| Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Psalm 100 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ephesians 1:15-23 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Matthew 25:31-46 |
“Jesus is Lord!” This is
perhaps the earliest known summary and creedal affirmation of the Christian
faith. Saint Paul famously wrote, “If with your mouth you confess Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be
saved.” So what does it mean to say that Jesus is Lord?
In ancient times the term
“Lord” was used in a general way to refer to one’s superior, but at root it
meant “ruler.” Throughout the ancient world, kings styled themselves as “Lord”
and were hailed as divine, the Son of God, and so the term came to have an
increasingly religious significance. The same word in Greek translated as Lord
throughout the New Testament, for instance, is used in Greek translations of
the Old Testament to refer to God. For Christians to proclaim Christ as Lord
therefore meant proclaiming him as the true Son of God over and against
Creaser. In doing so they were not only ascribing him kingly authority, but also
identifying him with the one true God, creator, and ruler of the universe. This
is a pretty radical claim!
The
Pagan Roman Empire was an extremely pluralistic society. Roman citizens were
free to worship any God they chose and encouraged to participate in private
religious observance provided they also supplemented that with the worship of
Caesar. Jews and Christians were considered odd and even dangerous for their
insistence on the exclusive deity of their one God.
The
pagan pluralism of Rome should feel familiar to us, because it is increasingly
true about our own culture. The unique lordship of Christ is more and more
considered unacceptable. In our secular society religion is considered a purely
private affair and one god is as good as any other. It is one thing to say that
Jesus is my Lord, and quite another to say that he is Lord of all creation What
began as a purely pragmatic affair to ensure religious liberty for all, is
increasingly becoming an ethos that seeks to banish God from public life --
leaving the powers that be to carve up the world as they choose.
It
was in response to this state of affairs that Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast
of Christ the King in 1925 and it has become an ecumenical feast embraced
throughout the whole Church. It was a
time during which new secular dictatorships were springing up all over Europe.
Stalin had just taken power, Hitler had published Mein Kampf, and Mussolini was
in control of Italy. The purpose of the Feast was to proclaim the supremacy of
Christ in the face of these new challenges to his Lordship.
Jesus
is not merely my personal savior, but the savior of the world! When we worship
Christ we are doing more than expressing our personal feelings about him, we
are proclaiming to the rest of the world that he is worthy to be praised and
sits enthroned above every other power. He is not just my Lord but King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. All earthly rulers are accountable to him and are
subject to his rule. As the Dutch Statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper said,
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over
which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
To
some the idea of any kind of king, let alone a King of kings, seems strange and
even ominous. “Isn’t this the United States of America?” they ask. “Wasn’t our
country based on the rejection of this antiquated and oppressive notion of
royalty?” My answer is this, as a Christian I support democracy not because I
reject the idea of authority, but because I believe in the Fall of Man. In
other words, democracy is best not because people are meant to be their own
Lords, but because no person is wise and righteous enough to be trusted with
absolute rule. Because all human beings are sinful, unchecked power inevitably
becomes cruel and oppressive.
In
Ezekiel 34, from which our Old Testament reading today is taken, God pronounces
judgment on the wicked shepherds of Israel who have ruled the people with
oppression and violence. Because they
have failed to rule his people righteously, God promises that he himself will
come and judge them and in their place appoint his servant David as king. They
have been wicked shepherds, but he will be the Good Shepherd. They have ruled
with oppression, but he will rule with righteousness.
David
was of course long since dead at the time of this prophecy, but Ezekiel is
referring to the Son of David who God promised would be given an everlasting
dominion. The Gospels proclaim Jesus as this Davidic king and heir of the
prophetic promises. He is a much different king than the wicked kings of
Israel. Only he can be trusted with absolute authority, because only he is
absolutely good.
His is the rule we all
long for in our hearts. I believe human beings were made to worship. We all
bend the knee to something. If not the one true God, than some idol. If we do
not know the true king than we inevitably fill that void with something else.
Tyrants throughout the history have stepped into this void and exploited it for
their own self-aggrandizement. C.S. Lewis wrote, “Where men are forbidden to
honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even
famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will
be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
Christ
the King is a feast of hope. It may sometimes seem like the greedy, powerful,
cruel oppressors rule the world, but they have already been judged and their
doom is sure. Our reading from Ephesians assures us that God has raised Christ
from the dead and, “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that
is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”We believe that he
will come again to judge the living and the dead. It is perhaps appropriate
that here at the end of our liturgical year we remember in our Gospel that day
to come, when all the nations will be gathered before the throne of Christ for
judgment.
The
prospect of judgment is indeed dreadful, not because we need to fear any unjust
verdict—for Christ is the absolutely good king as he is the absolutely just
judge—but rather the final judgment fills us with dread precisely because we
know that the judge is just and that we are guilty! Nevertheless, the last
judgment is a thing for which the saints in all ages have earnestly longed for.
If we have heard the gospel we know that the judge is the same one who, while
we were yet sinners in rebellion against him, laid down his life for our
salvation and redemption.
One
of the great documents of the reformation, The Heidelberg Catechism, puts it
well. It asks, “What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the
living and the dead?” and answers, “In all my sorrow and persecution I lift up
my head and eagerly await as judge from heaven the very same person who before
has submitted Himself to the judgment of God for my sake, and has removed all
the curse from me. He will cast all His and my enemies into everlasting
condemnation, but He will take me and all His chosen ones to Himself into
heavenly joy and glory”
The
Last Judgment is to be rejoiced in because it is the time when God will
decisively set our broken world right. God promises us, “I will seek the lost,
and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will
strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed
them with justice.”
The promise of salvation is available to all
who welcome Christ with an open heart. It is remarkable that those among the
nations who are set aside for glory in our gospel text didn’t even realize whom
it was they were serving. The King says, “If you have so much as given a cup of
water to a poor stranger, you have done it for me!”
There
is a warning connected to this however. The King will separate the sheep from
the goats. Those who have oppressed the weak and turned away the poor—even if
they acknowledged the King with their lips—have in fact rejected him. The tyrants who have exploited the people for
their own ends will be exposed as the goats they are and condemned. As Ezekiel
says, “Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak
animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my
flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged.”
With the Universal
Church, I invite you to set aside this day as a Feast to Christ our King who is
coming again to judge the world. Come let us sing to the Lord, let us shout for
joy to the rock of our salvation! Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, and
kneel before the LORD our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of
his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
