Pastor Hugh's September 2008 Meditation
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WHAT KIND OF KING IS JESUS?
On the south wall of our church nave (the place where people sit in the church) we find the “Christ the King” window. It’s the one pictured on this page and is the second window from the door leading to the Fellowship Hall. The symbol of Christ the King invariably involves two symbols joined together, a crown (symbolizing ruling authority) and the empty cross (symbolizing Jesus’ death and resurrection).
Click on image to see a larger view of St. Paul’s “Christ the King” Window, in a separate window.
It can seem rather anachronistic to many to refer to Jesus as our “king,” especially in those parts of the world where democracy is our way of governance and kings are merely a part of our past history. For Americans, kings were those from whom we fled or against whom we waged a revolution in the search of freedom. Throughout history kings have been more a source of tyranny than they have been a source of blessing. A king, by virtue of his position within a nation, held absolute power over his subjects. His will was their law. Their lives and property were his to do with as suited his whims. If a political opponent was identified, a king would likely imprison or, more often than not, kill the rival. And while modern monarchies have for the most part become tamed by national constitutions—think the monarchies of the United Kingdom, Denmark, or Spain—those that existed in Jesus’ day were despotic and absolute.
So, why call Jesus “king”? Perhaps you will remember the sign that was fixed above Jesus as he hung dying on the cross. According to John’s Gospel it read in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” In Latin it would have read:
IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM
By taking the first letter of each word you get the acronym, “INRI”, which is often found on the altar cross, the altar, or elsewhere in a church.
While we disciples of Jesus would look at the inscription and say that Pilate unwittingly got it right—indeed Jesus’ was a true king—for Jesus’ contemporaries this sign was a charge of political treason. By claiming that Jesus was a true king he became an immediate political threat to the Jewish king Herod Agrippa and to the Roman Empire. And as I said earlier, such rivalry was dealt with by deadly force—in this case, death by crucifixion.
And here comes the reason why the title, “Christ the King”, is not just a title but a sign of our hope: it is through that death, which Jesus’ willingly and obediently accepted, that you and I have been given a faith and hope that is stronger than death itself. Jesus could have rallied the troops with the aim of overthrowing the Roman Empire and seizing political power for himself and his followers. Had he done so, he might have been able to establish an earthly rule that would have lasted a life time. But in rejecting military power for sacrificial love, his rule will last an eternity. And we, his subjects, open to his command to love, are given the privilege and empowerment to extend his rule to the very ends of the earth.
Hugh R. B. Haffenreffer
Pastor
September 2008
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