My jokes this week are really bad. REALLY bad! I could hardly get a groan out of 'em at early Mass; I gave the folks a "bad joke warning" at the next two. You can't say I didn't tell you...
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Q. When
is a piece of wood like a king?
A. When
it's a ruler.
Q. What
member of the royal family should always carry an umbrella?
A. The
reigning monarch.
Q. Why
did the king go to the dentist?
A.
To get his teeth crowned.
As
an article I just read was pointing out,
we
Americans have an awkward relationship with royalty—
even
more awkward than those unfortunate puns.
The
very founding of our nation goes back
to
fighting for our freedom from an unjust king.
And
things don’t get much better if we look north of the border:
our
Canadian neighbors live in a very modern democracy,
yet
their head of state is in fact the Queen of England.
We’re
left with two rather divergent views of monarchy:
cruel
tyrants who exploit their subjects
and
ought to be overthrown,
or smartly-dressed figureheads whose curious family dynamics
or smartly-dressed figureheads whose curious family dynamics
add
some intrigue and elegance to the evening news. (cf. J. Martens)
Where
do such perceptions leave us on this solemnity
of
our Lord Jesus Christ the King?
Oh,
there are some who are quick
to
write Christ off as a divine dictator—
always
telling us mere mortals what to do.
That
would make him the worst sort of despot of all:
one
who actually is almighty.
How
many in the world today fancy themselves revolutionaries
as
they incite their compatriots to throw off
the
purportedly oppressive shackles of true religion!
But
when the “good thief” turned to get a look
at
the man crucified beside him,
was
it is a tyrant he saw?
No.
Christ
is not that sort of king.
And
we’ve got plenty of folks around
all-too-happy
to let Jesus be little more
than
a charming figurehead of heaven on earth.
His
life provides us with nice stories
with
a good message to tell the kids.
And
it makes for some pretty pictures, too,
especially
at Christmastime.
Attractive
to look at, pleasant to think about,
but
without much real influence—and even less real power—
to
make much of a difference in day-to-day life.
But
when St. Paul writes about the all-important “image” of this ruler,
do
you suppose he had in mind
maintaining
a high standing in popular culture?
No.
Christ
is not that sort of king, either.
Jesus
Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Father,
is
the flesh-and-bone image of the invisible God:
the
perfect embodiment of divine sovereignty.
No
mere figurehead
(he won’t be dismissed that easily),
(he won’t be dismissed that easily),
he’s
an absolute monarch.
He’s
absolute in his power—
a
power he employs, not to keep us down,
but—on
the contrary—to save us and set us free:
to
rescue us from the power of darkness—
the
darkness of error, the darkness of sin,
the
darkness in which we enslave ourselves
to so many false kings and so many false regimes—
to so many false kings and so many false regimes—
and
instead to transfer us into his kingdom of light;
an
absolute power he wields
not by shedding the blood of his enemies,
not by shedding the blood of his enemies,
but
by shedding his own.
That’s
because Christ’s power
isn’t
the only thing about him that’s absolute.
So
is his love.
The
Lord Jesus loves us absolutely—
enough
to even die for us.
Neither
a tyrant, nor a figurehead,
Christ
is a unique kind of king
reigning
over a unique kind of kingdom.
And
why does that matter?
What
difference does a feast such as this make?
Because
the sort of king that Christ is
dictates
the sort of subjects that we ought to be.
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