After seeking advice, the king made two golden
calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to
Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.And this thing became a sin; the
people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the
other.
–1 Kings 12:28-30 NIV
Yesterday I preached about Jesus and the disciples having a
conversation while they were in Caesarea Philippi about who Jesus is (Matthew 16:13-20). I noted that it was a significant place
because of its distance from the temple in Jerusalem, and because of its temples
to the Greek god Pan and to Caesar Augustus.
But I forgot about the Old Testament context of that place. Caesarea
Philippi is also 5.5 km/3.4 miles from the city of Dan, notable for being the
location of one of the golden calves that King Jeroboam made to keep the people
of the newly split off northern kingdom from going to Jerusalem. This historic event set the tone for the
northern kingdom as being theologically distant from God.
The northern kingdom’s pattern of apostasy eventually led to
their downfall.They were conquered by
the Assyrians and many were carried away as prisoners.But their captivity did not last
forever.God eventually gathered the
remnant of Israel back to Israel and forgave their sins.God continued to call them God’s people.God’s goodness remained.
So when Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I
am?” it’s not just the current situation in view, there is also the historic
situation.When Peter says, “You are the
Messiah, the son of the Living God,” he’s saying, whether he knows it or not,
that even here, even now, God is still good.Even in spite of all that has happened throughout history, and all that
is happening in this oppressive time, God’s goodness remains.God’s mercy goes on forever.
When we read the Bible, when we gather for worship, when we
pray and sing, it is crucial that we press in until we reach the point at which
we are reminded deep in the core of our being that God is good and God’s mercy goes
on forever.No matter what we have done
or how far we’ve strayed.No matter how
messed up live is at the moment or how far beyond repair it seems.Nothing is too hard for God (Genesis
18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 32:27, Luke 18:27). And as Jesus and the
disciples turn south toward Jerusalem, they’re heading toward the moment when
God will prove it once again, and this time in the most spectacular way ever,
by conquering death as Jesus is resurrected.
One of my favorite Sundays in the
church calendar is today - Christ the King Sunday.There are several reasons, and one of them is
that it’s rich with humorous potential…for example, this:
Why
did the King put a bank machine in every castle?
I said it was rich with humorous
potential…I didn’t say the humor would be good.
Aside from
the opportunity for puns, I like the imagery of Jesus as king.
What do you think of when you think of
a king?
I think of castles and fairy
tales. I also think of Shakespeare. One of my favorite Shakespearean characters
is Richard III. He’s the worst kind of
king, the kind that will do whatever it takes to gain and maintain power, no
matter how many lies he has to tell or how many people he has to hurt or
kill. I like him because he’s so evil
that it becomes comical, and of course that’s how Shakespeare makes this
character work as the star of a play.
Our text for
today from Ephesians never uses the word king, but what it describes is the
power and authority of a king as Paul pays homage to the King of kings, Jesus
Christ, Lord of all.
Paul tells
us in Ephesians that he wants us to understand God better….to have spiritual wisdom
so that we might grow in our knowledge of God, and so that we might better
understand our hope and our inheritance – not material riches, but spiritual
ones. (Eph 1:17-18) Understanding
Jesus Christ as king helps us to grow in that understanding.
We use
language that relates to kingship and the idea of Jesus Christ as king because
it’s in the Bible—Jesus continually talks about the kingdom of God and we pray
in the Lord’s prayer “thy kingdom come.”
There’s something in the idea of Jesus as king we don’t quite get
otherwise. There’s a level of power and authority implicit in the idea of
monarchy that doesn’t exist in most of our modern checks and balances
governments. There are still a few absolute monarchies left, but most kings and
queens today are constitutional monarchies with little or no power.[2]
We’ve built in failsafes to prevent any one person from having absolute power,
because humans with power can do scary things.
Humans can become tyrants and megalomaniacs. Humans like to make themselves into gods.
Absolute
power and ultimate authority are dangerous except in the hands of God. God uses them for good.
A king is an
archaic concept. In most countries that still have kings or queens, the
position is a figurehead maintained for tradition but without any real
power. Jesus, on the other hand, has the
incredible greatness of God’s power because he is God in the flesh. Paul points out to us just how great that
power is – it’s the same power than raised Jesus from the dead. (Eph 1:19-20)
Jesus had that power, and yet he was
careful how he used it because he was a different kind of king. In Luke 23, it
says that when Jesus was on the cross, the leaders and the soldiers and one of
the criminals were all mocking him and challenging him, saying, “If you are really the king, save
yourself.” Jesus had the power to do
just that, and yet he didn’t.
Maybe the most amazing part about that
power is that Paul reminds us that Jesus’ power is at work in us. That is the glorious inheritance we receive
from our faith in Jesus. Later on in this same letter Paul tells us that that
power can do exceeding more than we can ask or imagine (3:20). Jesus had also told us, “Very truly I tell
you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will
do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John
14:20).
Because I am going to the Father
---because Jesus died and was resurrected…. we have the Holy Spirit living in
us, guiding and strengthening us, and we have the resurrected Jesus praying and
watching out for us. We have the resurrection
power of Jesus Christ the king of the universe behind us, in front of us,
inside us. (It's the power of love!)
This week, thinking about why it
matters that Jesus Christ is king, I had some moments in which I needed that
power because I didn’t have it on my own, and it was helpful and comforting to
know that Jesus Christ is king even in the middle of my mess.
We sometimes
live as if Jesus is only lord over certain parts of our lives, kind of our own
personal separation of church and state.
If Jesus is our king, he is lord over every part of our lives.
The Barmen Declaration, one of the
confessions in our Book of Confessions, makes a strong statement about Jesus’
lordship over all of our lives:
8.14 As Jesus Christ is God’s
assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the
same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him
befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a
free, grateful service to his creatures. 8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as
though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus
Christ, but to other lords—areas in which we would not need justification and
sanctification through him.[3]
As if there were areas in which we
would not need the resurrection power of Christ the King. We continue to need this. The more we grow as disciples, the more we
become vulnerable to having pride in our growth, which is why we continually have
teaching about humility.[4] Acknowledging Jesus Christ as king of our
hearts helps us to surrender our pride and remain thankful for our growth.
Christ's
kingship is one of humility and service. Jesus said:
You know
that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be
so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to become great among you will be your
servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the
Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many (Mark 10:42-45, NAB).[5]
What member of the royal family should
always carry an umbrella?
Jesus Christ as king has all the power
and the authority. Paul says in
Ephesians that “he is far and above any ruler or authority or power or leader
or anything else” (1:21). Jesus Christ as king is higher than any human king. John’s vision of Jesus as king in Revelation
1 fits well with Paul’s statement. John says:
13 . . . I saw one like the Son of
Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14 His
head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a
flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace,
and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held
seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was
like the sun shining with full force.
This is the
resurrected Christ. It’s not the usual
warm and fuzzy, soft and friendly Jesus.
This is a vision of a being who holds the wisdom of the ages, the
brightness of light that shatters all darkness, and the strength and power to
overcome all evil. This is a vision of a powerful king, strong
enough to overcome sin and death, strong enough to help us change the world,
strong enough to change our hearts. When I’m facing the challenges that
come with life, this is the Jesus I want by my side.
This is the Jesus I have in mind when I’m
talking about Jesus Christ as king.
This is
Jesus who Paul reminds us is over and above everything and everyone.
When I am
overwhelmed, knowing that Jesus Christ is king helps me remember that Jesus is greater
than whatever is overwhelming me.
When I am
afraid, I know that Jesus is not.
When it
seems like evil is winning in the world, knowing that Jesus Christ is king
reminds me that ultimately even evil is not powerful enough to conquer Christ.
Jesus
Christ our king has the power to force us to bow before him like an earthly
king or queen, but instead Jesus lets us
choose.[7] We get to choose whether we accept
Jesus as our king, whether we live as part of his kingdom here on earth.
I
love how the Christmas carol O Little
Town of Bethlehem explains how Jesus gently lets us choose:
How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him,
still
The dear Christ enters in.
Why does it
matter that Jesus Christ is king?
Because it means that Jesus is greater than the challenges we face, and
Jesus calls us and enables us to do greater things than we might on our own.
We are the
servants of the king, and with God’s power working in us we do great
things. We have God’s hope calling us to
help one another, to help God in the work that he is already doing,
transforming hearts with his love, transforming and redeeming this world.
[7] For
some of us, knowing that Jesus Christ is king helps us to know who we should obey
and follow. For some of us, knowing that
Jesus Christ is king helps us to justify our decision to follow. For others of us, knowing that Jesus Christ
is kingappeals to our sense of duty and
so we follow. And for some of us, none
of that matters, and we need to know that we are entirely at liberty to choose
who to follow.Adapted from Gretchen
Rubin’s Four Tendencies as described
here: https://www.fastcompany.com/40484293/this-is-why-your-passive-aggressive-office-note-didnt-work
Psalm 29 is one of my favorites. Maybe it's because I'm fascinated by the physics of sound and its power. Maybe it's because I'm reminded that God speaks in such a great variety of ways. I've written about God and sound before here. I'm preaching on Psalm 29 today (listen here) at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Galveston, but as is so often the case, I'm unable in the shortness of a sermon to fully explore all there is to explore in this idea of God's voice and God's power. Looking at Facebook and Twitter and the news today, there are so many loud voices. There is so much fear and concern and uncertainty. It's a scary time for so many and none of us really know how this all turns out. I want to yell into the chaos and get everyone to be quiet for a moment a let God's peace still the fears. I want to sing everyone a lullaby that has been my mantra in tough times:
I won't be afraid of the future
Or carry the weight of the past
I'll be still and know that you are God
You're love will always last 1
If music isn't for you, then maybe remembering this prayer will help:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
