This is the last Sunday of this church year, the last Sunday of what’s known as ‘Ordinary Time’ and in Anglican churches we mark this day as ‘The Reign of Christ’ also known in some other Christian traditions as ‘Christ the King’ Sunday. “In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted a new liturgical observance, the Feast of Christ the King. The Pope felt that the followers of Christ were being lured away by the increasing secularism of the world. They were choosing to live in the “kingdom” of the world rather than in the reign of God.” [1]This special feast day was “instituted to celebrate the all-embracing authority of Christ”[2], and the Anglican Church agreed in principle with the idea and so adopted it. “Since 1970 (the Reign of Christ Feast Day) has been kept on the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent.”[3] The change in this last Sunday of our liturgical year was adopted into the BAS, and I daresay for many of us here, it seems like we’ve always celebrated the Reign of Christ Sunday on the last Sunday before Advent. Christ as King is depicted in statuary and iconography in Roman Catholic Churches. While Anglicans aren’t big on statuary, you do find stained glass windows in our churches with images of Jesus wearing a crown. St. James in Hanover had one behind the altar.
What is the image that comes to mind for you, when you imagine Jesus? Is he wearing a crown and holding a sceptre? It’s not the first image that comes to my mind. In fact, it’s not one I’m really comfortable with, if I’m honest. It seems to be to be rather incongruous, turning Jesus into an earthly masculine ruler, complete with all the historical and present day baggage that brings—the issues of authoritarian monarchies or rulers with governments controlling people for personal and financial gain, war-mongering, elitism—all the things Jesus preached against. This seems so inconsistent with the itinerant preacher who preached selfless servant-hood and who told more parables about the problems that money brings than any other topic except God’s kingdom. And then I wondered if that’s why Anglicans call this Sunday ‘The Reign of Christ’ rather than ‘Christ the King Sunday’. However I was unable to find anything to verify that. Words have power to create images, and both words and images impact how we understand and relate to the subject or object of that image.
There are many other images of Christ I prefer to hold onto, scripture offers us so many; like the vulnerable babe in the manger, the shepherd carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders, the gentle man picking up a child to put on his lap instead of letting the disciples send them away, of the weeping Christ calling Lazarus out of the tomb, the quiet one who was anointed by the woman with the alabaster jar of ointment while telling the ones who were complaining about it to let her be, the teacher explaining his calling as Messiah to the outcast Samaritan woman at the well, or the strong rabbi who overthrew the tables of the market sellers who had turned the sacred space of the Temple into a marketplace. And, of course, the man who accepted a criminal’s death, knowing he was wrong convicted, knowing that was his destiny, trusting that God’s will would be done. And finally, the resurrected Christ reassuring Mary and the other women that yes it really was him, he really was alive, death was not the end—and telling them their role was to go and tell the others.
I understand the image of Christ as King is a concept comes from scriptural references, like we read today, but we people have a way of making everything in our image -- including God, and the image of Christ crowned as our reigning monarchs are crowned, replete with glorious flowing robes could, in my estimation anyway, really do with a re-boot for today’s world. And yes, I get that the intent behind this day—a day to remind Christians of the “all embracing authority of Christ” in an increasingly secular world is still oh so very necessary.
But Jesus preached an entirely different kingdom than the one over which Pilate had so much control. And that’s why Jesus was brought before Pilate. His teachings were a threat to the status quo of those in power in the Jewish temple hierarchy. Jesus taught a different way to live out the ways of the Laws and the Prophets, and he wasn’t shy about calling the temple power brokers out for their hypocrisy and manipulation of the laws to benefit themselves. These are not the ways of God’s kingdom. And even if Jesus walked in Pilate’s world, he was not of that world. Jesus, son of God, the Christ, is the King, but not in the ways of the Kings and Queens of courts and fiefdoms. That’s what he was trying to tell Pilate when Pilate asked him if he is the King of the Jews. I find it interesting that Pilate even asked him that question. He must have heard it from somewhere, because as he tells Jesus, he is not Jewish, so does not understand the intricacies of Jewish life. Although he very clearly understood the power of Empire. He does not understand why the Jewish hierarchy want Jesus crucified; he even asks Jesus what he has done. While Jesus never says to Pilate that he’s a king—to do so would have been to admit to sedition. But he does tell Pilate that his kingdom, his “spiritual dominion”[4] , “the realm in which God's will is fulfilled”[5] is not of this world, the realm in which Pilate lived. Yet Pilate seems to recognize something in what Jesus is saying or maybe needs Jesus to further clarify and he asks: “So you are a king?” Jesus responds, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.” (John 18. 37 NLT) Pilate’s response to Jesus? What is truth? Even Pilate, it seems, wonders about what is true and real. Or maybe he meant is sarcastically? We will never really know. But he seemed to understand that Jesus was not just a regular guy from the Jewish neighbourhood!
Jesus came to testify to the universal, not the temporal truth, to God’s truth, not humanity’s version of truth. And it is that truth that those in power in the Jewish temple and community found subversive, as it threatened their sphere of control. They realize the power that Jesus had, even though Pilate is unable to see it or understand how it could be subversive to Roman rule. That, of course, was Pilate’s role—to maintain the ultimate rule of the Romans over the territory. And an upset Jewish temple hierarchy, railing after the Roman government to crucify one upstart Jewish preacher, well, it was just as easy for Pilate to order him killed to keep peace in the camp, as it were. And this would keep him in the good books with the Romans for whom he worked. Sacrifice one for the peace of all, seemed like a good deal, even though Pilate didn’t see the need of it himself, and literally washes his hands of his own decree.
Clearly Jesus tells Pilate, he is not a King in Pilate’s world. And that is the truth; he was not a King in the politically organized realm of Jewish or Roman territory. Jesus tells Pilate he was born, he came into the world to testify to the truth. And those who recognize Jesus for who he is, the Christ, the son of God, know that truth, listen to his voice, to his teachings and follow them. This is the one whom we follow, the one with truth of God’s Kingdom, the realm in which God’s will is fulfilled. And this is why we have a Sunday to celebrate the Reign of Christ, in God’s Kingdom.
I do think there on this day, there’s an opportunity to consider our images of God and of Jesus, and where they came from. Have your images of Jesus Christ changed since you were a child? We all have an idea, an image a sense within ourselves of who God is, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit—or Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer if you will. And our images come from various sources; things we’ve learned or been taught -- whether from our parents, or Sunday school lessons or sermons, reading the bible and other religious materials, from book and bible studies, movies, stained glass windows and other artwork we’ve seen. This doesn’t mean God changes, or Jesus changes, it’s we who have changed! As our faith matures, as our relationship with the Divine matures, grows, deepens, and we are able to experience God more fully, and more expansive ways. It’s a life-long learning, we can’t possibly ever completely know God, or Christ, or be able to understand the total fullness of the Holy Spirit’s presence. But we can most certainly come to know them better, and increasingly recognize the prodding of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
So we leave this liturgical year with the image of Christ as the King, ruler of our lives, and we enter a new church year with Advent; the time of preparing ourselves for the baby Jesus’ coming into the world, a different image, a vulnerable infant, yet even at his birth, hailed as a King. Amen
[1]Lucy Hind Hogan, commentary for Reign of Christ Sunday from http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3885
accessed Nov. 19.18
[2] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, p. 105
[3] Ibid
[4] Standard College Dictionary Definition from Funk & Wagnalls, 1963 Canadian Edition
[5] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kingdom Accessed November 21.18