Christ the King – Enthroned on the Cross

Sermons – St. Brendan's Anglican Church

Rev. Doug Floyd

Screenshot

Christ the King 2024
Rev. Doug Floyd
Daniel 7:9-14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:1-8, John 18:33-37

A few years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Jesus is coming look busy.” And also, “Jesus is coming and he is p*&#ed.” A more Evangelical version has been, “He came as a lamb the first time. When returns, he will come as a lion.” In the early Medieval church, we see an emphasis on Christ as the Dread Judge who will come to sort the righteous and the wicked. The largest Gothic Cathedral in France is in Picardy, France. The Amien (aa-myen) Cathedral has a large sculpture in the central portal of Christ as King rendering judgment. His hands are upraised, his eyes wide open, and his mouth is frowning. He is the Dread Judge.

All these images indicate a slight confusion in Christ the King. By falling right before Advent, it seems as though the day is about the culmination of all things in Christ. In one sense that is true but at the same time this is about His enthronement. Our Revelation passage is pointing to the ultimate unveiling of Christ. Yes, we are longing and waiting for the fullness of this unveiling or coming. At the same time, we are meditating upon Christ’s ascent to the throne. Some people would place this enthronement on day of Ascension, when we recognize Christ ascends to the throne. At the same time, our Gospel reading points to the cross.

If you read the Gospel of John as a whole, you discover that “king” language appears as Jesus nears the cross. Jesus does not call himself the King of the Messiah, but Pilate calls him King of the Jews and places this placard above him on the cross.

Joseph Ratzinger says of the cross, “Early pictures of Christ on the Cross show him as the risen Christ, as King. He is shown with his eyes open, so as to make clear that the Godhead did not die, that it is still living and still gives life. From being the stigma of Roman execution, the Cross thus became the sign of triumph of the Son of Man, which not only will appear to us at the end of all time, but which already thus appears to us when he, as Victor, comes to us and seeks us out.”[1]

This link between King or Christ is directly connected to the cross. Ratzinger says elsewhere, “His crucifixion is his coronation; his kingship is his surrender of himself to men, the identification of word, mission, and existence in the yielding up of this very existence. His existence is thus his word. He is word because he is love.”[2]

When we call ourselves “Christians” we are acknowledging in one sense that we serve the king on the cross. As Karl Barth has said, “The One who is prosecuted according to this story, the One whose passion is enacted in all its stages, is the only innocent One, the One who has indeed divine authority to accuse in the midst of sinful Israel, the “King of the Jews.” There is, in fact, a complete reversal, an exchange of roles. Those who are to be judged are given space and freedom and power to judge. The Judge allows Himself to be judged. That is why He came to Jerusalem, entering it as a King. He is, in fact, judged.”^[3]

And all mankind must kneel before the last King of the Jews at the place of the cross. This image of Jesus enthroned as King on the cross should challenge our notions of His second coming, His appearing.

The kingdom of God in Christ comes in the shape of the cross. The shape of humility, making room for humans to be humans. In our utter humanness, we crucify Jesus. In our utter failure as humans, the glory of God is revealed. Sin and death are forever defeated. Christ rules on high and on low. As G.K. Chesterton so aptly wrote,

“Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest”[4]
We worship our king by following in His descent. As Paul writes in Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”^[5] And in verses 4 through 11,

⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.^[6]

We follow our king down.

We humble ourselves before one another and we discover, God is the one working in us. As Paul continues in Philippians 2, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” ^[7] By His grace, we “shine as lights in the world” in the midst of a wicked and corrupt generation.

Like Christ, we are learning to dress as a servant to serve in love. Jesus our King is hanging on the cross, looking out over those who have accused him and conspired to kill him. Does he shoot fireballs out from his mouth? No. He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”^[8]

We don’t look for the coming of a lion to devour our enemies but for the coming of the Crucified King who continuously surprises us with a deluge of love that will sweep us into the current of His grace. In fact, we look for and expect that now. Our King is not absent. Though hidden, He is present. In the Bread and the Wine, in the saints around us, in His Living Word echoing from the creation of the world to us in this present moment.

He speaks and we are changed from glory to glory. In the midst of our failures and frustrations, He is perfecting us and revealing His life and love through us. This makes me think of a beautiful point that Joseph Ratzinger made about Christ the King. He talks about how ancient Israel cries out for a king because they are rebelling against God. The Lord tells Samuel, “They are not rejecting you; they are rejecting me.” God gives them a king. They all experience the suffering and pain that comes by having a king. Throughout much of their history, they will suffer under the oppressive hands of unfaithful kings. But one day, God will reveal His love and His image fully in a king that didn’t look like any other king.

Jesus reveals God’s unshakeable love and His willingness to suffer all for the sake of redeeming His children. Just as God works through Israel’s rebelling and mistakes, God is working in the midst your failures and my failures to reveal His redeeming grace. Let us rejoice and give glory to our Savior and King.

---

[1] Joseph Ratzinger and Peter Seewald, God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 337–338.

[2] Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity (Revised Edition), trans. J. R. Foster (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 205–207.

^[3] Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Thomas F. Torrance, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Part 1, vol. 4 (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 226.

[4] G.K. Chesterton, The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. 10: Collected Poetry, Part 1, (London; New York: T&T Clark, 1994), 137.

^[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Php 2:3.

^[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Php 2:4–11.

^[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Php 2:13.

^[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 23:34.