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| A 15th century illuminated manuscript showing King David kneeling in adoration before God. |
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| Aragorn (the rightful King of Gondor) kneels before Frodo the Hobbit in The Lord of the Rings movie. |
Most Protestant Christians celebrate Christ the King Sunday on the Sunday just prior to the beginning of Advent.[1] Advent is viewed as the beginning of a new
liturgical year, so I guess Christ the King Sunday could be viewed as the
liturgical calendar’s equivalent of New Year’s Eve. We don’t have streamers and
noise makers, but it is a day to celebrate the Lordship of Christ.
When compared to other milestones along our journey through
the liturgical year, such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost,
Christ the King Sunday has a short history.
Whereas these other seasons have been part of the church calendar for
millennia, Christ the King Sunday is less than a century old. (Pope Pius XI established Christ the King
Sunday in 1925.) Despite its relative youth,
however, I think Christ the King Sunday is an important—albeit often
overlooked—addition to the liturgical year.
When Pope Pius XI instituted what Catholics now refer to as,
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
King of the Universe, here’s what he said he hoped it would represent for
laity:
"If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and
on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right
subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear
that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our
minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed
truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should
obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should
spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone.
He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as
instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words
of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God." —Quas
Primas (Papal Encyclical), Section
33
Masculine language of the era in which he wrote notwithstanding,
Pius gave all followers of Jesus—then and now—quite a challenge! We must ask
ourselves: How do we do at making Christ
King over “all our faculties”—i.e., over all aspects of our daily living?
We frequently sing about Jesus being our King in our hymns
and praise songs. A well-known contemporary
tune is called, “Amazing Love (a.k.a., You Are My King)”. In the bridge of the song, we repeat several
times the lyric: “You are my King.
Jesus, you are my king.” Our
voices build a bit more each time until we continue with the final chorus:
Amazing love, how can it be?
That you my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true .
And it’s my joy to honor you…
In all I do, I honor you.
But who is this King we claim it is our joy to honor? When
the world thinks of Kings (and we could add Queens), it’s usually someone you
bow down before and show reverence. And
on one level, that’s what we are called to do with Jesus. We need to remember that Christ is not simply Jesus’s last name. Jesus, whose coming we anticipate during the season
of Advent, and whose birth we celebrate on Christmas, is the human manifestation
(or incarnation) of the eternal
Christ (the eternal Word of God), which has been part of God (and part of
Creation) from the beginning of time. I always like Eugene Petersen’s
paraphrase of the Gospel writer’s words describing the coming of Jesus: “The
Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood”—John 1:14 (The Message).
Jesus is the Christ—the Second Person of the Trinity. This is the one of whom John speaks when he
says: he was in the beginning with God—see
John 1:1-3; the one of whom “Paul”
says: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation… He
is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead —see Colossians 1:15-20;
and the one of whom the writer of Hebrews says: in these last days, he has spoken to us through a Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things, through whom he created the worlds. He is the
reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and
sustains all things by his powerful word—Hebrews 1:1-4.
So, we definitely should have reverence for Christ as King, but it comes from a different source
than the reverence we show all other kings (or other earthly rulers). For most Kings, Emperors, and even to some
extent, Presidents, you bow down because you are fearful of what will happen if
you don’t. In Jesus’s day, Caesar was
Lord, and you bowed to him—or you placed your life in jeopardy. The Emperor was thought to be Divine. Jesus comes into the world and challenges
prevailing assumptions about who is in charge of the world. When the early followers of Jesus proclaimed, “Jesus
is Lord”, they were making a political statement that didn’t go unnoticed by
the powers and authorities. To say,
“Jesus is Lord”, meant that Caesar was not the ultimate authority in their
lives—and making that claim was treasonous. Refusing to renounce that claim has
cost many followers of Jesus their lives over the millennia. Jesus claimed his
authority to rule came from a different source—from one not of this world, from
the Ultimate Source of all things. Jesus
did not rule by fear; he ruled by love.
He claimed he followed his Father’s example. It is this more excellent way of love that Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians 13, but you can’t
discover it standing over your subjects.
No, if you want to understand the mysterious Way of Love, you’re going
to have to kneel as Jesus did.
There’s a great scene at the end of the movie, The Return of the King, that I believe
perfectly illustrates the kind of King Jesus is. The One Ring has been destroyed, Sauron is defeated,
and Aragorn can now become King of a unified Middle Earth. The Fourth Age (or The Dominion of Men) is
now rising. All the people of the realm
gather in the glimmering city of Gondor to celebrate the coronation of the
rightful King. The Wizard Gandalf places
the crown on Aragorn’s head and says, “Now come the days of the King… May they
be blessed.” The King gives an uplifting
(and mercifully brief!) inaugural address, sings a song in Elvish, and the
crowd cheers. As Aragorn is walking through the throngs of people, he greets
his companions in the Fellowship of the Ring in the crowd, and they each bow
their heads in reverence. The king even has an unexpected reunion with the Lady
Arwen, who has forsaken Elven immortality so she can be with the love of her
life. (How romantic!) It’s all the things you would expect at a
coronation.
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| The Kingdom of Gondor bows before the Hobbits in Return of the King. |
But then comes the twist that no one expects. The king comes
to Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry—the Hobbits who played such a pivotal role in
the success of the Fellowship. Hobbits are small and easily forgotten—and
conditioned to bowing down before Men.
But after a year in intimate fellowship, Aragorn knows that these
diminutive creatures have huge hearts, and are capable of great acts of courage
and valor. He knows that without the
sacrificial service of Frodo and Sam, his coronation as King would never have
happened, and even Pippin and Merry played important roles in the story. As the Hobbits begin to bow, something
shocking happens—something most kings would never do. Aragorn’s words move me every time I watch
the scene: “My friends, you bow to no one”,
but the action that follows is even more amazing. The King doesn’t just bow his head, he kneels
before the Hobbits. Arwen follows, and soon
every person in attendance follows the lead of their King and kneels before
Frodo and his friends. The Hobbits stand
with stunned looks on their faces as the scene ends.
I think that scene speaks to me because there’s a sense
that, in the coming of Jesus the Christ, the same thing happens: The King of
the Universe kneels before humanity.
This is the mysterious self-giving of the Second Person of the Trinity
that we intentionally explore during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. When this King (this Messiah) comes, he is not riding on a stallion leading an army as the
Jewish people expected. With deference
to the popular Christmas hymn, It Came
Upon the Midnight Clear, in the incarnation, God bends near the earth, not
to touch harps of gold, but to connect with fragile humanity. The Creator
humbly becomes part of creation, being born the same way every human that has
ever lived was born: utterly helpless and dependent on human beings to nurture
him, and continuing to depend on them throughout his earthly life. Unless you have “eyes that see”, as the
Shepherds and Wise Men did, each in their own way, you most likely won’t
recognize that this baby is the King the world has been waiting for. After all, he is born in an obscure place, to
a poor young couple via amazing circumstances. He begins life in a stable in
the company of farm animals. How many
kings do we know who would be born like that?
But then again, maybe the way this King comes shouldn’t
surprise us. All those passages I cited earlier—and others we could
mention—point to exactly the form that Jesus takes. Jesus is a King, yes, but he’s not a human
King. He is the image, the reflection,
the imprint of the God who loves humanity so much that he was willing to do
whatever it takes to connect with us—up to and including sending Himself and
eventually dying a violent death for us on the Cross. Jesus became fully human in every way so we
could, if you will. become more fully Divine. And here’s something that N.T. Wright reminded
me recently; Jesus is still human
today, as fully human as it’s possible to be. I’m still wrestling with this,
but what I think he means is that after the resurrection, Jesus seems to have
had a physical body, and that body ascended to heaven, where he presumably
dwells in that human form with God and still reigns over Creation, as he always
has, and from whence he will someday return.[2]
Advent is the season to anticipate the coming of
Christ. We remember the First Coming in
the manger of Bethlehem, but we also anticipate the Second Coming. As our Communion ritual says we anticipate
the day when: Christ (the King) comes in
final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
But even as we anticipate that future reality when the
fullness of the Kingdom will appear, we recognize, “These are the days of
the King.” Christ is King now and we live, as Wright puts it, as “advanced
foretastes” of what will someday be realized in full. May we who follow this King today be granted eyes
that see, ears that hear, and hearts open to receive the King Who Kneels in the
coming weeks.
- · React to the idea that Christ is more than Jesus’ last name.
- · React to the idea of Jesus as the King Who Kneels.
- · What have you learned about the nature of the Second Coming of Jesus?
- · Where do you get your idea? (The Book of Revelation is often our source.)
- · What does the nature of the First Coming of Jesus tell us about what to expect in the Second Coming?
[1] It originally was observed the last Sunday of October,
prior to the Festival of All Saints. Under
Pope Paul VI, the date was moved to the Sunday before Advent, to emphasize the
theological importance of the date.
However, some groups continue to celebrate it on the original date in
October.
[2] To learn more, see Chapter 7 of Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission
of the Church.
