- My kingdom is not of this world, says Jesus.
- His kingship is different.
- I wonder what you think of when you hear the word “King”?
- Classic conception of kingship, with absolute power and authority?
- Constitutional monarch – a figurehead?
- Jesus’ kingship is very different. It’s not of this world. And today we celebrate Christ the King, divine Lord and ruler, from whom the authority of all other kings ultimately derives.
- Remember the prayer: So rule the heart of thy chosen servant CHARLES, our King and Governor, that he (knowing whose minister he is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory: and that we and all his subjects (duly considering whose authority he hath) may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey him.
- So what does the kingship of Jesus look like?
- Let’s look at a few themes from today:
- Firstly, there’s something about truth.
- It’s not explicitly linked, but it’s implied that part of the kingship of Christ is to testify to the truth.
- His kingdom is marked not by dissembling or cloaking the truth, but by testifying to the truth. To declaring that which is right.
- My favourite quote from the prophet Jeremiah is his challenge to Shallum, son of the good king Josiah. He says in Ch 22:
- Are you a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well.
- Is not this to know me? says the Lord.
- Kingship is not about the accumulation of fine cedar or other wealth. Josiah executed justice and righteousness as naturally as he ate and drank. Then is was well with him.
- Unimpaired truth-telling is central to the kingdom of Jesus.
- We get the same in Isaiah 11, the shoot that shall come from the stump of Jesse (that is, Jesus) shall not judge by what his eyes see
or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth.
- Truth is at the heart of Jesus kingdom.
- This feels particularly relevant at the moment. If we, the church, are the first fruits of the new kingdom of God, then one of our hallmarks should be our ability to face the truth about ourselves and about others.
- This is not about casting blame, or making scapegoats, but seeking to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves and others in a way that glorifies God.
- The next thing I want to say about the kingship of Jesus relates to permanence.
- It’s there in the Revelation reading: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God
- Who is and who was and who is to come.
- The kingship of Jesus has a sense of permanence about it.
- He is the beginning and the end. The first and the last.
- Who was, and is, and is to come.
- God has always been, is now, and will always be.
- In some sense the kingdom of God is much the same, although we do not always recognise it as such.
- As Daniel’s vision puts it: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.”
- In a world where rules rise and fall; some are good, some are less so; the vision of an eternal kingdom, with truth at the centre, is a heartening one in uncertain times.
- Finally, there is something about loving service in the kingdom of God.
- As St John recalls in the Revelation, our Lord Jesus is not one who is far away and distant.
- He is the one “who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood…”
- Our King Jesus is not a tyrant, a distant overlord who uses his subjects as pawns in a power game.
- We have a king who loves us, to the point of shedding his own blood for us on the cross.
- We have a king who cares for us, to the point of defeating death at Easter
- We have a king who serves us, now by clinging to equality with God, but by coming in the form of a servant.
- I think one of the reasons the late QEII was so loved and admired was because people felt that she genuinely cared for her people.
- We have a king who loves us and demonstrated his love on the cross.
- Truth. Permanence. Loving service.
- There is more that could be said, but these are three aspects of Christ’s kingship we can rightly give thanks for today.
- And as the body of Christ, seeking to grow Christ’s kingdom on earth, these are three things we can seek to build upon.
- Honesty. Truth. Hard as it may be.
- Permanence – our worship, this building, a continuous community for many hundreds of years. This speaks to the world of God’s permanence.
- But it’s also worship and community built on loving service to those around.
- People will glimpse the kingdom of God as you serve them lovingly.
- Give thanks for Christ’s kingdom, and do your bit as his ambassador!
M.B.