Celebrating Christ as king of the universe with a reading
about his crucifixion seems contradictory at best. For, one hardly expects a powerful king to be
treated in such a cruel and shameful manner.
The contradiction is even more dramatic in view of the royal treatment
Jesus had received just a short time before.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on his donkey, his followers threw
their cloaks on the road before him and proclaimed him a king sent from God: “Blessed
is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” they
shouted. The people adore Jesus as a
king sent by God on one day, and just a short while later, demand his execution
as a common criminal who threatens Caesar and the Roman Empire.
This dramatic shift in their treatment of Jesus has roots in
the general expectation about the coming messiah, and these expectations were
not completely unfounded. Through the
prophets the people had come to expect a messiah who would be a political
liberator as well as a religious leader. The prophet Zechariah, for example,
had proclaimed that their savior would come to them riding on a donkey. He would banish the warrior’s bow and
proclaim peace to the nations, and his dominion would go to the ends of the earth
(Zech 9: 9-10). Thus, the idea that Jesus
was the one sent by God to liberate them from their oppression and slavery by
the Romans was evident in their joyful welcome of his arrival in Jerusalem.
Gradually, however, many of his followers came to realize
that Jesus preached a very different message in both word and deed. For one, rather than live as a mighty warrior
and powerful king, Jesus lives as a hermit for forty days in a desert. Afterward, he visits a social outcast named
John and asks John to baptize him. Jesus
then travels the countryside as a homeless person, preaching the good news of
salvation. He has no place to sleep, let
alone a country estate. He eats with tax
collectors and sinners, and enlists the aid of women to lead his mission. He even treats women as equals—hardly the
mark of royalty in his day. Indeed, a
woman anoints his feet with tears and oil, rather than his head as the high
priest would anoint a king of this world.
And, Jesus praises her act of love.
In fact, Jesus promotes a kingdom not of this world, where
membership is freely granted to faithful servants, not earned by loyal
subjects, and where love rules supreme, not power and wealth. Many of his followers looked for a political
warrior, not a spiritual teacher, to save them from Roman oppression, not from
the slavery of sin and death. Those who
listen do not understand nor do they accept his message that love of God and
love of neighbor go hand in hand.
Serving others as the way to love God is not in their vocabulary. His message thus becomes a threat to the
power and control of the religious leaders among his own people, and a threat
to the profitable collaboration they enjoyed with the Roman government.
And yet, this is the message that Jesus delivers over and
over. He informs his followers that the
Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.
He tells them that they must not lord it over others. For, the greatest among them must be the
least, the one who washes the feet of the others. Jesus demonstrates though word and deed what
participation in the kingdom of God entails.
He heals the sick; he cares for the poor, the vulnerable, the
marginalized; he challenges injustice; he insists that mercy and compassion
overrule custom and ritual; he sums up the entire Torah with the dual command
to love God and to love neighbor.
Jesus is the obedient Son who is one with the father and
keeps his word. Jesus shows his
followers how to share the same intimate relationship with the father that he
has. Jesus does the father’s will,
rather than build lavish castles, and tells his followers that they must
conduct their own lives in the same manner.
Those who love Jesus will keep his commandments, and he and the father
will abide in them. Their treasure is
not silver or gold, but an everlasting life of peace and joy.
Soon, we begin our Advent preparation for the coming of our
great King, Jesus Christ. We do this
with full awareness of what participation in his kingdom really means. Following Christ means picking up the cross
of self denial, rather than a royal scepter of power. It means having an active regard for
others out of love for God. It means
developing and nurturing an ambition for that which has everlasting value. As Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians,
following Jesus means living a life worthy of the gift and calling that we have
received—living in peace and unity, with patience and humility, bearing with
one another through love—in the Spirit of Christ our King (Eph 4:1-6; cf. 2 Pt
1:10-11).
