A KING LIKE NO OTHER

(Readings from the feast of Christ the King Year C)

Christ is in the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created...all things have been created through him and for him. Christ is before all things, and in him all things hold together (from the first reading of Christ the King Year C)

This is the type of passage we look for to celebrate Christ as our King. We want to see him as powerful and triumphant. We love to hear that in him all things hold together, all things find reconciliation and peace.

But to simply focus on this passage and other passages like it in Scripture is to miss the point. Christ is King, yes, but as he told us his kingdom is not of this world. So often the power of the kingdoms and the empires of this world is based on money and arms. This power satisfies human greed and ambition, and breeds violence and conflict. This is the sorry history of the human race over the centuries, and even though we have not had a world war for 65 years, violence and oppression continue.

The stakes are higher now, with rogue states, uncontrolled nuclear power, intractable conflicts which never seem to go away, terrorists ready to blow themselves up, and us in the process, to create havoc and panic. These earthly kingdoms appear to be powerful, but their power is short-termed, built on illusion, and sooner or later we find them repulsive and counter-productive. We strive to overcome them, and sometimes succeed, but the cycle repeats itself over and over. Power corrupts, we are told. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Is all of this the final word? If we want to understand the secret of Christ’s power and attractiveness as King, we must go to today’s Gospel. What it recounts is quite the opposite of the ways of earthly power. Jesus is king, but his kingdom is not of this world.

Often earthly rulers arrange for a steady diet of adulation and praise; bogus parades and crowds, manipulation of the media, and at times laws that severely punish criticism. At times they do this blatantly, at other times subtly. But what words do we hear in today’s Gospel about Jesus? The leaders scoffed at him, the soldiers mocked him, one of the criminals derided him.

Successful earthly rulers are able to maintain their position. But in the eyes of those standing around the cross Christ cannot save himself, cannot come down from his cross. Nor can he save anyone else. He appears to be powerless, totally without resources. These bystanders know his claim to be a king, but their only way of judging his claim is the short-sighted way of this world. He is yet another messianic impostor.

Only one person in this scene understands what Christ’s kingship is all about: the good thief. Here is Jesus dying the slow and humiliating death of crucifixion, but there is something attractive about him, a secret power that animates him. This prompts the good thief to ask him something utterly amazing: “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.” Through the grace of God the good thief is able to see more deeply, to be attracted to the grace that emanates from Jesus on the cross. This attractive power is not the power the world of earthly kingdoms is used to. Rather it is the power of a kingdom that is not of this world. The good thief is confident that through this crucifixion Jesus is coming into his kingdom, and he wants to be remembered, to be part of that kingdom. Jesus finds the strength to respond “Today, I tell you, you will be with me in Paradise”.

What is the secret of Jesus’ kingdom? It is not a kingdom which seeks to overcome, to terrorize, to bring about external compliance to laws and decrees whose purpose is too often to enrich the leaders and those close to them. It is a kingdom that aims to bring about conversion of mind and heart. It works through invitation and attraction, not coercion and manipulation. It seems the heart-felt and willing response of those who are drawn into it. Those who obey its laws do so not out of fear and terror but out of love. What is the supreme example of that love? It is Christ on the cross. For him to take himself down from the cross in answer to the taunts of those reviling him would be to send the wrong message. He may be more powerful than those who crucified him, but if he showed off his power in the way they wanted, at heart he would be no different than they are, people who follow the laws of violence, greed, self-protection which rule this world. He might have stopped them in their tracks, but their adherence to him would have been superficial, the flavour of the day soon to be replaced by another. By choosing to stay on the cross and dying there, he proves to us that God loves us without bounds, and invites us to a life in which this love is the uppermost value. This the good thief sensed.

The power of Christ’s kingdom is at work in our world. It is a power of attraction, of invitation, not of manipulation and coercion. At times it may be imperceptible, when compared to the power of earthly kingdoms in a mad course of destruction. But it is at work in our world, in the many people who give examples of patience, perseverance, compassion, who seek not their own good but the common good and find ways of achieving it. Some of them achieve recognition as agents of change, and rightly so. Most are unsung, unrecognized. I am sure that many of you here in this congregation in your own small way are doing the work of Christ’s kingdom. But all of us deeply experience both dynamics, that of Christ’s kingdom and that of earthly kingdoms. Let us pray that in our struggle to choose between them, that we will be on the side of Jesus and the good thief rather than on the side of those who mock, deride, and scoff at the power of love.