He has it by right of the fullness of divinity dwelling in him. And he has it by right of his being one with us human beings, “We are your bone and flesh,” the fulfillment of what David was in type.

But why is the world by and large still in rebellion against him?

It is because Jesus did not bring the world’s type of peace, which is peace by force, but he “reconcile[d] all things” by his “making peace by the blood of his cross.” not only those on earth, but also those in heaven. He did it the opposite of the world’s way, by reigning from a cross.

So in the Gospel the rulers of the Jews sneered at him, “let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God.” [“save” is a term Luke has a particular interest in.] The soldiers crucifying him “jeered at him” offering him wine in mock homage, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” The inscription on the stick above the cross was a mock title, “King of the Jews.”

But that is how Jesus saves and rules and reconciles

While all that is going on one of the insurrectionists crucified beside him [for he was hanging where their leader Barabbas should have been] “get it” and says, “this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he goes on to say, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus tells him the “when” is “now:” “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” There is the reconciliation of all things, there is peace being made by the blood of the cross, there is the kingdom come, there is the reign of Christ. The insurrectionist “get it” and “receives it.” The respectable folk, loyal to this age, miss it and mock it.

But Jesus is also head of the body the church

We are joined to him and reign with him, just as the insurrectionist who recognized him as king and thereby was joined to him by a common death did. We reign with him by laying down our lives for him and for others, by receiving with him this world’s mockery, by grasping then unseen reality of his being the unites heaven and earth, and thereby partaking in his divine nature by being his body. He then reigns in us unseen and our humiliation becomes our glory just as his did. We reign so long as we do not take up the weapons of this world, of force and power, but instead take up the weapon of the cross while seeing the unseen real.

And that is what our life in Christ the King is all about.