Christ the King 2017
Today is the last Sunday of the church year that culminates in this Feast celebrating the coming of Christ the King who will judge the living and the dead at the End of the World. What do we make of this Feast and what does it mean for the vast majority of people who don’t relate to “kings” in our daily lives?
I think it is good to remember how ancient peoples chose a person to become a “king” in the first place. Someone who stood out in the community, usually for a mix of physical and intellectual qualities, was chosen to be sacrificed to appease or ask the gods favor on behalf of the whole community. This chosen sacrificial victim or “king” was given a time certain in the future to die. The amount of time was determined by various means. One tribe, for example, would wrap a cloth around the neck of the chosen one and would strangle the person while he or she tried to pull rocks out of a container. The number of rocks the chosen one was able to grab in the struggle would determine how long the sentence of death would be extended. Meanwhile, until that time was reached, the chosen one, the “King” would reign and enjoy the power and authority that comes with being chosen to save the tribe.
This is where it gets even more interesting. The King, having absolute power (supposedly for a limited time), starts to consolidate more and more power and as the time approaches for his demise, finds other victims to be sacrificed on his behalf. In other words, the King stays in power by finding others to die. The King had the power or life and death and no one can challenge him.
When we speak of Christ the King we are talking about a really different type of king. He was shepherd who came to lay down his life for his sheep. Jesus was truly a sacrificial victim, put to death by the powers of his time, who called him the “King of the Jews,” but he accepted his fate and never sought a way out or other victims to take his place. Jesus didn’t call for an uprising to wreak vengeance upon those who put him to death. This is why we consider Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Kings are shepherds who lead and protect their people and also wield the power of judgment over their subjects. This is the Gospel image we have today.
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. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them (people) one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
These verses have been interpreted in so many ways over the years. The “sheep” are the saved and the “goats” are the damned. This leads to so much us/them thinking. Who is saved and who isn’t, and so forth. One thing we know from studying shepherds is that when a shepherd moves a mixed flock from one place to another, he does have to separate the sheep from the goats to accomplish the task. But the sheep and the goats still arrive at the same place! So maybe our thinking that the “goats” are the condemned bad guys is misplaced. Our individualistic way of thinking likes and individualistic interpretation: I turned my life over to the Lord, so for sure I’m a sheep, and if you don’t, my friend, are unfortunately a goat!
But our passage speaks of the “nations” being gathered for judgment. And the NRSV translation speaks of “people” (them) or other translations, “Gentiles.” So while we have favored looking at this passage of judgment as having an individual interpretation, we can’t forget, as we tend to do, about whole “nations” coming under judgment. When Christ comes again he will judge nations!
With this in mind, what are the criteria for judging the “nations,” and to a much lesser extent, “individuals?” We usually judge a “nation” by four criteria: Gross Domestic Product, Standard of Living, strength of the Economy, and strength of a nation’s military. But Jesus, in speaking about the coming judgment of nations, uses different criteria: How well a nation takes of the most vulnerable, namely the poor and sick, the immigrant, and the prisoner. If a nation favors the least vulnerable of its people it will suffer serious consequences, especially escalating violence.
God has brought this world into being and set it up so that when the most vulnerable of its people are taken care of, the yield will be peace, happiness, and more and more blessings for all. But, when the least vulnerable receive most of the attention and benefits there is a resulting lack of peace, happiness, and growing use of violence to secure peace and protect those benefits.
I hope we celebrate this Feast and the Holy Eucharist, coming before Christ the King with a greater understanding of the real criteria Christ will use to judge the nations and our individual participation in the nations we belong to.
Amen!
John+
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| St. Alban |
Saint Alban Episcopal Mission (English, Anglican Communion) meets for mass every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. (see welcome letter at sidebar) at Casa Convento Concepcion, 4a Calle Oriente No. 41, Antigua, Guatemala.
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| The Reverend John Smith, Vicar 5235-6674 cell telephone (502 country code) |
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