Christ the King

Colossians 1: 11-20; Luke 23: 33-43

I don’t know about you, but I’m struggling to cope every time someone says ‘King Charles’. I have no serious doubts about his fitness to be King – it’s just that all my life so far we have referred to “The Queen” and the change is hard to get used to.

How many changes there will really be because Charles is King is hard to predict – we will have to look and see.

 

Today’s Bible readings invite us to reflect on what it means to say ‘Jesus Christ is King’ – not just of this country, but of all creation. The church has been reflecting on this for centuries, but I hope there’s always something new to say as we see in each generation what the rule of Christ means in our place and our time. We need to look and see just as much as we will with Charles.

 

Today I’d like to focus on what one of the criminals on the cross sees.

 

This is a story we always hear at Easter, how Jesus is crucified with two criminals, one on either side. 

One criminal mocks Jesus -  ‘Messiah?! - save yourself & us’.

The other rebukes him and says to Jesus

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”.

Jesus’ response is simple and wonderful “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”. 

 

This criminal is the first follower of Jesus to really understand who Jesus is – and he is the first to be welcomed by Jesus into his heavenly kingdom. We hear him speak words of grace, trust and hope.

 

Grace: Because through the pain and fear of approaching death he must have been feeling, the criminal sees Jesus for who he is. He does not just see a man on a cross, like him, but the king of the world, who will come through death to rule in a new way. “Remember me” – are words of great insight – he assumes this will not be the end for Jesus.

 

Trust: the criminal asks for the favour of a man who surely doesn’t look at all like a king at that moment. The Roman guards have slapped him, stripped him and given him a crown of thorns. He is nailed to a cross and hoisted high for the people of Jerusalem to walk by and jeer. Even the other criminal has mocked him. The term ‘King of the Jews’ is supposed to be a sick joke. Jesus is bloodied, gasping, dying. But one man on the cross beside him trusts that Jesus will come into the great kingdom which is his.

 

Hope: Yes, the criminal has been given grace to have insight into Jesus’ true identity and trust that he will rule as king, but perhaps more amazing still is his hope. Not a vain ridiculous hope that Jesus will spring down form the cross and save him, but a deep and daring hope. This man describes himself as having been ‘condemned justly’, a convicted criminal, dying a wrong-doers death.But he has heard Jesus’ words on the cross “Father forgive them” and he believes that the forgiveness of Jesus can extend even to him.

 

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” – these words are an astonishing testimony to grace, trust and hope.

No wonder this criminal is the first in Christ’s kingdom.

 

With this insight of the criminal, a ‘lens’ of grace, trust and hope, what do we see in our reading from Colossians?

 

The letter to the church at Colossae reminds the followers of Jesus that we are promised strength from Jesus’power and patience and joy from sharing in his love, because we too are forgiven criminals.

 

Then there is the wonderful hymn to the reign of Christ:

“he is the image of the invisible God..before all things..holding all things together..

In him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.. to reconcile all things, making peace through the blood of his cross.”

 

Grace – this Jesus who chooses to go to the cross, does so not because he is abandoned by God, but because he is the image of God who longs to show us the extent of his grace.

 

Trust – Jesus is a king like no other. Even at this point of death, when some mock, others believe that Jesus is all the things the letter to the Colossians says he is. 

Hope  - whatever we know about ourselves, however often we fail, whenever we doubt that we are worthy, the truth is that Jesus welcomes us into his kingdom because we are forgiven and accepted and loved by him.

 

Maybe, sometimes, it takes someone who has reached their lowest point in life to see that clearly.

 

Just this week I read the story of Zara. 

Zara was a sex worker, with a history of abuse, using drugs to numb her pain. The Christian organisation 

‘One 25’ in Bristol work to help and support women like Zara, and they helped her get into detox and rebuild her life.

Zara ends her story of recovery with these words:

“One25 gives with such love: you just kept trying and you wouldn’t let go. When no one else could deal with me I had you. You saved my life.”

 

I couldn't help feeling that those words could have come out of the mouth of the criminal on the cross

“when no one else could deal with me I had you”.

 

The rule of Jesus means that we can all know grace, trust and hope – and share that good news with those who most need to hear it.

 

So as Advent begins next week, receive three early Christmas gifts from Jesus -  of grace, trust and hope – and ask yourself who you can give them to this Christmas.

In the name of Christ the King.

Amen.