Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

THE KINGSHIP OF CHRIST

            On the last Sunday of the liturgical year the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King, as if to crown all the celebrations of the entire year. The full title of today’s celebration is the “Solemnity of Christ the Universal King.” What that means is that Christ is the King of the entire Universe, the Cosmos. He is King not only of the earth, but of all the planets and galaxies that populate the Universe. He is King also of all time, from the dawn of Creation until the end of the world. That is what the liturgy of the Easter Vigil says about him: “Christ, yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega; all time belongs to him, and all ages; to him be glory and power, through every age and forever. Amen”.

            But is Christ really a king? His contemporaries must have thought that it was a huge joke. When Pontius Pilate placed above the dying Jesus the inscription, “This is the king of the Jews”, he did not mean to be taken seriously. He probably just wanted to score a political point against the Jewish leaders by calling this joker their king. The soldiers who crucified him did not believe that he was a king either. That was why they challenged him to save himself if he was indeed the king of the Jews.

            You can hardly blame all those people. There was really nothing about Jesus to suggest that he was a king during his youthful and adult life in Palestine. The circumstances of his birth were anything but regal. He was born in a stable, not in a royal palace. His parents must have been pretty poor people, since all they could offer at his Presentation were “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:24). He grew up in a remote nondescript village that made Nathanael ask, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). He then went on to become a wandering teacher who had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). How can such a person be a king?

            But the inspired writers give us clues in the infancy narratives. The inspired writers inked into historical records that the Angel Gabriel informed Mary that she was to bear a child, to whom the titles “Son of the Most High” and “Son of God” will be assigned. Moreover, it is promised that God, the Lord, will give him the throne of his father David. He will rule the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom (his reign) will have no end. At the same time, the mystery of the Triune God is evoked in the course of this annunciation message. It is God the Father who acts, promising that David’s throne will endure and now appointing the heir whose kingdom will have no end – David’s definitive heir, whom the prophet Nathan had foretold with the words: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam 7:14). Psalm 2 takes up the same idea: “You are my son, today I have begotten you” (v.7).

            The Angel’s words remain entirely within the realm of Old Testament piety, and yet they transcend it. In the light of this, the kingship of Jesus takes on a new realism, a hitherto unforeseeable depth and strength. The kingship of Jesus was to usher in the era of redemption where its manifestation will give definitive establishment of David’s kingship. Permanence had indeed been promised to the Davidic kingdom: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16), as Nathan had proclaimed at God’s own behest. The kingship of Jesus was confirmed at childhood.

            Another instance where Jesus’ kingship came to light was at his trial. Only John reports the conversation between Jesus and Pilate, in which the question about Jesus’ kingship, the reason for his death, is explored in depth (John 18:33-38). The historicity of this tradition is of course contested by exegetes. While Charles H. Dodd and Raymond E. Brown judge it positively, Charles K. Barrett is extremely critical: “John’s additions and alterations do not inspire confidence in his historical reliability”. Certainly no one would claim that John set out to provide anything resembling a transcript of the trial. Yet we may assume that he was able to explain with great precision that core question at issue and that he presents us with a true account of the trial. Barrett also says “that John has with keen insight picked out the key of the Passion narrative in the kingship of Jesus, and has made its meaning clearer, perhaps, than any other New Testament writer”.

            Jesus himself provided the answer when he told Pilate, “My kingdom is not from this world” (John 18:36). That is to say his kingdom is not like the kingdoms that people are familiar with in this world; it is not a worldly kingdom. To begin with, his kingdom is not a territory or a geographical entity. It does not operate with the same laws as the kingdoms of this world. It does not have a constitution, written or unwritten. Rather, the supreme Law in that kingdom is Love, love of God above all things and love of one’s neighbor as oneself. The relationship between the citizens of that kingdom is characterized by service. It is a kingdom where “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave to all” (Mark 10:43-44).

            The first reading reminds us briefly that David was Jesus’ royal ancestor. As a shepherd boy David had been anointed by Samuel at a time when Saul still ruled. In today’s reading David is acclaimed by all the tribes of Israel as the shepherd of the entire nation. He is a prefiguration of what happened on the Cross: Jesus was the Anointed One (Messiah) from the very beginning, but on the Cross, he was publicly proclaimed King (according to John’s Gospel, in the three world languages of the day)

            The second reading expands the criminal’s notion into a limitless claim, without sacrificing the core of Jesus’ Kingdom, the Cross. All creation is subject to him as King, because creation simply would not exist without him. Creation as a whole has “its existence” in him. From the outset God conceived the world in such a way that it might become the “Kingdom of his beloved Son”, and this in such manner that it was not merely to be taken for granted, but that precisely “everything” should be “reconciled” in him, so that we might have “redemption, forgiveness of sins through him”, so that this “peace” among all beings and ultimately between heaven and earth could be “established” in no other way than “through his blood on the Cross.” God’s whole love for the world only becomes apparent in the Son through this most extreme sacrifice, covered as it was by the mockery of Jews and Gentiles and by the fight and denial of Christians. Thus it is that this divine love can rise, in the form of the Son, to rule over all things in his royal dominion.

            Where in this world can you find such a kingdom? It is to be found in the hearts of people. That is the kingdom Jesus came into this world to establish. In the words of the Second Vatican Council, it is “a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace”. Those who belong to that kingdom are people who like the “Good Thief”, recognize their need to belong to such a kingdom and ask Jesus to admit them there. They are the ones who will hear him say, “today you will be with me in paradise. May our KING bring us one day to his kingdom – PARADISE. Our Lady of perpetual help, pray for us.