Christ the King
(2
Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43)
Today we are invited to rejoice in Christ
our King Who is the Son of God made flesh.
We should be aware that throughout the New
Testament the many mentions of "the God", for example, “the God of
our fathers", "the God of the living", "may the God of
hope", and other such expressions, all refer to God the Father, He is
"God" because the Father is the origin and source of all.
However, because He is eternally, and eternally the Father,
therefore He always and eternally expresses His Fatherhood in His Son, His
co-eternal Son, for without His Son He would not be Himself, that is, He could
not be Father. The Father withholds nothing
from His Son, as Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper:
Everything that the Father has is Mine.
(John 16:15)
(Father,)
everything of Mine is Yours, and
everything of Yours is Mine. (John 17:10)
And therefore we heard in the second
reading that:
He (the beloved Son) is the image of the invisible God.
Indeed, as the Nicene Creed in our Mass
proclaims the eternal relationship between Father and Son in the one Godhead:
He (the Son) is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, Begotten
not made, of One Being with the Father.
Therefore, in the one God, the Son is the
total, essential, expression of the Father's very being as God. Creation, however, is not essential to God,
it is a choice He makes and, being the result of such a decision, is an abiding
choice of His will and a partial expression in space and time of His Fatherly
goodness. As true Father He loves His
creation as He made it (Genesis 1:31):
God looked at everything He had made, and
found it very good.
Because the Son is the total, co-eternal,
expression of the nature of God the Father whereas creation is a partial,
temporal, expression of God's fatherly goodness and care, therefore we can
begin to appreciate there being a special relationship between the Son and
creation, as we heard in the second reading:
He -- the image of the invisible God -- is
the firstborn of all creation.
All things created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities -- all have been created through Him and for Him.
Now we can understand why it should be the
Son Who was sent by the Father for our salvation; and how, by taking truly
human flesh of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, He became the
Man Who (Colossians 1:17):
Is before all things, and in Him all
things hold together.
Indeed, though appearing outwardly as the
mysteriously humble figure of Jesus, son of Mary, from Nazareth, the same
letter to the Colossians goes on to
tell us (2:9):
In Him dwells the whole fullness of the Deity bodily.
Let us, therefore, try to glimpse
something more of the glory of the Father, manifested to us in the beauty, the
truth, and the goodness of His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It was the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
bond of love between Father and Son in the one Godhead, Who guided,
strengthened, and sustained, the incarnate Son Who -- having been made one with
us in all our powers and potentialities, even to the extent of sharing in our
native human weakness though without sin -- would be led to the full maturity
of His human nature by the Spirit. This
began to climax, as you will recall, at the baptism of Jesus by John in the
Jordan:
After Jesus was baptized, He came up from
the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for Him) and He saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying,
“This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 3:16-4:1)
The beloved, only-begotten Son of God, the
Lord and Saviour of all mankind, had to be made absolutely perfect in the flesh
for our sake; and -- because of our sins -- such perfection could only come
through suffering:
It was fitting for Him, for Whom are all
things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the
Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10)
And now, as we begin to see the true
nature of Christ's glory in its earthly manifestation, we catch a glimpse His
goodness and His humility:
Since the children share in blood and
flesh, He likewise shared in them, that through death He might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear
of death had been subject to slavery all their life.
(Hebrews 2:14-15)
This He was able to do because:
Though He was in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather He emptied Himself, taking the form of
a slave, coming in human likeness; and being found human in appearance, He
humbled Himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. And
when He was (thus) made perfect, He
became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. (Philippians 2:6-8; Hebrews 5:9)
Human eyes cannot clearly see nor can the
human mind fully comprehend the glory of Christ, but, having learned of His
majesty and glimpsed something of His goodness and humility, let us now raise
up our minds by faith to look at the beauty of Him Whom the prophet
Malachi (3:20), in the name of God, described as the "sun of
justice":
For you who fear My name, the Sun of Justice will arise with healing in its
wings.
For this Son of God, made flesh and
perfected as man through suffering the ultimate humiliation of death on the
Cross, this Son was revealed in all His beauty by rising from the dead as the
prophet Isaiah had foretold :
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty,
they will behold a land that stretches far away. (Isaiah 33:17; NRSV)
This is indeed the case, because it is
only the beauty of the risen Christ that enables us to raise our eyes in hope
to the promised land of our heavenly home with Christ.
The prophet Zechariah (9:16-17) had
foretold:
The LORD their God will save them like a
flock on that day; how good, how lovely!
If He, the risen Lord, gives such
comeliness His faithful flock, what then must be the Personal beauty of Him
Who, rising like the sun, brings such beauty to those who once:
Sat
in darkness and in the shadow of death? (Psalm 107:10)
For St. Paul is in full agreement with the
ancient psalmist, when he says of Jesus, as you heard in the second reading:
He delivered us from the power of
darkness.
To understand a final aspect of the glory
of Christ the King let us now just consider Him in heaven. There, He is seated at the right hand of the
Father, and there we can recognize His eternal truth and faithfulness; for, we
are told that, in heaven, He is eternally solicitous for our well-being:
It is Christ Who died, and furthermore is
also risen, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also makes intercession
for us. (Romans 8:34)
He is able to save forever those who come
to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
How are we, for our part, to approach God;
to draw near to Him in accordance with the prayers of Jesus Who lives before
the Father and intercedes eternally on our behalf? Let us carefully attend to Jesus on the Cross
and learn His ways.
The people stood looking on (and) even the
rulers sneered with them saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself”.
But Jesus did not save Himself.
One of the criminals hanging there reviled
Jesus, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.”
He was the Christ, indeed He knew
He was the Christ, but still He did not save Himself. Why?
Listen yet more closely:
The other criminal, however, (after) rebuking him said, “Jesus,
remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me in
Paradise.”
Jesus, so calmly and completely certain
what was to happen to Himself, did not promise that He Himself would take the
former thief into Paradise: “You will be with Me”, He said. In other words, ‘He
Who will receive Me into Paradise will draw you there with Me’. Notice Jesus’ absolute commitment to and
total trust in His Father and the Spirit Who was working in Him for the
Father’s glory, for that is Jesus’ royal way for us too that will ultimately
lead us from this world to the Kingdom of His Father as children of God.
All the conceits of our human sinfulness
have gradually to be set aside until we are totally convinced that we can
neither grab the fruit of tree of Paradise, nor can we merit it for ourselves. Such fruit is given only to those who, through
faith in Jesus, and in the fear of the Lord, become aware of and responsive to
the Spirit of God at work in their lives: those who pray for, and are
willing to wait for, His lead in all things; those who sincerely seek to
distinguish aright between His guiding and their own passions and fears, their
own imagining, wishing, and wanting; and finally, those who will then seek to
commit themselves totally in an endeavour to follow His lead as closely as their
trust in Him and death to themselves will allow.
Yes, dear People of God, Jesus Christ Our
Lord is, indeed, King of all creation and most particularly our King in
Heavenly Glory; may our celebration today promote and further His rule on
earth, in our lives, our society, and in our world.
