I’d like to share this brief reflection on the strange Feast of Christ the King from Rolf Jacobson, Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary. May your spirit glimpse God’s kingdom coming.
—Rev. Eileen
As I approach Christ the King Sunday and the Scripture texts, my mind is captive to the counter-cultural proclamation of the church that the crucified one reigns. Our job, like the criminal on the cross, is both to recognize Christ as Lord and to seek entry into the kingdom of the crucified.
It is fitting that the church ends its year by announcing the reality of the kingdom of God and lordship of Christ precisely in the midst of a world in which God’s kingdom can seem so far away and in which it so often appears—on the surface—that either nobody rules this sin-broken and burdened world, or some malevolent force does.
But the church’s witness is—counter to what the culture sees—that there is a grace-filled, crucified-and-risen, forgiving, spirit-transforming lord whose reign is both here and yet coming. It is all around us and yet still not fully present. It breaks in all the time and yet we await its fullness. Its message is: The lamb of God reigns. It is a strange message.
In the Roman Empire, there was no more shaming, dis-honoring, dis-empowering way to execute someone than crucifixion. A tribute was a parade of honor for a powerful and mighty hero. A crucifixion was a parade of shame for a powerless, might-less, weak, inglorious loser. And that is what the Empire did to the Son of God. He was forced to carry his own cross in this parade of shame. He was crucified, he was mocked, he was beaten—and then, in the midst of all of this, he was worshiped by one of the thieves who was crucified with him: “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”
And this Jesus, who was crucified, God then raised from the dead and set at God’s right hand—from where he has begun to reign. He has come into his kingdom!
God’s creation is not ruled by tin gods and human tyrants, nor by spiritual powers that oppose God’s will. God’s creation is ruled by the Crucified One—who was shamed to death by the Empire, but whom we gather to proclaim as Lord and to whom we give praise, honor, blessing, and worship.
Like the criminal on the cross, we see in the Crucified One not a loser shamed to death by Caesar and his forces, but the Lamb of God who was slain and whose reign has begun. The criminal on the cross was able to get a glimpse of that reign and to ask Jesus to be included in the kingdom. Where do you see that kingdom breaking in?
