Today is the last Sunday in the Church year; it is the feast
of Christ the King (a red day!). So
today, we turn our thoughts and worship particularly to the Christ who sits at
God’s right hand on his glorious throne, in the heavenly realms.
Artists over the centuries have created many images of
Christ the King. Some of you may
recognise this 20th century image entitled Christ in Glory – it’s
the tapestry by Graham Sutherland that hangs behind the altar in Coventry
Cathedral. It’s a bit like marmite, you
either love it or you hate it. Either
way, it depicts Christ enthroned. (Notice too, St Michael defeating the
devil.)
As you walk down the aisle of Coventry Cathedral, the image
watches you. No matter where you stand
inside the Cathedral’s nave, there’s no getting away from those eyes… Jesus on
the throne, looking down. And as you
walk down the aisle, you get a sense that here is Christ the King, preparing to
judge the world, looking down at me.
Deciding whether as you walk, you’re a sheep or a goat…
When I was ordained last year, a friend of mine gave me a
present. A pair of socks! You might not be able to see from where
you’re sitting, but there are goats on one sock and sheep on the other! Guess what feet I’m meant to wear them
on? They are of course a reminder of
this passage from Matthew’s Gospel we've just heard. Have you noticed over the last couple of
weeks how the atmosphere in the Gospel readings has been building? Jesus is giving his disciples some
instructions before he’s arrested. He
tells them to be prepared for his return, even though they don’t know when that
will be. He tells them to be watchful
and to be ready, but he also says don’t just rest on your laurels, whilst
you’re waiting, use the gifts God has given you to further the kingdom.
In our reading today, he comes to the crunch … the Last Judgement,
when they will see him again. What's
going through your mind when you think of that word ‘judgement’? It doesn’t rest easy with us does it? Does it make you feel scared or
uncomfortable? Does it make you feel
those eyes from on high, like the tapestry in the cathedral, are watching your
every move? Maybe it offends your sense
of freedom, after all, ‘judgement’ implies restriction and ‘towing’ the line …
or else! Or, perhaps for you, it speaks
of what Jesus says about judgement to us.
In fact, he talks a lot about us not judging others and yet here he is, on
his throne looking at us from on high.
When we read this passage, it is confusing. It seems to suggest that our salvation – how
we are sorted into sheep and goats on that day of Judgement - is dependent on
our goods works, on giving food, drink, a bed and clothes to the needy, and
visiting prisoners. Notice though that
in the parable neither of the groups of people know they are sheep or goats. The sheep
people are totally surprised and have no idea they’re doing good works for
others, “when did we see you..” they ask.
Surely if they were trying to keep
account, to earn their way into heaven, they’d have known! Instead, they’re just doing what comes
naturally to them as people of faith.
The goat people are also totally surprised! “When did we see you … and did not help you?”
they ask. Maybe they imagine they’re
doing all the right things – going to church, putting money in the collection
box, doing the ‘religious’ things and they too are totally surprised! If this passage is not about earning our way
into the Kingdom, how then are we to make sense of it?
Jesus is Christ the King – he is on that glorious
throne! So let’s consider what it is to
be a king. We probably all have some
preconceptions about kingship and what a king does. Perhaps your perception is based on Fairy
Tale characters; a king sits on a throne in a castle or palace, wearing a very
weighty and jewel encrusted gold crown.
He wears royal red or purple robes edged in ermine and he issues
commands and receives courtiers. This
image resonates with our perception of historical Kings too; warrior kings like
William the Conqueror; power hungry kings like King John; controlling and
murdering kings like Henry VIII.
The trouble is, all these things influence our thinking and
so when we come to this difficult text, we have all these preconceptions influencing
our thoughts about who Christ is!
Somehow we think that Christ on the throne is similar to those kings in
our imaginations and that image of him in Coventry Cathedral seems to confirm
that he has all the hallmarks of kingship that we might imagine. He seems to be scrutinising us from on high;
but if you look closely into his eyes in the image, you’ll notice a different
side to this King, a side that Scripture makes clear.
Yes, Jesus has royal blood; he’s descended from the House of
David, born in David’s royal city of Bethlehem, but for a start he has no royal
palace and neither was he born in one!
In fact the Wise Men who come to worship the new baby king go to Herod’s
palace to find him, but he’s not there.
This baby King is in the least likely of places – a stable. A place where there are none of the
refinements, luxuries and opulence associated with royal courts. Later on, when he’s older, the crowds do
shout as if he were a king ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’ as he enters Jerusalem,
but he’s riding on a donkey rather than in a regal camel cavalcade. When he’s arrested and comes before Pilate, he
is crowned “King of the Jews”, but the soldiers don’t bow down to worship him;
they bow down to mock him. They do clothe
him in robes of royal colour, but then they spit at him and hit him. They do crown him, but his crown is made of
twisted thorns, not of gold. Ultimately,
this King’s victory is won not through a military campaign, but through what to
the world looks like weakness and defeat, his death. This is not what you’d expect at all from a
King. This king is a servant King, a
suffering king – a king who sets aside his position, makes himself nothing and
is obedient to his Father, even to death on a cross. Christ redefines what kingship is. His kingship is characterised not by
intimidation, coercion or selfishness, but by humility and gentleness (Matthew
11:29, 21:5). That’s what you’ll see if
you look into those eyes in that tapestry.
So, where does that leave us as followers of this Christ the
King? Well, Christ the King may not have
a palace or the possessions associated with royalty, but he does have a
kingdom! But his kingdom is not what you
might expect either. When Pilate asks him
“are you the King of the Jews?” (Matthew 27:11, John 18:33), Jesus replies, “My
kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) because like his kingship, his kingdom
is upside down too. It’s a kingdom
that’s already breaking through into the earthly realm. It’s a kingdom where the poor in spirit are
blessed and the hungry and thirsty are filled, and that’s where we will find
Jesus. We’ll find him with the “least” –
with the hungry, with the thirsty, with the stranger or alien, with the naked,
with the sick, with the prisoners. There
he is… the King ... in the midst of them, with the oppressed, with the
marginalised, with the forgotten. He’s
with all those who wouldn’t be welcome in a palace. He’s with the homeless man who sleeps sometimes
in our church porch, he’s with the teenagers trying to break free from drug
addiction, he’s with the Ebola victims in West Africa and he’s with the lady
suffering from dementia in a nearby nursing home.
If we believe Christ is King in our lives, if we are
disciples, as he pours out his grace upon us, the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened. We will grow to see people as he sees them,
to love them as he loves them. As a
person of faith, don’t be surprised if you find yourself following him into places
you never imagined you’d find yourself going. That’s what it means to be a disciple –
following where he goes. Don’t be
shocked when you suddenly realise what you’re doing is not at all like the old
you. Don't be surprised that when you
look into the eyes of the least, you see the eyes of the suffering servant king
staring back at you. That’s what you can
expect because what you do for the least, you do for him. That’s what life is like because Christ is King.
Questions:
1. What do
you find challenging about the reading?
(Matthew 25:31-46)
2. Who is
the “least of these” in our community and context?
3. What is
your impression of how art conveys who Jesus is? Have you got any examples of pictures that you find comforting or
disconcerting?
4. Have you
ever experienced God leading you into “a place you never expected to go”?
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