Matt
25:31-46
November 26, 2017
Christ the King
November 26, 2017
Christ the King
King Midas
is a story about a King who loves gold,
He was already rich beyond anyone
else, but he wishes
that everything he touched would
turn to gold.
He gets his wish, but he finds
that this is not a good thing.
Everything he touched did turn
to gold: flowers, furniture,
he couldn't sleep because his bed
was gold,
he couldn't eat because his food
turned to gold.
Then he touched his daughter and
she turned into solid gold.
He got what he wanted, but he was
miserable.
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Salvator Mundi Leonardo Da Vinci |
Shakespeare’s
Richard the Third
is the story about a King
is the story about a King
who as a prince stopped at
nothing to get to be King.
He puts his relatives in jail,
has some killed, and tells lies about others.
has some killed, and tells lies about others.
He finally becomes King,
but he is so frightened and suspicious because of
everything he did that he eventually
but he is so frightened and suspicious because of
everything he did that he eventually
kills one of his brothers and his
wife.
His kingdom rebels against him
and
and on the night before a great
battle,
the ghosts of everyone who
he has killed come to visit Richard.
he has killed come to visit Richard.
They tell him that he will die.
And the next day, Richard is
killed in a battle against his own brother.
King David
was the great King of Israel,
the chosen one, the anointed one.
He has everything he wants,
wealth luxury, many wives,
many concubines, even the power of God behind him,
wealth luxury, many wives,
many concubines, even the power of God behind him,
but one day he sees one of his
subjects,
Bathsheba bathing on a roof top.
Even though she is married and he
has eight wives of his own,
he decides that he wants her.
She concedes, because you don’t
refuse the king,
and she becomes pregnant with his
child.
So David sends her husband into a
dangerous battle and he is killed.
God is not pleased with David for
this, and David’s relationships
with his children are cursed for
the rest of his life.
These are just three stories about Kings
There are many more
stories about Kings who have many things,
but choose to use
their power for their own ends
to fill their own
wants and egos.
And that story
rings true even today.
The stories of sexual assault in the news
are stories of
powerful and wealthy men who have
most everything
they want,
but use their
positions to intimidate and coerce
younger and less
powerful people.
And it seems like many of our current world’s
leaders
seem to want
absolute loyalty from everyone
and will use
intimidation and violence
against their own
people to get it.
And our own leaders in this country spend
their
and power and
collateral just trying to make
corporations
bigger, and ensure that banks have more money,
and making
themselves more comfortable
at the expense of
the average American.
And our own president’s main objective seems
to be
to use his
considerable power and air time
to just to build himself up and defend his
ego.
The story seems to go that those who have the
most power
want more of it and
the only thing that satisfies them
is more than what
they had the day before.
Today is Christ the King Sunday,
where we remember
that Christ is our king,
our ultimate
leader, and the real leader of the world.
And in the parable
we hear, we see what Christ
uses his
considerable power for.
So, today we hear Jesus last parable.
The final one
before he is arrested and killed.
This is what he
leaves his disciples with.
Jesus says that at the end, that the Son of
Man
will come in glory,
just as you would imagine
the king of the
whole world coming:
On a throne with the angels surrounding him,
On a throne with the angels surrounding him,
draped around in
glory and splendor.
And at that moment, he judges all the nations
of the world.
But what does he
use his power for?
And what is the
basis for his judgment?
It’s not how much
money they provided for him,
or did they worship
him or bow down to him
and make him feel
good about himself
or did they honor
him give him enough loyalty.
No, his question for them is
“How did you treat the least of those among you?”
This is what is
important to the king.
This is what is
important to Jesus.
Did you give the hungry something to eat?
Did you give the
thirsty something to drink?
Did you welcome the
stranger? Clothe the naked?
Take care of the
sick? Visit the prisoner?
This is the basis
for the judgment of the world.
This is what is
important to the king.
Not whether you
bowed down before him
with the proper
reverence and ceremonies,
not that you gave
him what he wanted and made
his friends happy
and rich.
What is most important is that you used your
power to
take care of the least powerful in your nation.
So the parable says at the time of this
judgment
“All
the nations will be gathered before him,
and he will separate people one from another
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats”
and he will separate people one from another
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats”
They
translate that word there as people, but people is “laos”
or “anthropos” but the greek word
that’s there is “autos”
which is just the pronoun “them”
which more likely refers to the “nations”.
“All the nations will be gathered before him, and
he will separate them,
the nations, one from another.”
the nations, one from another.”
Most people who study this stuff
believe
that the intent of the parable was that the nations
would be divided like sheep and goats.
that the intent of the parable was that the nations
would be divided like sheep and goats.
This is not a parable about individuals, but
about nations.
This is not a
parable about our personal piety and mercy
This is parable
about politics and empires.
That one little
translation choice makes a big difference.
So how is the
nation we live in doing?
What is important
to our leaders?
Because in the end, we will not be judged on stock market rates,
or the strength of
our military,
the amount of
fortune 500 companies we have,
or even our
unemployment rates
all of which our leaders
seem to be most interested in.
We will be judged on how we treated
the least powerful
in our empire.
So have we fed the hungry?
17.4 million
households in the US suffer from hunger.
And food stamps are being cut.
And food stamps are being cut.
Have we given the thirsty something to drink?
After three years,
the people of Flint, Michigan
still cannot drink
their water and there is no movement to fix it.
Have we welcomed the stranger?
There is a rising fear
and hatred of immigrants in our country.
And much of the
country seems to be intent on
building a wall to separate us from our neighbors.
building a wall to separate us from our neighbors.
Are we taking care of the sick?
62 percent of
bankruptcies in this country are due to
medical bills and
healthcare for the poor is being cut.
Are we reaching out to the prisoner?
Because the US
represents only 4.4 percent of the world’s population
but we have 22
percent of the world’s prison population.
This is just a
short list.
How would our nation do?
Did the United
States recognize Jesus in the least of these?
The richest most
powerful nation in the world?
Would we be with
the sheep or with the goats?
With 75 percent of Americans still
identifying as Christian,
and with most of
our leaders identifying as Christian,
we should be doing
better, because this is what is important to Jesus.
This is what is
important to God.
This is what is important to the king.
This is what is important to the king.
It’s not about saying “Merry Christmas”
it’s not about
giving religious privileges to Christians.
It’s not about
sexual morality or policing women’s healthcare
or whatever passes
as Christian public policy these days.
What’s most
important is how we treat the least of these.
Now this might seem like all bad news,
That we’ll all be cast into the eternal fire.
That we’ll all be cast into the eternal fire.
But we remember
that this is a parable not an allegory.
This parable is not
here to make us feel guilty because
we personally didn’t
do enough for one person.
This parable is
here show us
what is the
ultimate concern for our savior and ruler.
And to tell us that
empires and nations who don’t care
for the least
powerful, will not stand in the end.
So it might be bad news to those who love
their wealth and power
and have no
interest in sharing it.
But I assure you, this
is good news for those of us
who feel chewed up by the system, and unable
to sustain
ourselves and keep our heads above water.
And this is good
news to all of us who ache and hunger for justice.
And who see our
brother and sister suffer and hurt for them.
Because they will
not suffer in vein.
It might not look so good for us now,
It might look like
we’ve failed the test
between the sheep
and the goats.
But Christ is King
and he wants to see all the nations
care for all their
people and if that’s what the king wants
that’s what the
king will get.
It may look like
we’re going in the wrong direction right now,
but God is in process to create a world
where greed and
apathy have no place.
Where violence and
hatred are only memories.
We live in a world that God created
and in the end, the
world will not sustain nations
who do not care for
the least among them.
We will be changed,
God’s way will be our way.
The good news of this parable is that we have
a King who cares.
We have a savior
who’s concern is for us all.
God doesn’t see
people just as tools that the more
powerful can
extract labor and resources from until we’re used up.
To Christ the king,
we are not just subjects or peasants.
From the most powerful to the least,
we are all the
King’s children.
I never understood that parable that way. The understanding of that one word makes a huge difference. Thank you for this very timely message. I was blessed by it.
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