The King Has To Go (Lk 23: 35-43)

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).