Christ the King Sunday: This is the King of the Jews

Unedited Transcript Follows:

The name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit. Amen. This year marked the beginning of a new protest movement. In the United States, right? The no Kings movement? Mobilized people across the entire country. Uh, the initial. Prompts for the event was a parade. That Trump planned to Showcase and celebrate the U.S army.

It was commemorating the 20, 250th anniversary. It was a debatable thing to do. Um, no matter what, because it costs significant amount of money. Um, to break tanks through city streets, and some people might criticize that it's probably in a necessary glorification of violence. What this wasn't the first military parade in our nation's history?

I think it could be argued that the yearly air show at Hill is a type of military showcase or parade right, and uh, and there's always uproar around that to to come and and join it, you know? What I'm? I, I've never really like. Ben. I'm probably as close to a path pacifist as you can get without being one, so I'm not one.

But like, I've never attended the air shows at Hill. Um, because I feel like my entire life is an air show at Hill to be honest because I lived right on the flight path, so? So, I'm like, you know, I? I've seen all the planes I want to see, you know, uh, and hurt all the planes I want to hear.

But. Um, but I'm sensitive because of that. I'm sensitive to the criticism of military parades. Um, and that maybe they can gloss over the horrible evil that is war and make it look clean and sanitized. So, like, I'm sensitive to that. Um, but I still couldn't quite understand what made this idea of a parade on the 250th anniversary of the army different from other times, we've had parades or showcased the military.

I don't. I don't know what made this a big deal. Um, there was one thing, though it was President Trump's 79th birthday as well, which I, which I okay, that's maybe not. A good look, uh, to parade the whole Army out on your birthday, so I, I could see why that might be a trouble.

Fair enough. Uh, but ultimately, this ended up becoming like a movement. Another set of protests were set up in October, this time protesting the use of military and policing in the immigration policies. Um by the administration. Well, I don't really have a dog in this fight. I don't, I don't.

I listen, you guys that have been around long enough know that I don't. Really care for either of the major political parties. I'm not like excited about either one. I don't have a need to defend President Trump and I, but this one seemed like a weird movement, uh, to be honest.

Like the progressives dunking on the president about a military parade when we've had a lot of these in the nation's history. But what was fascinating to me and the reason I brought it up today? Besides the fact that, like Christ, the King day is a day that you have a past to talk about politics as a as a priest, so?

Uh, you just have to. Like Christ, the King is political, right? So besides the fact that we have a free pass to talk a little bit about politics. I thought it was interesting that it United the entire movement to just say something like no Kings. That's a fascinating thing.

So they ended up changing it to Tyrant or something else, but it was too late. Everyone knew it was the no Kings movement. That's what the website is and all that. And then it became an indictment not only on Trump. And on his administration, but on the governmental systems of the vast majority of Nations and Empires in world history, which they all had Kings like for most of world history, so it became an indictment on Kings in general.

Right? Isn't that fascinating? We live in a nation. We're just calling someone a king. Is pejorative in and of itself, just using the term King is already pejorative in and of itself. We can mobilize an entire movement. And it centered a real around Rebellion, not against Wicked or evil Kings, but against kings in general.

Kings are bad. We know that we're Americans kings are bad, and we shouldn't have them. And ever, since we were a nation who threw the tea in the harbor over the unlawful teak tax without proper representation. Never mind that today, we pay a compulsory income tax. That would make that t-tax laughable like we would laugh at that.

So we, our nation, was formed when we kicked out the god-ordained Authority of the king and decided to rule ourselves and ever since we've been opposed to Kings, there will be no Kings here, right? God forbid it. The last thing we want is a king. And I want to say that our aversion towards Kings makes good sense.

Right, Kings only work when they're good. And what we know about human nature in world history is that they're not good very often, right? The Kings aren't good very often. So today, we'll look at why Christ the King Sunday is difficult for a nation who, if we know anything we know that we don't want any Kings?

Then, we'll look at how Jesus changes our whole conception of what a king is, and what a king does. And finally, we'll prepare for Advent, which is coming next week. By submitting to the rule of King Jesus. So, first, we see in these scriptures that we read today are the promise of a king of a righteous King.

A righteous King is God's response to this bad leadership that's taken place. So, Jeremiah discusses the Havoc that's wrecked by bad leadership, right? This repetition of my people, like when God keeps referring to the people as my people. It's in verse one. It's in chapter two twice it's in, or I mean, verse two twice.

It's in verse three. They're scattered, they're destroyed, they're ignored, and their needs remain unmet because they have a bad King, ruling them. And they've had a long list of bad kings right. For those of us who've been reading through the Old Testament like we do every year. They have a long list of bad Kings bad King after bad King after bad King.

In our nation's history, we responded to the problem of bad Kings by doing away with Kings. No Kings is what we shout, and this isn't a bad idea as I shared before. But God handles this situation differently. He responds by raising up a righteous King. That's what verse 5 tells us.

He raises up a righteous branch that will reign and rule over them. Right, a righteous King is God's response to bad Kings. And what that means and the reason that makes it hard for us throughout Kings because we knew kings were a bad idea. Is that Jesus? Isn't voted into office.

Like we, we think we get to vote on people who rule over us. Jesus isn't voted into office. Jesus is in a mascot for our pet issues. You know, whatever thing that we think is important, we can just attach Jesus name to it. Jesus is truly Sovereign. And a lot of times, like when we talk about God's sovereignty, it becomes really stupid, and it's arguing about how much God is making me do this and how much I'm doing it myself.

And that's not what sovereignty even means. Sovereignty is ruling and reigning, and it's God's rule and care, and he is truly Sovereign. He is King over the world. And as king, he rules with unrivaled power. Unrival power. That Psalm we read today. Look how these incredible forces just fold up in the presence of God.

Psalm 2 puts the same idea in another way, and so as the nation's rage and Terror. It says in verse 4 that God laughs. At them. God laughs at those Kings who seem so powerful and are so powerful from a worldly perspective, and he laughs at them. Nothing stands to his power.

The wicked rulers of the earth look so powerful to us normal Mortals, but they fall and they fall easily. To Yahweh, who truly rules? Look what the people of God are called to do actually in our Psalm. In light of God's unrivaled rule, just be still then. And know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the Nations, and I will be exalted in the earth. Think of the most powerful. Forces in your life. Jesus could overthrow them, and it wouldn't even be hard for him. Like, Jesus doesn't even have to flex his muscles. To cast out the Kings and rulers of the earth.

It's not even hard. But we have to learn. That when we go before Jesus, we go before an unrivaled King. And so we had, like, we have to dispel with our normal. Like, guys, we are. We because we think we like vote rulers into office. We say crazy things in America that I think we actually are surprised at how new our way of expressing Christianity is, but it's just like, like, we will ask people like, have you made Jesus Lord?

Have you ever heard people say that, like, have you made Jesus, the Lord of your life, like you can't make Jesus Lord of anything like you like you. Your assessment of Jesus has nothing to do with him. But he is not impacted by anything you do or believe. Or say, Jesus is King and Lord of the universe.

Your choice is either to Bow your need to him today or later when he returns in glory, but you will bow before him. He is the unrivaled, Undisputed King of the universe. That's the story. We don't vote him into office. We receive him as a king and as hard as that is for us to hear.

This is how things are right. We'll learn how that's a good thing for us, actually. But it's a difficult truth. For a bunch of people who are used to voting on everything. Right? We think we we get to decide who the Lord of our life is. Jesus is the Lord and King of the entire universe, with or without you.

Right? But we learn about the type of King he is. And I was really drawn to the language that was put above Jesus cross this week. Above Jesus cross. What was written? This is the king of the Jews. This is the king of the Jews. Now, this is happening in Jesus humiliation, right?

This is ironic. So, uh, this is what irony actually! Looks like we say ironic to mean like things that are bad, I think, because of Alanis Morissette even a long time ago, I was a little kid. When that song came out, but we learned to say, like, it's ironic when we mean, like, it kind of stinks, but that's not what ironic means.

Ironic means like this is actual literal, dramatic irony. It means that we're they were saying, what's true while presenting it as sarcasm, right? They were saying, like they were saying, what they were, like, oh, this is the king of the Jews. This is what it looks like if you think you're a king in the Roman Empire.

That's why they wrote that above Jesus, right? You think you're a king in the Roman Empire? This is what this is what it looks like this is what the king of the Jews looks like, right? He looks like the the guy writhing on the cross. He looks like a calming criminal hanging there, naked and ashamed.

This is what other Kings rival Kings look like, like? They communicate that in that. In that inscription, they communicate the very truth. That is maybe more true than we could even realize. This is what the king of the Jews looks like. This is what the king of the universe looks like, because everyone's saying out loud, what should be patently obvious Kings with any power don't get crucified by the Romans?

And even while he's there, he's initiating forgiveness. He's saying, father, forgive them. Write in the verse before we started reading father. Forgive them, they know, not what they do. And when he's saying those words, he's putting their sin in the category of what the law would have called unintentional sin.

So he's saying they know, not what they do, he's he's giving them an out. He's giving them away because there wasn't sacrifice for intentional sins, like with the high-handed sins. There wasn't sacrifice for them, and so he's giving them an out. He's saying, okay. One day when you look back on this, remember these words.

I'm saying this was an unintentional sin. This wasn't a high-handed one, right? He's giving them a way out. It's a theme that the book of Acts will pick up. Saint Peter says in Acts chapter 2. I know that you acted in ignorance. That's what he says. He's putting this in the category again of ignorant sin or unintentional sin.

And so, as he is dying, Jesus is making the way for peace with God. He's making a way for peace with God, even as his creation is murdering him. You know, he's self-sacrificing. He's given of himself. First, Samuel. Chapter 8 tells us what we should look for in other human Kings.

Tells us man. Samuel tells him, hey, if you like, if you get a king, like the other nations, they're gonna like tax you, they're gonna make your kids serve in their army to support their Empire. Like, you don't want a king. Right, and we know that you don't want a king, and then Jesus is flipping that all in its head, and he's becoming the sac self-sacrificing one, while Kings ask for sacrifice on part of the subjects for the good of the Empire.

This King sacrifices himself for his subjects. In doing this, he reverses the normal order of things. And shows how power in his kingdom is upside down. It's upside down. So, what has this righteous Branch look like, what does? Who is this king of the Jews? It looks like the ruler who will laugh all the tyrants to scorn and crush them.

But it also looks like the nail scarred hands. And a thorn scarred head. It looks like blood and water flowing out of a pure side. It looks like the one who makes all wars deceased by taking all the violence onto his own body. It looks like a ruler making a way for his own subjects.

It looks like Jesus. He is the Undisputed king of all the universe, and he is a totally different type of King. This is the king of the Jews. This is the king of the universe. This is the good King that we're all looking forward to. So, how should we respond to the king?

It's by full submission to his righteous rule. I think it's worth looking at the the words of the thief on the cross, so the thief on the cross almost only comes up in weird baptism debates with people that aren't sure you should baptize babies. So, the thief on the cross is, that's when he always gets brought up.

What about the thief on the cross? That's really the only time he comes up. Is, is, what about the thief on the cross, right? And. Uh, what? What if you're wondering what an answer to that question is, is I, what? I always tell people is, I say, okay. Um, like they'll say, well, should you, what?

What about the thief on the cross? What if he he didn't need to be baptized to be saved, right, is what they would say he was hanging on a cross, and he wasn't baptized he. How could we link that so closely to Salvation you crazy sacramentalists, right? The answer is, I just say, yeah, you don't have to be baptized if you come to know Jesus while you're hanging from across.

So, yeah, like, if you're hanging for a car from a cross when you come to know the Lord, you may get to skip the baptism. But for the rest of us? Get baptized. Yeah, yeah, it's a way. It's the way Jesus told us to like. Come to know him.

He didn't say, like, pray a prayer and receive me into your heart. There's nothing about that in the Bible, he said, repent and be baptized. So for the rest of us that aren't hanging from across, just get baptized. Yeah, good plan. We can do that, but now, let's look at the thiefo cross for a different reason than he always comes up in.

The weird baptism debates. This is what he. What he's doing here is, I think he embodies the place all of us ought to be. He recognizes that his condemnation is just, and he recognizes Jesus is truly a king, despite what is happening and what he does, is, he cries out, Jesus.

Remember me? Jesus. Remember me when you come into your kingdom? Our cry must be Jesus. Remember me? As I was praying this week, I was realizing how easy it is to separate this man from our situation. But his story is our story. Jesus is receiving the punishment that we deserved.

Any shame that we experience is just, and yet, King Jesus pays the price and extends forgiveness and Reconciliation to all of us. So, here is our cry, Jesus. Remember me, remember me, forgive my sins, have mercy on me. Receive me into your kingdom. We aren't in a places that any terms for peace.

We're not in a place to bring our own conditions. I'll follow you if we're not in a place of any of it. All we can say is King Jesus. Remember me? Remember me when you come into your kingdom? And because he is a different type of King than any other king, a king who died for us, a king who made a way for us.

We know that he is just the type of King that he will remember us. When he comes into his kingdom. So as we come to the Eucharist, we eat the meal of Covenant loyalty to the king. And we pray the prayer of humble access, and, and we acknowledge that we bring nothing to God and humbly receive from him as king.

You see, I love that we celebrate this Sunday, right, at the cusp of Advent. For many of you, this will be the first Advent that you walk through with the church. An advent is, surprisingly, enough, is actually a penitential season. It's hard to realize that because everyone's shoving chocolate in their face, right?

But it's actually a penitential season. Because we're looking. We are looking at our hearts and asking if we're ready to receive King Jesus when he returns. Because when our Lord Jesus returns, he returns as the reigning King. When the words of Psalm 2 last rulers to score? Right? So this judgment's actually great news for all who have submitted to his lordship and bowed down to his rule.

So right before we turn toward the season of expectation of our Lord's return, let us examine our hearts. Let us bow our hearts and bodies before his majesty. Let us bow down before King Jesus the king to end all Kings and the ruler to Reign Over All Lords. Let us bow down before the one who made a way for us, forgave all our sin, and shed his blood on his throne, the cross.

Praise King Jesus worship and magnify his majesty long live the king. Oh man.