Today, we are celebrating the Reign of Christ – the last Sunday of the liturgical season of Pentecost, also the end of our Church year. The Pentecostal season begins with the Day of Pentecost; the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the power of God upon the disciples of Jesus. The subsequent Sundays after Pentecost emphasize the growth and nurture of the faith community. Now, it ends with the Reign of Christ or otherwise known as the feast of Christ the King, again reaffirming the Lordship of Christ and the empowering of his followers for ministry. As in the end of sports season with the excitement of playoffs and championship series, the end of our church season also calls for joyful celebration and victory dance.
From today’s Epistle reading (Colossians 1:11-20), we have an ancient and magnificent hymn praising the identity and status of Christ Jesus: He is the image of the invisible God, a reflection of eternal light, making God visible to us. For no one has seen God, but Christ reveals God to us that God indeed is love. The pre-existent Christ is at the head of the created order, and the incarnate Christ is also the first-born from the dead, he also stands at the head of the “new creation”. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He becomes the full embodiment of God’s own presence: God’s complete being and identity came to dwell in the person of Christ Jesus – that is the mystery of the incarnation we will celebrate once more in the season of Christmas.
Given this description from Colossians 1, the question still remains, “How can we speak of the kingship or the reign of Christ?” Human language has its limitation; it is inadequate to express the idea of the power, sovereignty, supremacy, lordship and majesty of Christ. All those big, fancy words mean one thing in simple, everyday term: that Christ is Number One!
Being Number One in Biblical times was understood to be like a king with absolute power to rule over the people. God was seen at best to be a benevolent dictator. However, in our modern Western world, we do not have the same kind of absolute power of the monarchy. The authority and power of presidents and prime ministers are controlled by varying degrees of checks and balances in modern democracy. On the other hand, we may relate more readily to being “Number One” in the world of sports: being in first place, the world champion of whatever competitions, the Gold Medal winner, and simply the best of the best in the world.
These days, in Canada and other parts of the world, Christians are careful not to sound too triumphant in our expression of faith. We are encouraged to engage in inter-faith dialogues and appreciate the other faiths and religions, working toward common ground and mutual understanding. It is harder to even reclaim Christmas among the non-specific “happy holiday” greetings. We should certainly not offend others, but how do we hold on to what is unique to our faith and treasure it? Is Jesus one of the many ways to knowing and understanding God or is He the only way? If we allow the possibility of “other ways”, how do we make sense of the Colossians passage before us?
To make matter worse, the revised lectionary throws in an unlikely passage from Luke 23:33-43 as today’s Gospel reading. At first sight, one may wonder why this was chosen. We are brought back to the middle of the Good Friday story of the crucifixion! It is like singing a Christmas song "It's a wonderful time of the year" in the middle of August for the back-to-school sale. This is far removed from the triumphant hymn of Colossians 1. The one connection you may spot is the mocking of the soldiers, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” For there was an inscription on the cross over him that was written, “This is the King of the Jews.” Others, including one of the criminals who was crucified with Jesus, also derided him and said, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” If you have not noticed how familiar it sounds – that essentially is the same temptation of Jesus earlier by the devil – to avoid the pain and suffering of the cross.
What kind of a King would be found on the cross dying with other condemned criminals? What kind of a Messiah who came to save others but could not save himself? Perhaps that provides us with the key to understanding the mystery and the true meaning of the Reign of Christ. This King is different from all the others; this Messiah is not the same as the one people had expected.
Luke provides us with a completely different perspective through the confession of the other criminal. He admitted his guilt and confessed that crucifixion was a just punishment for him. But he pointed out the innocence of Jesus. In a great act of faith, he asked: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom/power/reign.” At that moment, Jesus was dying on the cross. To everyone there, this king and his kingdom were coming to a tragic end. The execution was meant to destroy this king. Jesus was dying, yet the criminal had the faith to see beyond that and believe that Jesus could remember him. He had the faith to believe that Jesus is the one who will somehow rule as King. This criminal’s request unfolds the mystery of God’s power to rule the universe through Jesus dying on a cross. There was no resurrection yet. From this last-minute convert’s point of view, he was able to see through the eyes of faith that this dying Jesus will rule as King one day! Will we have the same faith, in the midst of death and despair before the dawn of new life, to see beyond and above all that, the coming kingdom and reign of Christ?
It is in the scandal of the cross and the innocent suffering that we discover the true meaning of the reign of Christ. Being Number One does not mean Jesus went out to conquer and destroy all his competitors and enemies. The Prince of Peace shows us a different kind of power – the power to love, the power to nurture, the power to make peace, the power to build up and unite, the power to empower others, the power to serve, the power to give life, the power to set free, the power to heal and reconcile!
Being Number One has to do with the willingness of this Good Shepherd who came and lay down his life for his sheep so that they may have life, and have it abundantly! Being Number One has to do with the divine love of self sacrifice and servanthood. That is the uniqueness of the Gospel of Christ. Other religions do not have a God of Love who is willing to die for a sinful and broken world in order to save it and redeem it. Find me another saviour who would offer forgiveness to those who killed him: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Forgiveness, not revenge or vengeance, is the final word! Pardon and absolution, not just dessert and punishment, are the final offer from a merciful God. That offer of forgiveness was scandalous enough for the early church that it was actually left out in some of the manuscripts. Yet, deep in the heart of God, we find such grace, mercy and forgiveness for all sinners, including you and me. Without this sacrificial love of God shown in Christ Jesus, we have no hope of salvation at all.
Some of us are lucky to have loving and forgiving parents and other significant adults of influence in our upbringing. Their love and forgiveness hopefully have not spoiled us but given us life and vitality. Others are not as fortunate to have such loving and forgiving parental figures. Our understanding and concepts of God may or may not have anything to do with those parental figures. There is a story:
Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, “What do you think about all this Satan stuff?” The other boy replied,
"Well, don’t worry; you know how Santa Claus turned out. It’s probably just your Dad anyway."
Perhaps it is up to us Christians to model our concepts and beliefs of God to the rest of the world. What kind of God, what kind of king or messiah we truly believe in will affect the way we show the world in the way we live our lives. Yet, we are still learning. We are the followers of Jesus the messiah who comes to show us how much God loves us. We do not know how to love in the first place, unless we are able to experience and receive that love ourselves. That is the challenge of our faith community! That is also the reality in which we joyfully live out the reign of Christ in our midst!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Fr Victor Li
www.stjd.ca Church of St John the Divine
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