Christ the King Year C 11/20/2022
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 46; 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.
Next Sunday is a new church year…
Beginning with Advent 1.
It is always a celebratory and fitting way to complete the church year.
Christ the King Sunday…
Full of anticipation of the hope of the second coming of Jesus…
Full of expectation of the justice of God to be revealed…
And yet, holding the joy and pain of the current situation we have on earth.
Listen again to the collect for today:
Almighty and everlasting God,
whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords:
Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth,
divided and enslaved by sin,
may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule…
Our day is not an escape from our current moment…
But a realistic look while holding the hope of the future.
We live in a time where the peoples of the earth are divided and enslaved by sin…
yet we proclaim the day…
and hope for the day…
where we will be brought together under the gracious rule of Jesus Christ.
A fitting way to end the year while turning the page into the season of Advent.
Our reading from Jeremiah…
The first reading…
Is a prophetic voice pointing toward the coming of Jesus Christ.
Listen once again to the last bit of the reading:
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, 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 his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
And this is the name by which he will be called:
“The Lord is our righteousness.”
The prophet Jeremiah is talking about the forever king…
The one to come who will set the world at rights.
A righteous branch of David…
From the family line of King David.
We know this prophecy was fulfilled in the person Jesus Christ.
Jesus was born of a virgin…
And lived a sinless life.
And yet he died the death of a sinner…
The death of a rebel, of a criminal.
He was killed on a Roman cross…
And buried in a grave.
His death is what made the way for us to receive salvation from our own sin and death.
In the words of our liturgy from Rite 1:
Jesus suffered death upon the cross for our redemption;
Who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered,
(or made himself the very thing being sacrificed… that is oblation)
(He is) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction,
for the sins of the whole world…
His death made the way for humankind to be brought back in right relationship with God.
The resurrection of Jesus is proof that that sacrifice, that oblation,
was received…
The resurrection is the confirmation of the victory of Christ Jesus on the cross.
This is the reason that the prophet Jeremiah declared with these words:
…this is the name by which he will be called:
“The Lord is our righteousness.”
You see because of the work of Jesus Christ…
His saving work on the cross…
Being without sin, yet receiving the penalty of sin… that is death.
We have one who is righteous…
Who made the way for us to become righteous…
To become justified…
Not because of our efforts…
Not because of our status…
Not because of something we have earned…
But because Jesus the Lord is the righteous one.
Jesus declared that he came to die…
to give of himself…
that anyone who believes in him will not die eternally,
but instead have eternal life.
(John 3.16)
We are saved by grace…
Through faith, through belief in Jesus.
Not by our work or efforts.
(Ephesians 2.8f)
We are deemed righteous because Jesus the Lord is the righteous one.
He is our Lord.
He is our Savior.
He is our Redeemer.
He is our King.
Our forever King.
And his coronation as our King was on the cross.
This is why the Gospel reading today is the narrative of his crucifixion.
He was given a crown…
But not one of gold and jewels…
It was a crown of thorns.
His royal cupbearer did not bring wine to celebrate…
But sour wine that the poor people drank.
He was declared the King…
But it was proclaimed in mockery…
And used as an insult and criminal charge.
And yet it was this coronation that crowned him the King…
As St. Paul wrote in Philippians (2.6-11):
He became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
You see Christ the King Sunday is when we recognize the pain of sin in our world…
Yet hope for the renewal and return of Jesus…
While remembering that our hope is made possible because Jesus was crowned the King of kings on the cross…
Up here on the Altar area of our church there are three crosses…
On my right…
There is a crucifix…
Also known as bloody Jesus…
And often associated with Roman Catholicism.
It shows the agony and pain that Jesus went through on the cross.
It reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus.
The suffering that he endured…
As the prophet Isaiah proclaimed:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53.4-5)
The crucifix reminds us that our salvation is birthed out of the suffering of our Lord.
On my left…
There is the empty cross.
Often associated with the protestant church.
It is empty because Jesus is no longer on the cross.
He was brought down.
He was buried.
And then he rose from the dead.
And ascended to the Father.
It reminds us of the salvific work of the cross and the climatic conclusion of the resurrection.
Jesus is no longer on the cross.
He has risen.
He is alive.
A joyful reminder that we serve the living God.
And then above the Altar hangs yet another cross…
This cross is not empty.
It is also not one displaying the blood and agony of Jesus’ death.
Our Lord is upon the cross.
But he is clothed.
In fact, he is closed in priestly garments.
My attire is fashioned in the same way.
Jesus is wearing a robe with a chasuble over it.
You can see the priestly stole coming out at the bottom of the chasuble.
He is wearing this because he is the Great High Priest.
The priest is the one who does the sacrifice.
In the Old Testament the priest would make the sacrifices on the day of atonement.
It is why the priest, wearing the chasuble, makes the sacrificial sacrament at the Altar here on Sundays…
We call it Eucharist…
Or Holy Communion.
Remembering the sacrifice of our Lord.
Who made the final sacrifice…
As the priest.
This cross reminds us of the sacrifice Christ made on the cross…
Offering up himself as the oblation, but also as the priest.
But there is more to this cross yet.
On the top of our Lord’s head is a crown.
But this crown is not a crown of thorns…
It is a golden crown with jewels… fit for a king.
This cross reminds us that Christ is victorious on the cross.
He is the King!
And he is returning as the King…
He is coming again to make the world at rights!
To establish his rule…
So that His justice will reach all parts of His created universe.
He comes to reverse the curse…
The curse of sin and death.
So as we worship this day…
Christ the King Sunday…
May we go into the world…
Rejoicing in the righteous one…
Our Lord and King…
Jesus Christ…
Declaring that he is the King.
Proclaiming the Good News of Jesus…
That he has made the way for us to be free from guilt and shame…
To be free from the penalty of sin…
To give us freedom from the constraints of this world…
That we can become children of God.
Today is Christ the King Sunday…
May we…
His ambassadors…
Declare the return of the King…
To the world in which we go.
Amen.