Christ the King Year C 11/23/2025
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Canticle 16; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Today is Christ the King Sunday…
The last Sunday of the church year.
We also wrap up the third year of our three-year lectionary…
Year C ends today…
Next week we will be in Year A with the first Sunday of Advent.
Over this last year we have traced the life of Christ with the Christian Calendar…
The waiting for Jesus to be born in Advent…
The celebrating of God Incarnate in Christmas…
Contemplating the mission and ministry of Jesus in Epiphany…
The temptation and trials of our Lord in Lent…
The passion of our savior during Holy Week…
The glory of Jesus’ resurrection in Easter…
And the powerful parables and teachings of Christ during the season after Pentecost…
All the way to today…
On this Christ the King Sunday.
We are hopeful and longing for the King to return…
To set the world at rights.
And yet through a 3-year cycle of the life of Christ…
As it culminates today…
We probably don’t get the readings that we might think.
We don’t necessarily get the message of the promise of His return.
We don’t necessarily get the message of His comforting presence.
We don’t necessarily get the message of how we live out our faith today.
We don’t necessarily get the message of a powerful King ready to rule and reign.
What we get in our Gospel reading is a familiar passage from the Gospel of Luke.
We get Jesus being crucified with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left…
We get Jesus saying: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
We get the leaders and soldiers mocking Jesus while he hung on the cross.
We get Jesus spending his last moments before death giving counsel to one of the criminals.
We know the story…
We hear it every Palm Sunday…
Every Good Friday…
But why is it repeated today?
On Christ the King Sunday?
The answer is this…
First, the cross of Jesus Christ is His coronation as King.
At the cross, Jesus defeated Satan, Hell, death, and the grave.
In his sacrifice, he is lifted up above every name.
In the cross, he is the King above all kings.
And secondly, the cross is the message of the Gospel.
The Gospel is the message that Jesus died and rose again and in his sacrifice, we can be forgiven and saved from our sin by His grace through faith.
As it says in the book of Romans:
…the gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…
(Romans 1.16)
So, the Gospel reading today basically keeps the main thing the main thing.
Christ’s Kingship and Kingdom were blessed in his sacrifice on the cross.
And it’s not just the Gospel reading…
Our second reading from Colossians points toward the power of the cross too.
We read:
He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And it goes on:
…through Jesus God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
In the Christian faith, everything begins and ends with the cross of Jesus Christ.
The cross of Jesus is the focal point of our worship…
The cross of Jesus is the focal point of our witness…
This is the message of Jesus…
This is the gospel of our Lord…
A crucified King that forgives the sins of the world.
And this is the message we have for all the people of the world.
Anything else we do and say should just point to Jesus crucified.
In the early church, most of the churches we have on record, struggled…
They had challenges…
Some were economic challenges…
Some were ignited by false teachers…
Many were caused by the sins of the people…
All of them encountered difficulties between people…
Relationships between parishioners struggling to get along.
Into this setting, the apostles wrote their letters…
Their epistles…
to bring correction, to encourage the faithful, to guide the church…
The church in Corinth was one of these churches…
And St. Paul wrote to them at the beginning of his letter…
…we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1.23-24)
He was keeping the main thing, the main thing… that is the cross.
In 1885, the great preacher Charles H. Spurgeon picked up on this purpose of our mission and ministry and preached these words, he said:
The best preaching is “We peach Christ crucified.”
The best living is “We are crucified with Christ.”
The best man is a crucified man.
The best lifestyle is a crucified lifestyle, may we embrace it!
The more we live beholding our Lord’s unutterable griefs and understanding how He has fully put away our sin, the more holiness we will demonstrate.
The more we dwell where the cries of Calvary can be heard, where we can view heaven, and earth, and hell, all moved by His wondrous passion – the more devoted our lives will be to Him.
Nothing puts real life into humankind like a dying Savior.
Get closer to Christ and carry His presence with you from day to day, and you will do His bidding.
Come, let us crucify sin, for Christ was crucified.
Come, let us bury all our pride, for Christ was buried.
Come, let us rise to newness of life, for Christ has risen.
Let us be united with our crucified Lord in His one great object to draw the lost to himself.
Let us live and die with Him, displaying His perfect love and sacrifice.[1]
Spurgeon preached the cross of Jesus…
Of course, Jesus preached to his followers about the cross too.
Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
(Matthew 16.24)
And this crucified life is the way the followers of Jesus live in the Kingdom of God…
This is why on Christ the King Sunday…
We proclaim the cross of Jesus Christ.
We are reminded of this connection between king and cross in the great hymns and songs of the church…
The theological depth that is taught in the tradition of the church singing.
Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.
And again, in hymn 483…
As the theology embedded in our praise shouts out:
The head that once was crowned with thorns
is crowned with glory now;
a royal diadem adorns the mighty victor’s brow.
The highest place that heaven affords is his,
is his by right,
the King of kings, and Lord of lords,
and heaven’s eternal Light.
From our praise to our place of worship…
We are surrounded by the symbol of the cross throughout our worship space… the buttresses… the walls… above the Altar…
There are crosses all around us in this sanctuary…
As even the architectural shape of the ancient church is patterned in the shape of a cross.
And every Sunday as we gather for worship in this sacred space…
we partake of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus…
Remembering his death…
Finding strength in his blood…
Discovering purpose in his sacrifice.
The promise we have today is that we have a King.
His name is Christ Jesus our Lord.
He is the King of kings…
The Lord of lords…
His coronation was on the cross of calvary.
And as the ancient Christ hymn sings:
…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2.8-11)
May our message always be of a crucified Lord.
May our life display His crucified nature.
And may our hope always remain on his eternal sacrifice.
Amen.
[1] From Justin S. Holcomb, God With Us (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2021), 347.
