Save Yourselves?

The feast of Christ The King is a relatively new invention, introduced by pope Pius 11th in 1929, it’s adoption into Anglicanism is even more recent. In 1970 the feast was moved from October to the last Sunday of the church year- just before we enter Advent.

In the gospel we see Jesus almost at his death. We hear him mocked as the “King of the Jews” as the occupation and political system allow him to be put to death. Those watching have a very worldly idea of what power is, of what a King is. Jesus appeared to be a threat to the stability of the area, a threat to local power and a threat to the power of the empire. They can’t see past the importance placed on earthly power and authority, there’s no interest in Jesus wielding a different kind of power. 

In the Roman Empire we see the embodiment of how worldly power is perceived and this is also still true of our society- in money and politics, in wielding control over others, exploiting those who are weaker and on the margins. Jesus tells us he’s not that sort of King. His Kingdom isn’t about its location but its character and at the heart of this is God’s power which comes in truth and love. Jesus’ kingship is characterised by mercy, justice and peace. 

This is the kingdom that we’re called to mirror and build upon, this is the kingdom God wants us to bring to our lives in the here and now.

We haven’t always got that right in the church, our notions of worldly and heavenly power have become muddled, we’ve used the notion of God’s rule to impose our own; religion is at its absolute worst when used as a means of control, and it’s not entirely a thing of the past as we see groups claiming Christian values both here and in other parts of the world, even if those groups are very far from demonstrating those indicators of God’s kingdom; truth, mercy, justice and peace.

Jesus is urged “save yourself” if he truly is powerful and who he claims to be. But that, again, is not God’s way. This speaks to us as the post-Christendom Christians, fighting to save our church, our values, our buildings in the face of less money, more costs, and less bums on seats. 

Our institution and its structures are man-made, and it may be that one day we have to let it go so something new can be born. Death and resurrection are central to our beliefs.

This actually gives me comfort and hope. Whilst we live in hope of a return to a glorious past maybe we don’t need to scramble to “save ourselves”. God knows what God is doing, and God’s in charge. What we need to concentrate on are kingdom-shaped communities and kingdom shaped mission. As long as all we do reflects those indicators of truth, mercy, justice and peace, flowing from a place of God’s love, how can we ever go wrong?