For a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll wrote Through the Looking Glass. One verse of his unusual poetry comes to mind as I think of today’s feast.
“The time has come,” the walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes –and ships –and sealing wax
Of cabbages –and kings,
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings.”
Perhaps some day the sea will be boiling hot or genetic engineering may create pigs with wings but those topics aren’t relevant to us here and now. Rather, the time has come for us to talk about kings, namely a certain king, the one who calls himself the alpha and the omega, “the one who is, and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”
Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 when Europe was in real political upheaval; a time of disillusionment was sweeping the continent after WWI that led to fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and communism in Russia. The Holy Father’s motive was to remind us that Jesus Christ is our ultimate leader, king of the kingdom of peace and justice. No other king will defeat the evil in our midst or succeed in bringing us lasting peace.
Admittedly, the idea of Jesus Christ as a king is too foreign for some of us to grasp. After all, we overthrew a monarchy in our quest for independence, opting for democracy instead. Our nation does not have a monarchy, per se, but it has struggled with presidents who have at times proven to be self-serving rather than serving.
While Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin are long gone, greed, egotism, and hunger for ultimate power are not.
So, what comes to mind when you think of kings? Henry VIII? Louis XVI? Macbeth? King Lear? David of the Old Testament? King Arthur and his round table? Old King Cole? Burger King? The King of Rock, Elvis Presley? Whatever comes to mind matters, for your notion of king influences your reaction to viewing Jesus as Christ the King.
The conversation Jesus has with Pilate in the gospel is perhaps one of the most significant ones in the Bible. Throughout the ages, Christians have used this to better understand how Jesus viewed himself.
Pilate kept searching for the truth by asking many questions. “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus evades the question with one of his own. In turn, Pilate finally asks, “What have you done?” Again, Jesus sidesteps the matter, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” “Ah, then you are a king?” Pilate asks. Jesus replies, “You say I am a king…”
Pilate questions Jesus, wondering if he is about to mount an insurrection against the Romans. While he doesn’t deny that he is a king, Jesus explains that he is a king in a manner Pontius Pilate or any of his critics or other contemporaries cannot comprehend.
Repeatedly through the use of parables, Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, telling us that the reign of God is like yeast…a mustard seed….leaven…a treasure hidden in a field.
For Jesus, kingship does not mean political power or clout, certainly not in the manner that any king in history has welded power. Yet we are still dealing with authority here. Are we allowing Jesus to rule us, that is, be the foundation for our lives?
Jesus said to Pilate, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” He is saying the same thing to us today. That, as we well know, cannot be said of earthly leaders. If truth really matters to us, Jesus is the king we want in our lives.
Those who ignore the truth fail to see the harm of sin in our midst. They see God’s moral wisdom as being negotiable and arbitrary. So long as they fail to see the truth of his teachings or refuse to heed them, however unpleasant that truth may be, they really can’t profess Jesus as their king. On the other hand, if they were to accept Jesus as their king, they could see the wisdom he offers us as the means to attain the peace and justice they yearn for.
To achieve the goal of bringing us into the kingdom of God, that is, salvation, Jesus conquered the three powers in our midst that have terrorized humanity from the very beginning: Satan, sin, and death.
The bottom line for all Christians is this: we are subjects of Christ our king to the extent that we acknowledge him as the lord of our lives. If we let God shape our free will then we are allowing Christ to rule over us. Until then, the real kings who assert influence in our lives are likely to be those whom Jesus came to conquer: Satan, sin and death. I suggest that we think of Jesus as the king of hearts. Recognize him as the one to whom you ultimately belong. Allow him to be the foundation upon which you can build a better life for yourself. After all, he draws us into himself with nothing less than love. Can any other king make such a claim?