Luke 23:33-43
“rethinKING”
November 24, 2019
My childhood kings and queens were mostly romantic figures. I can remember learning the nursery rhyme about that merry old soul Old King Cole as a preschooler. I was enchanted in first grade when my parents let me stay up later than usual to watch the Cinderella musical production on television that had Walter Pidgeon as a wise king and Ginger Rogers as the kind queen, both with crowns and those fur-lined robes who only wanted what was best for their smitten son the Prince as he went in search of the beautiful young woman with whom he’d danced at the ball. That colorful and highly sanitized version of royalty was all I really remember about kings and queens as a young child with the exception of the 3 wooden magi, handcrafted and brought back from Germany by my uncle, who we sung about as if they, too, were kings, who occupied the Nativity scene every Christmas season at a height that was safely out of reach of the curious hands of my littlest siblings.
Fast forward through lessons on Shakespeare in high school where kings were often up to no good and then mix all of that with the pomp and circumstance of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981 that we got up early to watch on television and you may understand and even share in my skewed vision of what real kings and queens were like. So when the soldiers in Luke’s Gospel mock Jesus as King of the Jews while he’s hanging on the cross – words that we hear and respond to as the witnesses to all of this during the Passion Story each Holy Week – we may all need to rethink – what does it mean to be considered a King and why is this title so powerful when flung back at Jesus at the end of his earthly life? His so-called power comes into question because up until this point – and ever since – kings were considered all-powerful and would never allow themselves to suffer like the common criminals who are crucified on either side of them. And still one of those criminals here has faith enough in Jesus, believing in the kingdom he is heralding and wants only to be remembered in that glorious realm to come.
What kind of king is Jesus? What are the people to expect in such a king’s realm? Throughout so many of the reigns of the earthly kings that are mentioned almost 3000 times throughout the Bible, mostly in Hebrew scripture, we are reminded that there were among them some great ones such as David and Solomon. The common denominator between both the revered kings and the reviled ones was how much wealth and power they held. These kings had vast stores of ships and great feasts and ornate palaces and often many wives and had huge armies at their command. These guys were obscenely rich and what granted them such outsized wealth and power was usually their birthright. Israel, though, was different. Although there were certainly plenty of perks for these relatively new line of kings, the big difference was that the kings of Israel, unlike their counterparts in other kingdoms, were subject to the law of God or Yahweh and it was the job of the prophets to challenge these kings when they forgot this.
If my childhood and young adulthood images of kings and queens took the form of fairy tales and fancy clothes and the concept that they operated on a totally different level than we common folk, I can say that I am still struck by how royalty is depicted in movies and television. This past week I have been catching up on what is one of my favorite views into royal life. The story this time takes the form of the longest serving monarch in British history as depicted with beautiful pageantry, lovely words to say and, of course much artistic license as the writers speculate and then put those imagined words in the mouths of Queen Elizabeth and the royal family and the many political and social figures they have interacted with over the past century in the Netflix series, The Crown. Binging on most of Season 3 this past week while at the same time considering the Reign of Christ has been a study in contrasts between the modern-day queen who is the 32nd great granddaughter of King Alfred who was the first effective King of England where he ruled from 871 to 899.
The disparities between these two monarchs are glaring in comparison. Jesus came from humble beginnings – think stable birth – and never aspired to wealth, relying for the three years of his active ministry on the kindness of strangers for shelter while Queen Elizabeth’s main spectacular residence (she owns two other castles) of Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms.
When Jesus enters the picture he proclaims that the kingdom has indeed arrived. This new king is one who has made the God who no one could see before, the invisible God, into one that can be seen and heard and touched. Christ is God – that is the point here – that’s what we need to remember.
The royals are aware that their lifestyle is at the mercy of the people – their royal subjects. In one episode of The Crown this season when Queen Elizabeth is meeting with the Prime Minister who is trying convince her royal highness, who prides herself on her propriety that she and her family need to be more relatable but still not lose that sense that they are special. He suggests that a documentary on royal life to air on television might be just the ticket but the Queen, not so convinced, desperately wants to know, “What do the people want from us?” and Prime Minister Heath’s response is, “They want an ideal” to which she honestly responds, “No human being is ideal. Only God is ideal.”
What made Jesus a king, which by the way he never calls himself, like no other, one who was such a threat to the powers and principalities that he was sentenced to death was how he related to the weakest and sickest and poorest and most isolated. This is in contrast to Queen Elizabeth’s response to a devastating mining disaster in 1966 that claimed 144 lives, most of whom were children. She had to be convinced to show up in the little village and offer comfort. These “others” were not to be shunned but rather embraced. They and so many folks yearned to be around him, to have some of his unique power rub off on them. Jesus’ voice, used to advocate for the least of these whom he would not leave behind was a huge part of the power he shared, the grace and mercy that were at the heart of his message.
When the Queen reprimands Charles after his investiture ceremony where he officially takes on the title of Prince of Wales, offering his speech on that day in Welsh and adding unscripted words that reflected what he had learned after 3 months of intense study of Welsh language and culture in preparation to being their titular leader, the Queen emphasizes to the Prince, “You are not entitled to have an opinion.” The man who would one day be king (and is still waiting these 50 years later) counters that he was just showing people who he really was, in his own words. The Queen silenced him by saying “No one wants to hear your voice or your opinions.”
This new kind of king, Jesus, places more emphasis on being like his followers as opposed to the royalty folks were used to then and still are now, who are presented as better than, set apart. For this, Jesus loses his life that we might have life. And in this, that one other condemned man crucified next to Jesus puts his faith and his hope – a new king, a new kingdom.
As we once again transition into a new church year and the promise of the birth of the child who would be king, may we his followers, his royal subjects, feel the love that was at the heart of his message and the foundation of the kingdom that he proclaimed. This Jesus, unlike all those other kings, was intended to be the one through which we know God’s love. May these words of adoration, with eyes wide open (from Unfolding Light) be ours:
I don’t want a mighty warrior
who can threaten or destroy
the scary parts of my world.
I don’t want an engineer
to manufacture a nicer place.
I want in this very place
love stronger than fear,
that nothing can resist,
love that completes me,
your love that reigns supreme
even in my deepest anguish,
that accompanies me even, even
through devastation and trauma,
and even there offers me paradise
and even then
in your eyes
I am there.
Amen. (www.unfoldinglight.net)