Backwards Kingship

from Helen

Sometimes things in life seem backwards or the wrong way around.  Well, Christmas is here ... it’s not, but it is ! I already feel Christmassy, I have started to think about presents, bought Christmas cards and the best bit Father Christmas is everywhere in the shops. And of course, he is coming here on Saturday ! This is so exciting but even though we are not in advent yet, Christmas is coming ! 

How strange then in our gospel reading this morning to hear of the crucifixion. That makes it seem as if Easter is around the corner, and the Church calendar seems to have gone a little bit mad ! But I suspect that the Church is not confused, because actually none of the gospel message can make sense without first of all the crucifixion and then of course the resurrection, and as we move towards advent and Christmas, we remember what our Saviour was actually born for. 

I am sure I am not the only person in this Church this morning who has read a gossip/ celebrity magazine – although I may be the only person daft enough to broadcast that fact. In such magazines people are often judged by their appearance, outfits are shown and some celebrities have headlines underneath such as “what were you thinking?” and then a list is given of all the things wrong with their clothes in the mind of the fashion editor. 

Image is everything, and we all become surprised by famous people who are actually nice people and help others not for fame but just because they want to. Images of people are often portrayed to us, and whether they are correct or not, we are often taken in by them.

In the readings this morning we heard about the image of Jesus, the image of a King, the image of Christ. This morning we celebrate Christ the King, but as we do so we see all the expectations of Kingship squashed. 

When we think of a King we think of someone in a palace, with grand robes who, if we are honest are separate to us, who always go along with social convention. They may upset the media in our country and have questionable friends but they do still seem beyond us. 

When we think of Jesus we think of someone who also had questionable friends - sinners like us. We also think of someone who became one of us, born in a stable who suffered in a way nobody, let alone a King should. We think of One who turned the World upside down, by loving those whom nobody loved, by being different to society as He reached out to those who society would have seen as the untouchables. 

The gospel this morning has reminded us that we worship a King who was crucified, after suffering probably one of the cruellest forms of punishment and death, a death that was for all of us. 

What type of image is that? This is not an image we would automatically associate with a King or even a Saviour, but we do. This all seems a bit backwards. The Saviour of the world a King, majestic in power, who is God, dies in this way. Meekness in suffering for us, in becoming one of us and majesty in being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

In the reading from the epistle to the Colossians we are reminded not only of the Kingship of Jesus but also the fact that He is the exact image of God the Father. Jesus is the image of God and is God. 

  

Christ the King means a different image; not one of Kingship in the ways in which we would assume but rather one of suffering and care. The reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians reminds us of the majesty and wonder of Christ meaning the anointed one, and the gospel shows us that this means that Jesus has become one of us and died for us.

There is a well known modern hymn that sums up well the Kingship of Jesus, and also what our response should be to Him, I would like to read some of the words of this:-

From heav’n you came, helpless babe,

            entered our world, your glory veiled;

not to be served but to serve, and give your life that we might live.

            This is our God, the Servant King, 

            he calls us now to follow him,

            to bring our lives as a daily offering

            of worship to the Servant King

The question is what does this mean to us? As we prepare for Christmas and the beginning of the advent season are we ready to remember all that Jesus has done for us? 

There are three things that I think we can think of. 

Firstly, the fact that Jesus turns everything upside down and is not the King the people were expecting who would defeat the Romans in a mighty battle. Jesus can turn our lives upside down. In ways that we might not expect. We worship a King who tore apart social conventions and offered a better world. This means that it is not only our task to be ready for Jesus to turn our lives upside down though, it means that it is our task to offer a better world. We can do this by reaching out even to those we wouldn’t normally wish to and to offer them in our lives, in the way we behave, the love of Christ. 

Secondly, because Jesus is our king and we worship Him we need to be thankful for all He offers us. The fact that Jesus died and rose again, and is majestic means that we have a King and Saviour we can trust. He has not let us down and He never will, when Jesus makes promises they are real and lasting.

Thirdly, we are privileged, we may not be famous but then we probably wouldn’t like being in magazines having our clothes judged, but, we are people who have met and worship the ultimate, even if unexpected, King.

Our response to all of this can be in the last verse of the hymn the Servant King, and I pray that this will be our goal today, and every day.

So let us learn how to serve,

And in our lives enthrone him;

Each other’s needs to prefer,

For it is Christ we’re serving.

 AMEN