November 23, 2025
The inscription above the cross on which Jesus died read: “This is the King of the Jews!”
It was a placed above the cross to mock Jesus and those who followed him. It was as if the religious and political leaders along with those from the crowd who demanded Jesus’ crucifixion along with the religious and political leaders wanted to say “So, this is your king, huh!” The inscription above the cross was intended to be slanderous and laced with sarcasm. And that’s not all. The leaders scoffed at Jesus shouting that he should save himself if he really is the chosen one. The soldiers said the same. Offering him sour wine, they remarked, “Save yourself if you are the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals hanging next to Jesus repeated the sentiment though his request may have been earnest as he said with a sense of personal urgency: “Save yourself and us.”
When it came to being a king, Jesus was unable to pass the litmus test. He died a criminal, forsaken, a veritable failure. This was no king.
A real king would have fixed things. A real king would have saved the day by using violence against an enemy. A real king would restore order to Israel and reestablish a divinely ordered monarchy. A real king would save his own life. Jesus failed to match up. He died as one deemed a criminal and even forsaken by some of his closest followers. Jesus was a failure by all accounts. According to the expectations of what a king should be and how a king ought to behave, Jesus was no king.
Yet, here we are on this festival of Christ the King making the audacious claim that Jesus, the one who was no king, is king. The crucified man is now risen and reigns. Jesus is a king out of step with others kings. And his kingdom, his a kingdom out of step with the kingdoms of the world. We quite agree with the passage today from Colossians that Jesus is the image of the invisible God and that Jesus was there at the beginning of creation, that he holds heaven and earth together and that he has rescued us from death and into life where there is freedom and forgiveness.
Yes, we make that claim and even use royal imagery common among some kingdoms to describe Jesus as Ruler of all and Lord of the church. We sing songs and lift up scripture that puts Jesus on a throne and wearing a crown.
Still, this king is unlike any other. This king is no king.
Christ the King Sunday is quite a day. It is a kind of liminal day, an in-between day situated at the end of this liturgical year and looking toward a new liturgical year that begins next Sunday. Today is both an ending and a beginning as we exalt Christ who said “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” Christ in our time and beyond time is the lynchpin between the long season after Pentecost and Advent. Today we proclaim that all our endings and beginnings are in him. So, on a festival like today we pull out all the stops, adoring Christ as we might honor any ruler or king. There is pomp and circumstance. And the one we adore who is enthroned as king is no king.
How do we proclaim this message?
I take great inspiration in how this festival came into being. Most of our celebrations in the liturgical year go back 1,000 years or more but today, the feast of Christ the King Sunday has been around for only 100 years.
It was introduced by Pope Pius in 1925. Pius instituted this feast as a counter-protest to the prevailing kingdoms of the world. It was both a wise and pastoral move. The political climate in 1925 was one where kingdoms were turning toward dangerous ideologies and tyrannical rule. In 1925, Hitler produced his manifesto, Mein Kompf and, in 1925 Mussolini had just taken power in Italy. Fascism was on the rise. The kingdoms of empire were growing stronger and moving toward an extreme form of authoritarianism. Pope Pius wanted to proclaim that the reign of Christ is nothing like these kingdoms. By creating the festival of Christ the King, Pius was offering a counter-narrative and a witness to the Gospel. With the introduction of this new feast day, he was critiquing every form of earthly power. Christ the King is no despot or dictator who uses violence to promote himself or any cause. Christ rules by mercy and grace.
Pope Pius was on to something. A way to remind the church and to proclaim to all that the kingdom of Christ is led by the one who was no king and it is an alternative to powers of domination, force, violence, and greed.
At all times this is an urgent message but I wonder if especially now this might be a Pope Pius moment for the church. For Pius, the pressing concern was with the rise of totalitarianism.
Might we say the same now?
There have been peaceful demonstrations in the form of the “No Kings” rallies. There is great concern that in this land of democracy, there is a turn toward a fierce kind of authoritarianism where government agencies are now at the beck and call of the president with a personal agenda. Might the church witness with greater fervor about the reign of Christ, the king who is “no king?”
One of the grim realities is that time and again throughout the history of the Christian church, the church itself has become complicit in the world of empire and raw power. Many of us are subject to this to one degree or another and we are free to admit and seek forgiveness. When it comes to the big scale, I see it happening now in this country in the rise of “Christian Nationalism.”
Christian Nationalism is nothing new in America. Now it seems to be a large and influential movement. It stems from the belief that this is a Christian nation that is special or exceptional, standing out among the nations of the world as the supreme nation. It is an attempt to merge American identity and Christian identity or patriotism with faith. Such an unholy alliance is nothing more than an ideology and a fierce one. Christian Nationalists are not beyond using intimidation, force, hate crimes, violence, and vandalism, as means of coercion. The movement carries marks of racism and patriarchy and it pushes a particular Christian view as the only view and they believe that the practice of it ought to be legislated by the government.
Does any of this resemble the reign of Christ? I don’t think so.
Can we muster the courage to call out such a distortion of faith? This ideology ends up being, in its theology and practice no different than the kingdoms of the earth.
Might this be a Pope Pius moment where the church witness to the reign of Christ with great urgency and articulation. We are called to point to the one who is no king and bear witness to Christ by practicing the way of Jesus in loving enemies and praying for them, lifting up the poor and hungry and homeless and giving dignity to every human life, cease and revisits when it comes to endless bickering and demonizing one who disagrees with you, call out policies that treat people as less than human be it immigrants coming to this country or those who are discriminated against because of their sexual identity or lack of social standing. How might we witness to the reign of Christ where all neighbors are loved the same and there is no one or no nation better or more holy than another?
How might we, in word and deed, proclaim the good news of God in Christ Jesus in a moment like this?
As Christians we walk to the beat of a very different drummer and though the leaders and many in the crowds concluded that Jesus failed, look again at the story of the crucifixion from Luke’s Gospel and see how the nature of Christ’s reign and kingdom takes place. See how the one who was “no king” exercised his authority.
Frist, he prays to God for his captors. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Second, to one of the thieves on the cross who asks to be remembered when Jesus comes into his glory, he says “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
In the midst of a messy and compromised world and even in death, Jesus gave the thief the tremendous gift of being loved just as he is and in praying for those who executed them, he handed his life over to God.
This kingdom wasn’t just at the place of crucifixion, the cross shaped Messiah and his reign of justice continues.
The Risen Jesus continues to bear the scars and the nail marks of the cross. Christ reigns as one who knows the marks of suffering and is no stranger to the human journey and from this place of compassion Jesus extends grace and mercy. And his commands are all derivative of the great commandment to love God and one another and ourselves just as God loves us.
So, today on this Christ the King Sunday lets us again commit our lives, indeed all our endings and beginnings to the one who reigns with mercy and whose kingdom will last forever. Amen.