Scripture*
OT: Jeremiah 23:1-6
NT: Luke 22:14-30; Luke 23:33-43
Today
our journey with Luke and Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem ends at the
crucifixion and resurrection. We honor those events today marking this the
Sunday of Christ the King. Jesus challenged the power of Rome and in a stunning
reversal gain victory leaving the empty tomb as the sign of his victory. A
sermon about Easter feels uneasy against our joy looking towards the advent
season and Christmas, but Easter is the sign of hopeful waiting for him to return
and consummate the Kingdom of God on earth.
The
road from Galilee to Jerusalem is about a 90-98 miles walk through the
countryside from rural Galilee to the Temple in urban Jerusalem. Luke’s account
of the journey of Jesus is a deliberate path to the crucifixion and
resurrection.
If
you think about it, walking this journey during the Passover season is a very
good way to encounter among the fellow travelers the spectrum of the people who
made up the ancient near east world. Jesus encountered the sick and the hearty,
the poor and the rich, the conquerors and the conquered, the righteous and the unrighteous,
the people who thought they were on the outside of grace and the people who
thought they were on the inside of grace. In every encounter we see Jesus
living the life of Christ in the midst of common human experience preparing his
disciples and us for the demands of discipleship.
I
began several sermons in the last fifteen weeks intentionally recapping the
previous teachings for that reason. Now that our journey is done how would I
summarize the these lessons? I would say
(1) we are to hang onto the humility of a servant knowing everyone is our
neighbor. (2) We are to persist in praying constantly for guidance in our
actions and words, (3) We must endure the hardships we will incur by following
His way to keep the faith, (4) We shall honor and proclaim his name and be ever
alert to our own actions lest we cause another to stumble, (5) We shall always remember every good thing we
have is a gift from God; and finally, (6) We know He will come again.
Today
at the journey’s end Jesus leaves a last lesson: what does it mean to say, “Christ
is King,” or as Paul puts it, “Jesus is Lord.”
Let’s
use two parts of our Luke reading to answer the question: 22:24-30, Jesus’ address
before the meal ands the disciples’ arguments, and 23:38-43, the request of the
thief on the cross.
We
need to understand the disciples, because really we are disciples our selves. If
you read Luke with that objective at first you will think Luke is quite unkind.
He presents them as slow learners or worse but Luke does reveal the reason for their
ignorance.
Imagine
that in all the years the disciples spent with Jesus. They have heard him
preach, saw him heal people and watched authorities challenge him outright,
participated with Jesus in feeding people at the Sea of Galilee, and went out
preaching on their own. They ought to have the message by now, yet here we are
at Passover in Jerusalem sharing his last meal and they are arguing about which
of them would be greatest in this new kingdom Jesus is talking about.
Jesus
is talking about persecution, death and the Kingdom of God, but the disciples
can’t stop talking about what status they will have. Who will be the royal
advisor, the chief tax collector, the chief priest and judge? I could say that
the disciples have visions of Christmas sugar plums dancing in their heads as Jesus
talks of death and divine kingship.
Didn’t Jesus just say,
“I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God,”
and “the Son of Man is going as it has been determined?” Jesus had clearly told them this journey was not
going to turn out the way they think, but with his death. It is hard not to
think these guys are really dense…Maybe the words of Isaiah 6 are in our memory,
“Go
and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep
looking, but do not understand.’ They are
sick with this blindness that Isaiah talks about, they will hear but not
understand, see but not perceive….
If we back up to the
beginning of Luke's account of the journey (chapter 9) and read carefully we find why the
disciples cannot understand. Jesus predicts his suffering three times. After
Jesus and the disciples had fed the 5,000 in 9:16-22 Jesus asked Peter who do
you say I am? Peter replied the Messiah of God. Jesus told the journey will not
be over until he has died and been resurrected. Peter does not understand even now at the last
supper.
Jesus tells the
disciples a second time what will happen. In 9:43b-45 right after he healed the
boy with the demon that the disciples could not heal: Jesus said, “Let these
words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human
hands. But they did not understand this saying; its
meaning was concealed from them, so that they could not perceive it. And they
were afraid to ask him about it.”
Finally
after he has encountered the rich young ruler who asked what he must do to gain
eternal life in 18:18-34, Jesus tells them a third time. Jesus says, “everything
that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32
For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted
and spat upon. 33 After they have
flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.” Then Luke adds, “34 But they
understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden
from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” Why are they made blind to
the truth?
So they enter Jerusalem thinking, “Boy o’ boy,
what great days are coming!”…Unfortunately, they do not understand either how
great it will be, or what price will be paid for that greatness.
Jesus tells them a fourth time at this dinner. He
begins his address to them in 22:14-24, (14)“I have eagerly desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer; But
see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. (22) For the Son of Man is going as it
has been determined.” But the disciples begin arguing over who will betray him
and who is the greatest. They still do not understand.
Even
after the arrest they do not realize fully what is unfolding. Every one runs
away, or denies their discipleship as Peter did. They hide, perhaps in the
house where they had the last supper with Jesus, fearful even to open the door.
Their king is dead and their world is done in.
They
were not even present at his execution They
did not hear the irony in the mockery of the leaders of the Temple and the
Roman soldiers, “If he is the Messiah, let him save himself.”
The
disciples did not hear the thief on the cross beside Jesus speak, “Remember me when
you come into your kingdom,” or hear Jesus herald his victory, “Today you shall
be with me in paradise.”
Rome
tried to kill this King of the Jews only to discover the empty tomb that signifies
that even the weapons of Imperial pride and Roman power lost the war against
this king armed only with the humility of a slave. Now the Lord stands victorious over all and we
all understand. What is more fitting
on the last Sunday of the liturgical church year than to celebrate Christ the
King, and proclaim Jesus is Lord?
Nevertheless,
this is the Sunday before Advent and the celebration of the Christmas season,
and the Easter story grates on our Advent happiness. We know Advent literally
means an arrival or coming. And, we all look forward to Christmas. In this
season advent is the time of waiting for the arrival of the Christ child. We
tend to overlook the second significant joy of advent hidden in that hard edge
of the crucifixion and resurrection we celebrate today.
Acknowledging
the Easter event is unavoidable because Christ’s death and resurrection is the
essence of the kingdom of God. It is emphasizes that the Advent season is really
about two things.
It
is time to start looking for that special Christmas tree, make our gift list,
shopping and watching the excitement of children and grandchildren slowly growing
to a crescendo on Christmas Eve...But we all know it is much more than that. I
do not need to tell you it is the time to ponder the joy of our salvation, the
very thing achieved in the events we acknowledge today on the Sunday of Christ
the King.
That
hard edge was first mentioned on the eighth day of the life of Jesus by a
righteous old man named Simeon who God had promised would see the Christ
child. As the old man stood in the
Temple at ritual of circumcision of Jesus his eyes were opened. He broke into a
song that Luke recorded in 2:25-35. Loosely translated he sings, “My eyes have
seen the arrival of the Savior, Christ the Lord. Lord God, you have set me free
as you promised now that my eyes behold him. You have prepared him for all the
world to see, to be their light, from the darkest night of the gentiles to the
glory of your chosen people.” It would be great if Simeon stopped right here after
his song of glory. But Simeon continued to speak to Mary, “This child
is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign
that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts
of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too."
That sword that cut Mary at
the cross. She had to lose a son to see Jesus
conquer death.
Remember
our journey to the cross with Jesus. Remember the great effort he took to
describe our responsibilities to celebrate that victory. He said there will be
tears and pain, doubt and error on a hard road. He also left us with joy and
laughter in his promise that the son of Man will return.
Remember
while we wait to celebrate the day we mark as his birthday Dec 25, we are also
waiting to celebrate his return to earth. We wait joyfully for that promised
paradise knowing we shall find it either after our passage from this life to
the next, or when the King returns to perfect his Kingdom on Earth.
There
is a saying from the 1400’s rooted in old French ideas of monarchy, “The King
is dead, long live the King.” It means when one king or Queen dies, the next
instantaneously assumes kingship. We can
say with faith, “The King is dead, long live the King.” It captures the meaning
of the Last Supper, the crucifixion and resurrection and is the core of Christian
faith and God’s will. Finally even the disciples understood that Jesus came
into this world as the King among men, and by his resurrection claims his total
Lordship over all, even death.
Let
us all prepare ourselves for this shared meal today by recalling his life and
resurrection. Let us pray without ceasing eagerly awaiting his return and
remember the thief’s request as our own, “Jesus remember me when you come into
your kingdom.”
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