Christ The King Sunday

"The King on a Cross"

Luke 23:33-43

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday in the liturgical year. Next Sunday, Advent begins the new church year. So today we consider one of the titles given to Christ - that of “king”.

The Gospel lesson today is at the crucifixion near the end of Luke’s account of the life of Christ. It may seem like a strange text for the last Sunday of the year, but it does help us reflect on who Jesus is and who we are  - we who want to be disciples of this king who met his death on a cross.

Let us listen for God’s Word to us. Read Luke 23.

As Americans, we don’t have much personal experience with kings and queens. We seem to have an unusual interest in the British Royal family, but only from afar. When it comes to actually knowing what it would be like to live under the rule of a king, we just don’t have any experience. So when we think of Christ as king, that may be a bit confusing or difficult.

But the people in the text we read today also were having difficulties with the title. Pilate had a sign hung over Jesus’ head that read, “This is the King of the Jews.” The gospel of John says that the inscription was written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew so that all could read it.

Three different times, Jesus is confronted because of that title. The leaders scoffed and said, “He saved others, if he is the Messiah, God’s chosen one, let him save himself!” The soldiers also mocked, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”

Two men were crucified on each side of Jesus. One of them took up the scoffing too. “Are you not the Messiah! Save yourself and us!”

What kind of a king are you anyway, Jesus? What kind of a king does not use power and influence and connections to get himself out of these circumstances? Why don’t you save yourself? But even more than that, why don’t you save us from this suffering, from these circumstances?

Now, most of us will have to admit that we have some of those same questions. And we may have discovered that we don’t ever get many answers to most of our “why” questions. But the scoffers’ questions do put us in the center of this scene at the cross where the one who announced that the kingdom of God has come near now hangs dying.

This scene at the cross places us in the very heart of the mystery of the love of God shown to the world through Christ. God chose to become flesh and dwell among us. God chose to bear everything we as humans bear. God chose to face suffering, and take it into God’s own self. We will never be able to fully understand this mystery, this immeasurable kind of love. All those who are scoffing at Jesus on the cross certainly do not understand.

The second thief crucified beside Jesus, however, seems to get a glimpse into this mystery. After the first thief derides Jesus, he says to him, “Look, we are just getting what we deserve for the wrongs we have done. But this man has done nothing.”  And then he turns to Jesus, and he calls him not by any title, but by name, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This man had heard Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Perhaps he even knew something of Jesus’ teachings and realized that Jesus was enacting what he had taught so often. “But I say to you, love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who abuse you…Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:27,28,37)

This second thief recognizes that the kingdom of which Jesus speaks is not like the kingdoms of our world. Perhaps this thief is the only one who understands the true kingship of Jesus. And so he asks Jesus to remember him, and he receives so much more. He knows very little about this mysterious kingdom, and yet he is willing to trust himself to it completely. He is willing to trust this very different kind of king completely, and place his life into the hands of Christ.

Perhaps we are sometimes like the scoffers in this story, looking for God’s kingdom in the wrong places. We look for power, authority, control, but all the while, God’s kingdom comes in forgiveness, in mercy, in love.

On the cross, Jesus asks forgiveness for those who had just driven the nails into his hands and feet. This one act may tell us more about Jesus than any other act. We see Jesus doing something that try as we might, as individuals, as churches, and nations, we find impossible to do – to truly forgive those who wound us most deeply. But we also see, at this moment, Jesus never abandons those he came to save, never forgets the message of grace and redemption he came to proclaim. Even here in the final moments of his life, his thoughts are for others, not for himself.

We see Jesus forgive those who, in our eyes, seem to deserve it the least. They do not believe, they do not confess. And none of that matters. Jesus asks nothing of them. Jesus offers a gift of himself. And in that moment, we know that the same gift is offered to us. Even when we do not ask, even when we do not recognize our wrongdoing. We are a forgiven people!

And so in this text which seems a bit strange for Christ the King Sunday, we can reflect on the past year and what we have learned about our life in Christ. We can examine our own discipleship, our work, our service, our prayer life, the work we have done toward forgiving others. Today, we ask how willing we are, like that thief beside Jesus, to put our lives into his hands.

And then next Sunday we begin our Advent journey. We begin again to learn of Christ as one who comes in love to share our life, our joys and our suffering.

Perhaps, today we have been given a far-reaching view of the message of salvation that Jesus comes to proclaim – both in his ministry and in his death and resurrection. Here at the end of Jesus’ earthly life, Luke lets us see just how far God’s love for the world extends: even to the one hanging next to Jesus on a cross of his own, even to those with hammers in their hands who have made his death a reality, and even to us.

In the midst of our sin, in the midst of our blindness to God’s presence, Christ still comes, bearing a word of forgiveness and a promise for new life, the gift of salvation both now and forever. Amen.