In your hearts enthrone him - Christ the King Sunday

LUKE 23: 33-43

One of the first politicians I heard speaking at a public meeting was Tony Benn. He has always stimulated me even if on once occasion he firmly put me in my place after I asked a question on a subject we disagree with.

One of the areas in which I find him interesting is in the sphere of Christianity. You see, his great grandfather was a clergyman and his mother was a leading figure in the denomination to which he belonged. Benn’s thinking on such matters is as one might suspect highly independent. And one of the areas of concern I have heard him speaking on is his discomfort with language such as “Lord” and “King” in reference to Jesus. Indeed, Benn sees one of the themes of the Old Testament as being the heroic stand of the prophets against the Kings.

Now I have some sympathy with Benn on all of this. Today we live in a constitutional monarchy in which the Queen has the trappings of power but the real power in effect lies with the government which is sort of elected and occasionally with Parliament itself. In real terms it is Gordon Brown and company who decide the big issues whilst I suspect that at times the Queen’s family wish they had a bit of the old power when it comes to the likes of invasive tabloid journalism.

But of course, power can be exercised cruelly and in past generations this would normally be done through the King of the time. And of course, we know the stories of Henry V111 lopping off heads and the doings of for example the Russian despot Ivan the Terrible. And so the list could go on. Of course, in the 20th Century, the great tyrants were not Kings but commoners who rose thrugh the ranks , people such as Stalin, Mao tse tung, Hitler and Pol Pot. Not of royal blood but holders of a Kingly power that they wielded to deadly effect.

So how can we liken Jesus to those who have exercised great power?

Well for a moment let’s look back at how Christ the King Sunday originated. Its roots can be found in the Italy of 1925. Mussolini had been in power for some three years. The world was recovering for that monumental misuse of power that was the First World War. And in the Vatican as Pontiff named Pope Pius X1 wanted to assert that there was a different way to see the world. Rather than look at those who were manipulating the instruments of power, he sought to point to a greater loyalty, a loyalty to Jesus who was a King but so unlike the greedy power hungry leaders that were in abundance. And so Christ the King Sunday came into being, a Sunday that is now celebrated on an ecumenical basis.

But is Jesus a King? Well we certainly find him pointing to a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom is at the heart of his words and deeds, a Kingdom that breaks into our world and which is pregnant with possibilities. And certainly in the account of his crucifixion, this is parodied by his opponents who sarcastically put a notice above him on the cross proclaiming;

“This is the King of the Jews.”

And yet you know whilst this was done in mockery it inadvertently pointed towards a profound truth. For when Pilate and Caiaphas breathed their last, their ability to influence the world came to an end. Yet Jesus has gone on influencing people through his message and the good news that we find embodied within him. After all as James Allen Francis puts it in a well known piece of prose;


“He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn't go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave, through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned--put together--have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.”

But in affecting this earth, let us be clear that Jesus challenges our notions of power. There is no clunking fist telling us what we must believe in or do under threat or coercion. Far from it, Jesus turns our understanding of Kingship upside down for his Kingship is that which rejects the models of domination.

Let me use just a few examples.

The first is that most of the rulers attract a circle around them. In Britain we have harmless acolytes such as Silver Stick in Waiting and Grand Carver. I guess this is part of the decoration of life. But power attracts those who want something of its reflection upon themselves or those who in “Yes Minister” style wish to climb the greasy pole. And inevitably those with power seek to attract those who might be of help to them. Yet contrast this with Jesus who surrounds himself not with the “Good and Great” but with those devoid of status or wealth and even those who are branded outsiders. Yesterday, someone claiming to be a Christian implied that another person was an “undesirable.” Well let’s be clear that to Jesus whilst some of our actions may be undesirable, no human being is of themselves “undesirable.”

Secondly to those whose lives are in tatters Jesus gives priority. Far from pouring holy water upon the injustices of his time, Jesus challenges the wrongs of his day and it was for doing that that he attracted the hostility of the powerful elites of his day. His Kingship is that in which those who are least become first. It is that which opposes structures and actions that oppress. For here is a Kingship which brings a transformation in favour of those whose lives are in greatest need.

Thirdly, mercy is at the heart of this Kingship. Back in the days of capital punishment, the last hope for the condemned person was that the Home Secretary would recommend the Queen to exercise mercy. Mercy is very much an option in traditional understandings of power. But when it comes to the Kingship of Christ, mercy is at the heart of all things. Indeed when a condemned man on a cross next to Jesus recognises that his deeds have earned him his place on the cross and says to Jesus;

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom”

The reply of Jesus is;

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Do you see it? A man whose life has taken him to a place of public execution, becomes the first to share in paradise with Jesus. For mercy with Jesus is not just about letting us off. More than that it is an encounter with love and acceptance.

So the Kingship of Jesus is a liberating Kingship. We are not called to follow Jesus out of fear for the consequences if we do not. For this Kingship is not about armies or coercion but it is about being drawn into a new way of being by a Kingship that is deeply rooted in love. So we see before us in Jesus a total subversion of traditional ways of seeing Kingship. For the word that Tony Benn associates with the dominance of one poeron over others with Jesus becomes about servant hood and an assertion of the values of all. Drawn into a circle of love we are feed to do as the hymn writer encourages us to do;

“In your hearts enthrone him.”

Aaagh yes, here is no self serving Kingship but that which enables us to be truly free.


This sermon was preached at Alwington Methodist Church on Sunday November 25th 2007