Christ the King

This Sunday is the festival of Christ the King, also called the Reign of Christ. It marks the end of our liturgical year, which begins again with the first Sunday in Advent on November 28 this year. While parts of the liturgical calendar date back to fourth century, Christ the King Sunday is a much newer tradition. It was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI as a response to the spread of secularism and nationalism, particularly in Europe.

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

This festival highlights Christ's authority over all earthly rulers, and also draws attention to the ways the reign of Christ, with its emphasis on service, humility, and love, differs from the reign of earthly rulers, who so often view power as military might, relying on coercion and force. Throughout the Gospels, the picture we get of the kingdom of God seems to be the opposite of how the world works. In God's kingdom, the first are last and the last are first, and the poor are filled with good things, while the rich are sent away empty.

This imagery is especially pronounced in our readings for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Jesus enters Jerusalem not on a war horse, but on a donkey. Following his arrest, the soldiers mock him, placing a robe around his shoulders and a crown of thorns on his head. As he tells Pilate, though, in the reading we'll hear on Sunday from the Gospel of John, "my kingdom is not from this world."

I love the way the hymn "O Christ, What Can It Mean for Us" describes the nature of Christ's kingship. Here's verse four:

You chose a humble human form and shunned the world's renown;
you died for us upon a cross with thorns your only crown.
But still, beyond the span of years, our glad hosannas ring,
for now at God's right hand you reign, a diff'rent kind of king!

In many ways, "king" language is unfamiliar to us. There are very few places in the world today still ruled by a monarch with absolute power, and of course our nation's foundational story is about freedom from the tyranny of a king and an emphasis instead on democratic rule. As Christians, though, we give thanks for a good and loving God who has the ultimate power and authority over all leaders and earthly forces, and over us. As we'll pray together on Sunday, it is our hope that God would "grant that all the people of earth, now divided by the power of sin, may be united by the glorious and gentle rule of Jesus Christ" (ELW Christ the King Year B).


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