The feast of Christ the King, marking the last Sunday
of liturgical year, is to joyously
celebrate the returning of Christ as
the King of the Universe at eschatos.
What this feast is celebrating is reflected
in Revelation 19:5-16, where Christ is described as riding on a white horse,
wearing a cloak that identifies him as the “Word of God” as well as “King of
kings and Lord of lords”, as heaven opens.
This victorious event follows conquering all anti-Christ forces, as
described from Revelation 6 – 18. This whole process leading to Christ’s
victorious return as the King of kings and Lord of lords – the King of the
Universe to reign the Kingdom of God reflects Zechariah’s prophecy of the
coming of the Day of the Lord (Zechariah 14), echoing the prophecy of coming of
the King of Zion, in juxtaposition to coming of the Lord, in Zechariah 9:9-17.
Contrary to
the celebratory theme of the feast, the Gospel reading for the Solemnity of
Christ the King of the Universe on Cycle C is taken from Luke 23:35-43. As this
Gospel story is about the crucifixion of Jesus, it not seem fitting to
celebrate the occasion. It is rather appropriate for Good Friday.
Why do we
read a Gospel story about the Lord being described as a poor criminal, unjustly
accused, jeered, denigrated, condemned
to most humiliating and agonizing death on the cross, when we are to celebrate
the Lord as a victorious?
This is
rather puzzling, isn’t it?
In fact,
this Christological paradoxical juxtaposition between – Christ the
victorious King of the Universe, who conquered all Satan’s forces, and
Christ the condemned to death on the Cross – touches on the essence of the two-fold
purpose of Christ the King. First, he
came to this world through Mary’s immaculate body and conquered death through
his death on the Cross. Then, through
his second coming, he conquered Satan and all of his forces. Conquering death and Satan is Christ’s
two-fold mission in order to secure the Kingdom of God.
Comparing
the Gospel reading for Christ the King Sunday on Cycle C (Luke 23:35-43) and
the scripture texts relevant to Christ the King celebration, such as Revelation
19:5-16, Zechariah 9:9-17, 14, we can draw another Christological
juxtaposition: Jesus the king of the Jew
and Jesus Christ the messianic King of kings.
In Luke 23:35-43, we are reminded that Jesus was unjustly accused and
condemned to death as king of the Jews, while we celebrate the return of Jesus
as the King of kings – the King of the Universe. King of the Jews the “criminal” and the King
of kings the victorious conqueror. King
of the Jews the powerless, who could not save even himself and the King of
kings, who is the most powerful, conquering Satan. Loser and winner. All of these are integrated to characterize
Christ the King. Therefore, Christology itself is a paradox: Christology
of Jesus as king of the Jews and Christology of Jesus Christ the King of kings,
and the paradox is resolved in the Christology of Christ the King.
As
prophesized in Isaiah 53, Christ the King was to condemned to die to save God’s
people, as the suffering Messiah. Luke
23:35-43 is one of the fulfilling Gospel narratives to this prophesy.
When Jesus
entered the City of Jerusalem, as reflected on Palm Sunday, people of Jerusalem
had thought that he was the fulfillment of the prophesized king of Zion in
Zechariah 9:9-13. They had no king ever
since the Babylonian seize of Jerusalem in 586 BC and became so delighted to
have seem Jesus as the king, whom they had waited for more than 500 years, as
prophesized by Zechariah. However, the
same people turned themselves against the king they had longed for and welcomed
by waving palms within a week and condemned this king to death, as reflected
during the Holy Week. They condemned him
as king of the Jews.
There is one
important factor to understand why the people of Jerusalem, who celebrated the
coming of the king of Zion, soon became a bunch of bitter accuser of him, as
their enemy, with the serious criminal charge of being king of the Jew.
It was the
evil conspiracy made by the religious establishment of Jerusalem to incite the
Roman authority’s fear and to use it to kill Jesus. As Matthew 27:18 indicates, it was the “φθόνος”(phthonos) of the religious establishment
toward Jesus. The Greek word, “phthonos” is understood as envy. Thus,
the religious establishment became envious to Jesus, while feeling that their position in religious authority was
threatened by his astonishing teaching and miracles. Because of this envy-insecurity feeling toward
Jesus, they had to get rid of Jesus, by conspiring the Roman colonial
authority, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and the people of
Jerusalem. For this purpose, the religious
establishment made a false accusation of Jesus as a threat to Caesar by
proclaiming him as king of the Jews. At
the same time, they must have conspired the people of Jerusalem by instilling
their fear that the Romans would destroy them because of Jesus, who is seen as
an enemy of Caesar , for he poses himself as king of the Jews. In other words, Jesus the Nazarene King of the Jews (Iēsus
Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum), became
the charge against Jesus, by the religious establishment’s conspiracy out of
their envy-insecurity.
How feeling of envy-insecurity can do great evil is evident with the
first murder by Cain (Genesis 4:1-8) and King Herod’s slaughtering of the
innocent children (Matthew 2:1-18). The execution
of Jesus in the most humiliating and agonizing way on the Cross, was also
prompted by the same evil of envy-insecurity feeling, and the false criminal
charge against innocent Jesus, “king of the Jews” or “INRI - Iēsus
Nazarēnus, Rēx Iūdaeōrum) reminds us of this evil conspiracy.
Because of the religious establishment’s evil feeling of
envy-insecurity, Jesus was unjustly condemned to death, along with two
criminals, who were justly condemned to death. However, the Christ the King
Sunday Gospel reading on Cycle C, Luke 23:35-43, tells more than this.
In this Gospel narrative, while the one criminal contemptuously ridiculed
Jesus as a “looser”, the other criminal not only rebuked him for being callous
to God (callous to Jesus) and recognized Jesus as the messiah King, by humbly acknowledging
his criminal charge and ask Jesus to remember him in the King of God. To this,
Jesus indicated his salvation. Therefore, in this Good Friday Gospel narrative (Luke
23:35-43), thanks to the criminal who recognized Jesus as the messiah
King, we can draw a Christological
juxtaposition between two paradoxical kings: condemned king of the Jews and messianic King, whose Kingdom is the
salvific Paradise. Indeed, what saved the latter criminal is his insight to see
the unjustly condemned king of the Jews as the messianic King, who reigns the
Kingdom of God, as he revered God. This
criminal was not fooled by the conspiracy, which made most people of Jerusalem
believe that Jesus was a dangerous criminal as he threatened Caesar. This criminal was able to see the king of
Zion, who entered Jerusalem, prophesized in Zechariah 9:9-13, on Sunday, was,
indeed, the Lord (Zechariah 9:14-17) and the messiah King, whose Kingdom to
come, prophesized in Zechariah 14.
The insight of the latter criminal to recognize the King of kings in
the condemned king of the Jews on the Cross also echoes what Jesus reminds us
in Matthew 25:31-46, in which the King speaks, “Truly I tell you, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for
me’” (Matthew 25:40), while fools, like the criminal who ridiculed Jesus,
and the crowds of Jerusalem, who shouted to crucify Jesus, only see Jesus as a “loser” whom they are
callus to.
To better understand why Luke 23:35-43 is used to celebrate the
Solemnity feast of Chris the King on Cycle C,
we must focus on the “wise” criminal, whose insight, and perhaps, faith,
enabled to see unjustly condemned king of the Jews, as the messianic King – the
King of kings – the King of the Universe, whose Kingdom is salvation. This insight also enables us to better
appreciate Jesus’ teaching on salvation – being welcomed into the Kingdom of
the King of all kings – in Matthew 25:31-46.
Do we have a kind of Christological insight as that of the latter
criminal, to whom Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me
in paradise”(Luke 23:43)? If we want
to be welcomed into the same paradise, the Kingdom of God, then, we must
cultivate a Christological insight to find the King of the Universe in those
whom this world tends to reject and condemn,
as the latter criminal recognized Jesus as the messianic King, while the
religious establishment, the Roman colonial authority, and the people of
Jerusalem condemned as king of the Jews.
This Christological insight must be put into our practice of works of
mercy, reaching out to Christ the King among those who have been rejected,
condemned, and marginalized, as we close the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
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