Gospel Reading for the Last Sunday of Pentecost Proper 29: Christ the King Sunday: Year C
“There was also an inscription over him,“This is the King of the Jews.” (Luke 23:38)
Wait, what? How did this come to be? It started roughly a thousand years before the birth of Our Lord Jesus. This was during the time Israel wanted a king for themselves even though God had told them not to be like the other nations.
Here is how it started: “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him [Samuel], “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me,from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:4 – 9)
All of the kings of Israel, from Saul the first king, to Zedekiah the last king of Judah were flawed men, including David and Solomon. From this we arrive at the mockery and evil in John’s Gospel:
“Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He, Pontius Pilate, said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” (John 19: 14 – 15) How sad this statement must have been for God to hear. For God had warned them that this would happen.
Our Lord Jesus was crucified between two criminals. “One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39) I am aware that this writing in Luke guides us into seeing this first crucified criminal as a harasser of our Lord Jesus. But we don’t know this until we hear the second criminal rebuke him. In defense of the first speaker, I remind us that he is the first to say, “save yourself, and us.” It is the “and us” part that stands out for me. None of the other mockersbothered to ask Our Lord Jesus to save them as well, not the Israelites and especially not the soldiers. Jesus is the One who forgives even those who harm him, not knowing what they are doing. Sometimes we fit in that category. So Jesus tells not only the other man on the cross, but us too, that, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23: 43)
Let us not be too quick to limit our understanding of scripture only by the way we are guided by the author. If we have the words, then let us ponder beyond the page.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: The Sunday closest to November 23 (BCP p. 236)
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 