The following is a written version of a sermon delivered at La Trinidad UMC in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday, November 24, 2024. It is reproduced here by request.
Scripture: Revelation 1:4b-8
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
INTRODUCTION
Today is the last Sunday within the Christian liturgical year. On this day, Christians look forward to the return of Christ while also professing Jesus Christ as King. But what do we mean by saying Christ is King?
Our text today is taken from the Book of Revelation, a book that gives us a mystical vision of the Risen Christ gathering the redeemed of the earth while being challenged by the radical forces of evil. It is a book unlike the others in the New Testament, and for some, the most intriguing. In Revelation, we also find references to that boogieman so often portrayed in scary movies, the antichrist or the beast.
When we profess Jesus Christ as King, we have two options. The first and most common is to project on to Jesus the attributes of worldly kings, claiming that he has changed from the lamb of God into a roaring, conquering lion, from a healer to a slayer, from a teacher into a dictator. If we choose the first option, it might be better to say that the Lord is Jesus, or the King is Jesus, since the candidate Jesus merely fills an office and role vacated by others.
The other option is to examine Jesus as he is revealed to us in the witness of Scripture. It is in this option that we encounter the true power of our profession, the power to challenge and to subvert the visions and values for authority that we accept as normal within our social order.
The gospels identify Jesus as Messiah, anointed one, Christ, the Son of God, Savior, and Lord. What kind of king or lord is Jesus? Let us compare Jesus to the kings of human history.
Worldly kings, without exception, seek popularity. As such, they tend to be pragmatic rather than idealistic. They thrive on praise, flattery, and their subjects know how to provide it, even when their “new clothes” are no clothes at all. Many seek to be worshiped in cults of personality, placing their likeness on coins, statues, portraits, and posters.
Did Jesus seek popularity? The gospel narratives teach us that Jesus became very popular. Large crowds gathered to hear him and receive healing and deliverance from their problems. Jesus often had to withdraw from these crowds to pray. This popularity, however, was shallow. Once Jesus focused his message on the true source of their problems, their idolatry, hypocrisy, corruption and sin, once he challenged their collusion with empire and their conversion of worship into a marketplace, his popularity turned to loathing. The adulating crowd became a mob calling for his crucifixion. Jesus remains faithful to his ideals and mission when even his closest friends betray and abandon him.
Worldly kings have to balance their lust for popularity with a practical need to be feared, lest anyone attempt to usurp, rebel, or replace them. Balancing the need for popularity and the imposition of fear is the very essence of bullying. Worldly kings engage in oppression that is selectively directed toward the unpopular, the outcasts, and the vulnerable, hoping this example will be sufficient cause for even their admirers to be intimidated. Is this the pattern of the Jesus we find in scripture?
To the contrary! Jesus teaches his disciples to love and revere God and fear divine judgment, rather than fearing kings: poverty, oppression, persecution, violence. Jesus freely befriends the oppressed, marginalized, and vulnerable people of the world and calls upon his disciples to treat such persons as they would treat Jesus himself. Jesus faces his own death without fear. Jesus is free of fear and frees others from fear.
Worldly kings and rulers tend to arise from positions of great wealth and unmerited privilege. They are aristocrats, plutocrats, and kleptocrats, using their position to amass even greater wealth. This inequitable wealth corrupts and manipulates politics and personalities to serve the status quo. In their pursuit of wealth, they exploit their subjects, pressing them into slavery, concubinage, and military service. They exploit the environment, mining it for silver and gold, and exploit the poor for trade.
Is this true of Jesus?
Jesus was born into a humble family. Other than his clothes and a simple home in Capernaum, what are Jesus’ possessions? In the gospels, we never even see him directly handle money, a role delegated to others. He encouraged the rich to give away their wealth and follow him and taught the poor to confide in the providence of God. In his ministry, Jesus travels mostly by walking and resides in the homes of others. He encourages his apostles to embrace the same simplicity. Jesus exploits no one, offering his own life for others. His only possessions are his friends.
Worldly kings and rulers are authoritarian and coercive in their use of power. Their wealth and military might are deployed to colonize neighboring cultures and extend their empires. Their will is imposed upon the people with no regard for conscience or consent. Their arbitrary rule becomes tyranny. Dissidents are marginalized, defamed, and punished with imprisonment and death. Is this the way of Jesus?
Jesus confronts his opponents with words of reason and truth, not with violence. He taught his disciples to forgive and love their enemies. When his disciple used a sword to defend him, Jesus healed the ear of the wounded soldier. Jesus compels no one. He conscripts no one. He invites those he encounters to leave their former business and follow into a new life. Jesus gives everyone a choice, respecting their agency and free will. He is authentic rather than authoritarian, and those who hear him marvel at this unique form of authority.
Worldly kings and rules tend to become corrupt, using their power to amass more power while setting up double standards for themselves and favored cronies. They are champions of the quid pro quo and conflicts of interest. Their personal lives are often marked by drama, sexual license, and misconduct with the sordid rumors of their corruption turned by the state media into enticing narratives, only increasing their popularity. Is this the way of Jesus?
Jesus never expects anyone to do something he himself would not do. He calls us to take up our cross while taking up his own cross. He calls us to obey God will manifesting the ultimate obedience to God. In Jesus, we encounter a perfect purity and consistency of motives, words, and deeds. He shows no partiality. He respects women, children, the sick, the foreigner, the outcast, the vulnerable. Even when mocked and taunted, he never uses his divine power for self-service.
Finally, worldly kings and rulers not only tend to be male, they tend to manifest the traits of toxic masculinity: narcissism, pride, misogyny, homophobia, bigotry, rudeness, self indulgence, consumption, pollution, dominance, bullying, loathing and mocking the weak, the feminine, and the empathetic. If the concept of toxic masculinity seems new or strange to you, perhaps you can remember the movie Animal House from 1978 depicting the excesses of a fraternity house.
Can you imagine Jesus as a fraternity pledge at the Animal House? In today’s world, can you imagine Jesus with an AR weapon driving a gas guzzling truck covered in offensive stickers?
Of course not! That Jesus is found no where in Scripture. Yet there are many animal houses in our society, and they are all preparing young men to enter the ruling class.
Here we see the danger of projecting our worldly concept of kings upon Jesus. It is the danger of turning Christ into Antichrist and Christianity into corruption.
The antichrist theme has inspired many films. In these fictional stories, a demonic child is born into a peaceful but unprepared world. His number is 666, the beast, and he grows up to gain wealth, power, and influence that establishes an evil government and leads the world to destruction.
The problem with this fictional narrative is that it treats the antichrist as an excepional individual. The antichrist is actually the norm, an archetype that repeats over and over within the empires of human history. When we project our worldly ideas about kings upon Jesus, we turn Christ into antichrist.
It is Jesus, not the antichrist, who is the exception! Jesus is the unique one. Jesus is the child who enters a world of corruption, sin, and oppression. His advent is declared by the angels and celebrated by the shepherds and gentile Magi, the light of the World.
To the toxic kings, rulers, and antichrists of this world, Jesus is not king. He is an anti-king, a dangerous, radical, usurper and dissident whose ways, values, morals, and life seek to overturn everything on which their corrupt kingdoms are built. They hate him, but cannot stop him. Jesus brings a new kingdom where the jaded recover their senses, the lame recover their agency, the poor recover hope and the captives are released from bondage.
To project the traits of worldly monarchs on Jesus is turn him from Christ to antichrist and empty his gospel of truth and power.
We choose to worship and serve the Jesus of the gospels, the Jesus revealed to us by the witness of the apostles. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Word made Flesh, is our Way, our Truth, and our Life. It is in this Jesus, the true Jesus, that we encounter the authentic nature of nobility, and through Jesus, our blind eyes recognize the nobility in every human soul within the dignity of God’s creation. The antichrists of the world nailed Jesus to a Roman cross, yet God raised him from the dead and exalted him, declaring Jesus to be our Lord and King!
It is this Jesus, the true Jesus revealed in Scripture, who is King of all kings, Lord over all lords, who is risen from the dead, who is present with us today, who saves us from sin and redeems our souls, who delivers us from evil, who unites us into beloved community, and who will never leave us nor forsake us. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. St. Paul reminds us that there is nothing the antichrists of this world can throw at us, no form of repression, coercion, scarcity, violence, or even death, that can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ our Lord.
Thanks be to God that we have Jesus as the only true King!