Here’s the sermon for Christ the King Sunday 2019, November 17. The texts are Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 23:33-43.
In Jeremiah 23, the Lord makes this promise: “The days are surely coming when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
In this broken world, God will intervene and establish a kingdom of righteousness and justice. Over 600 years later, God enters into this world in the person of Jesus Christ, who proclaims the coming of God’s kingdom, fulfilling God’s promise.
And then this king, this savior, this messiah, this one who is God in the flesh, God with us, this Jesus is arrested and executed as a criminal. In today’s Gospel reading on this Christ the King weekend/Sunday, we find Jesus, the one we claim as king, hanging on a cross, dying. This man does not look like a king. He looks like a criminal being given the worst punishment one of the greatest human empires in history can devise.
Crucifixion is not for common criminals. The Romans didn’t crucify people for robbing a bank, or for swindling someone. They saved crucifixion for a particular group of people: Enemies of the state.
Crucifixion was reserved for rebels, traitors, people who defied the rule of the Roman Empire. Crucifixion is a public, painful humiliating death. The point is to make an example out of you.
A person sentenced to die by crucifixion is first humiliated by being paraded through the public streets, carrying their cross, carrying the instrument by which the government is going to kill them.
In Jesus’ case, we know from a few verses earlier that he was so physically exhausted from being beaten the night before that he couldn’t even carry his own cross. Simon of Cyrene was press ganged into carrying Jesus’ cross for him.
And of course, parading the condemned through the streets isn’t just a Roman practice. Dragging a captured king through the victor’s capital city was common in the ancient world. Look at what happens if you defy us.
For centuries, public executions were common all over the world, and there are four countries still doing public executions today. The last public execution in the United States was in 1936, and it was a media spectacle with about 20,000 people gathered to watch.
When Jesus arrived at the place called The Skull, we know there were crowds gathered there to watch him suffer and die. Some of the crowd were his followers, perhaps some of his disciples timidly watching from a distance, certainly some of the women of their group, including his mother Mary.
Imagine their despair watching the soldiers mercilessly pound nails through his wrists and his ankles, strip him of all his clothing, and then suspend him in the air for everyone to see. Imagine their frustration, unable to do anything to stop his suffering. And of course, all the while knowing this could happen to them, they could be next.
For others in the crowd, this scene was exactly what they wanted. I’m sure the religious and political leaders responsible for Jesus’ death were there watching. Perhaps they saw this as justice being done, or maybe they were simply relieved that impudent rabbi would no longer be causing them any trouble, no longer threatening their power in society.
For many in the crowd, though, most likely this wasn’t anything special, merely another day in the reality of living under a brutal Roman occupation. These are the people this whole spectacle is for. It’s all a gruesome warning to stay in your place, to follow the rules of Rome. Keep your head down; obey the law.
To drive home the foolishness of rebelling against the Empire, they put a sign over Jesus’ head, saying, “This is the King of the Jews.”
In John’s Gospel, he reports an argument between the religious leaders and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate over the wording of the sign, because even though the Jewish leaders had turned Jesus over on the charge of claiming to be king, claiming power belonging only to Caesar, they didn’t want to be lumped in with him. They wanted the sign to read, “This man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate, however, wanted that little extra bit of warning in there, and stuck with “The King of the Jews.” The message is clear: If the empire can do this to your king, imagine what it can do to you.
As is human nature when faced with extreme suffering, some of the people watching mocked Jesus. Psychologically, humor is a good coping mechanism for tough situations. The soldiers mock him too. I imagine a certain detachment to make jokes and poke fun at your victims is an occupational requirement of being an executioner.
There are two other men being crucified with Jesus, and one of them even joins in on the humor. After all, it’s not as humiliating to have a crowd watching your execution if you join in with them, right? Better to laugh with them than to have them laughing at you. At least it’s something to distract himself for a few minutes from his own pain and suffering.
He joins in with the crowd, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself! Prove it! While you’re at it, save us too!”
He’s mocking Jesus; it’s literally gallows humor, but perhaps there’s still a tiny, desperate hope, just the faintest possibility—maybe Jesus does somehow have the power to save them.
But instead of an answer from Jesus, the response comes from the third man, the one on the other side, also hanging on a cross, also in the midst of being executed.
“What are you doing? Don’t you fear God? We’re in the same place he is. All of us are about to die. At least we’ve done something to deserve it. We knew the risks, we knew the power we were up against. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
We know, of course, this second criminal is telling the truth. Jesus did not sin. He did nothing to deserve to hang on that cross. It’s unjust. But, as Pastor Linda Pepe points out—and I’m working a lot from her insights in this sermon—in the three years of his ministry, Jesus did plenty of things that led him to that cross—and he did them intentionally.
Throughout his public ministry, Jesus was intentional about his words and actions. Intentional about challenging the corrupt authorities, intentional about exposing the oppressive systems. Intentional in the stories and the parables he told, fully aware his words antagonized the religious rulers.
Deliberately drawing attention and attracting followers. Choosing to pick grain on the Sabbath in view of the Pharisees, healing on the Sabbath. Aware that by flipping the tables in the temple, he was disrupting the vendors, disrupting their profits and business as usual, in a way the authorities could not permit.
Jesus was intentional in proclaiming a message of love, an expansive, inclusive, disruptive vision of God’s kingdom those in power simply could not tolerate.
Rather than heading the violent revolution the people expected the messiah to lead, rather than act as the worldly king his enemies claimed he must be, Jesus proclaimed a message of peace and the imminent coming of God’s kingdom, a message so threatening to the world that it could only lead to his death.
This is the king who fulfills all God’s promises. This is the way God enters into the world. This is the way this broken world is healed and the kingdom of God is established.
Jesus’ message of a God who lifts up the poor, a God who cares for the oppressed, a God who will not stand for injustice, a God who is restoring the world to the paradise intended at creation, that message is so threatening to the world, so threatening to those focused on power and wealth and keeping the status quo, that they had to kill him.
The voice from the third cross continues, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He realizes Jesus has been sentenced to death unjustly, for standing up to the very powers and systems and authorities now demanding the lives of all three of them. He mentions Jesus’ kingdom not as mockery, but because he recognizes Jesus as a king, as a very different sort of king than the world accepts.
As he hangs there suffocating, dying, Jesus responds to him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
Today, you will enter into God’s kingdom, a kingdom the world cannot understand, a kingdom that is breaking into this reality, but is not here yet, a kingdom of life and love that comes through power being given away rather than collected and hoarded.
Today, in the midst of death, as the empire and authorities seem to have won, there is still hope. God’s promise still stands.
Today you will be with me in the presence of your Creator who loves you and forgives you.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, you came to show us a different way to live. You came to show us the kingdom of God, rather than to conquer in this world.
Guide us, nudge us, push us to live as your people, to follow your ways rather than the ways of this world. Remember us too when you come into your kingdom.
We love you, Jesus. Amen