For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
This Sunday, the last Sunday of the church year, is commonly called the Feast of Christ the King. The gospel for each of the years in our threeyear lectionary bears the same theme. Today it is St Luke’s turn to give us his witness to the kingship of Christ in his portrait of Calvary. All the gospel writers agree that Jesus did not die alone. But only Luke includes the three crosses making the story much fuller and more complete. It is all a concluding testimony to the significance of Jesus Christ for us and for our world before we embark once again on the Advent Season and the journey to Bethlehem.
From the moment of his birth, the child represented some new implication for all the kingdoms of our world. And that is played out here some thirty years later as Christ hangs from the cross, being mocked and derided, as the so called King of the Jews. It was earlier that day that He had before Pilate saying: "My kingdom is not of this world."
Obviously Pilate hoped that Jesus meant that he was not concerned with this life, only with the life to come. After all, if Christ and his church are not really interested in questions of justice, or concerned with how people are treated and mistreated, threatened and abused, then the kings and kingdoms of this world really have nothing to fear ultimately. If Pilate can be assured that Christ's kingdom is not of this world and without serious concern for this world, then the status quo is not threatened, and the rule of intimidation goes on unchallenged. "I find no fault with this man", Pilate concluded, and in that conclusion, he became a victim of his own hopes for power and control. And for that reason he misunderstood Jesus and his significance for us.
We must ask ourselves, "Am I complacent about Jesus?" "How does he challenge me? Does the story of Jesus cause me to struggle with myself, with my hopes, and with my values?
Does his life empower me? Or, have I fallen victim to my hopes for power and control and misunderstood Jesus? How is Christ significant for me"
God’s sovereignty and the ways the people of the Bible resisted it is a major part of the biblical experience. The people of Israel struggle with God; Jonah runs away from God. Job argues with God. Over and again stories of disobedience and incidents of rebellion with heroes like Moses, David, and Joseph and in the history of the nation of Israel testify that the sovereignty of God is not irresistible. It is resisted all the time.
Yet however resistible it might be, God's sovereignty is nonetheless, invincible. And that is because it comes from a love that will not let us go. For God to bear with us may break God's heart, but the one thing God cannot bear is to give us up. God can let himself be nailed to a cross and sealed in a tomb and still not be done for. This is a strange sovereignty. It is grace, not irresistible, but still and nonetheless invincible. God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
"Grace to you and peace...from Jesus Christ...ruler of kings on earth". AMEN
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