Christ the King
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The Gospel of John records the words written above the cross on which Jesus died. It read: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this sign…but the chief Priests protested to Pilate: “Do not write “the King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered: “What I have written I have written.”
When we think of Jesus as king, we don’t think of a particular geographical location - His kingdom is not like a kingdom as we think of kingdoms on earth. I think rather of the massive choirs and orchestras that perform Handel’s Messiah, proclaiming Jesus “King of kings and Lord of Lords”.. and declares “He shall reign forever and ever!”
Next Sunday is the beginning of the church year as we will be celebrating Advent. We have devotional guides available for $6/each.
Today, though, is the Last Sunday in the Church Calendar. It is known as Christ the King Sunday. From the beginning of the church year last December 2019, this has been a very unusual year. We have been sheltering in. Worried about shortages of toilet paper, shortages of food. Worried about the election results. Worried about whether we should get together for in person worship services, or birthdays or family holidays. The question every church continues to deal with is: “How can we stay safe and still worship our Lord and King as a community.
We have talked about how strange 2020 has been throughout this year, and there has been all kinds of complaining about 2020. And now, this week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. It may not look like our normal Thanksgivings - as with most things this year, plans are tentative, and we are all trying to figure out how we proceed. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to check out the Global service of thanks that our General Superintendents have put together. There is a link to it on our Facebook page, and the service will be repeated every hour until, I believe 5:00 this afternoon.
Whether we have much in terms of this world’s goods or little, we still have much to be thankful for. We have a Savior that gave His life for our salvation and throughout this year, we have reminded one another that He is on the throne. No matter what we experience, He is on the throne. I heard people use that phrase as we got close to the election, no matter who gets elected, I heard people say, Christ is still on the throne. We use that phrase to somehow encourage each other when we are going through difficult days, but what does that mean for the way we live our lives?
”What we don’t like to admit - in fact, we would like to forget that:
Christ was on the throne during the Rwandan Genocide.
Christ was on the throne during the holocaust.
Christ was on the throne during chemical warfare of WWI.
Christ was on the throne during the period of slavery in our own nation.
The truth is that, since God has given people freedom to choose, we sometimes see negative results. Christ is on the throne, but people don’t honor Him as King. My fear is that sometimes when we say Christ is on the throne, we can do it in order to release ourselves from responsibility to do what we can to make this world a better place. We have a responsibility as Kingdom of Heaven people to do good for those who have less to be thankful for than we do. What does Jesus say about our responsibility to care for those around us who are hurting?
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Wait a minute! I thought heaven was for those who by grace have been saved. Is Jesus saying that we earn our salvation by caring for the hungry and thirsty, for those without adequate clothing and those that are in prison? Is He forgetting that we said the prayer - we repeated the words and accepted Jesus’ offer of forgiveness? Isn’t that all that we really need to get into heaven? How will He decide when He sits on the judgement seat as King of Kings and Lord of Lords? How will He determine who are the sheep and who are the goats? Clearly, the desire is that we will be one of the sheep, because these are the ones that Jesus will welcome into the Kingdom of heaven - the kingdom prepared for them, He says from the foundation of the world.
What I find interesting is that neither the sheep nor the goats in this parable recognize that they have done what Jesus says they have done. Neither of them had the self-awareness to realize that they were doing these things. The righteous asked,
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
They were oblivious to what they had done.
Likewise, the cursed ones responded:
44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
They were equally oblivious to what they hadn’t done.
What Jesus seems to be saying here is that there is more to being part of the kingdom of heaven than saying a prayer and attending church. Holiness involves more than personal piety like reading your bible, returning God’s tithe and coming to church or watching the church service online. It even involves more than prayer. I am not saying it doesn’t involve those things, it absolutely does, but By Jesus’ definition here, holiness also involves caring for the outcasts, the strangers, the refugees, and those in prison, and if we are truly followers of Christ, we will do these things because it is second nature, sometimes not even realizing that we are doing those things. But they can be used as a measure for us to consider whether we are truly His sheep or if we are goats that will be turned away.
Matthew West has a song that he released a few years ago called “Do Something” that captures our responsibility as members of the kingdom of heaven to care for our world.
I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now, thought
How'd we ever get so far down, and
How's it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, "God, why don't You do something?"
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, "God, why don't You do something?"
He said, "I did, yeah, I created you" (now listen)
If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it's time for us to do something, yeah
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh, it's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something
I'm so tired of talking about
How we are God's hands and feet
But it's easier to say than to be
Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves
It's alright, "somebody else will do something"
Well, I don't know about you
But I'm sick and tired of life with no desire
I don't want a flame, I want a fire and
I wanna be the one who stands up and says
"I'm gonna do something"
If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it's time for us to do something, yes it is, come on
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh oh, it's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something
We are the salt of the earth
We are a city on a hill
We're never gonna change the world
By standing still
No, we won't stand still
If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now
It's time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something