Sermon for Christ the King Sunday, Preached at St. John's Church in Brownwood, Texas, Nov. 25, 2007

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. From St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians

The King is known by many names and titles. His given name, Yeshua, means “The LORD saves” in Hebrew, and it may be rendered in English as either Joshua or Jesus. Both the Blessed Virgin Mary and her betrothed, St. Joseph, had received this sacred name by revelation. Their child would be called Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins.” Of course, Mary’s Son would bear not only the name Jesus but also Immanuel—“God with us”--and He would be called “the Son of the Most High.” But these were not the first titles given to Him. Eight centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah predicted the little boy would “be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” weighty names and titles for such a tiny baby! Little wonder that Mary “treasured up these things in her heart” after she received the news at the hands of an archangel, too amazed even to speak.

Yet of all the exalted titles our Lord Jesus bears, none was more central to the early Church’s proclamation than the title “anointed One,” rendered Meshiach—“Messiah”--in Hebrew or Christos—“Christ”--in Greek. Jesus had first been hailed as God’s anointed king over Israel during his earthly ministry, and it was the charge of claiming a kingship that sent Him to death on a Roman cross. Unlike Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas the High Priest, however, you and I understand that the Christ’s Kingdom was not of this world. His royal authority was not rooted in earthly power but in divine Love. For this king had been anointed by the Holy Spirit with power and grace. Through this king the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the dead live again. And at the appointed time this king, who was in the beginning with God, made atonement for our sins by His own precious Blood and put death to flight by the power of His resurrection. By the might of Christ Jesus God does save in very truth.

As the Prince of Peace seated at the right hand of His Father, Christ reigns as a king of limitless power today. The demons of Hell are right to quake at the very mention of His name. The darkness has nowhere to hide from the Light that entered the world at Bethlehem. When confronted by the Truth incarnate—God’s saving power made flesh--the vaunted strength of “the father of lies” proves feeble. And the day is coming, dear brothers and sisters, when our Lord and King will make a footstool out of Death, our final enemy, and the spiritual forces of wickedness that corrupt and destroy the creatures of God will join every other being in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, bending knee in submission to the Sovereign whose name is above all names, Jesus the Christ.

Beyond doubt, Christ the King is endowed with immense divine power. But to those who earnestly repent of their sins and turn to God in faithfulness the name of the King of Kings is a source of joy, not fear. For the Lord of Creation’s divine name is also a human name. In the Incarnation “the image of the invisible God” stooped down to take on our flesh and bone, our joys and sorrows, our frailty and our mortality. And He took a Name like our names: Jesus, son of Mary, of the household of David. You and I may know Him—we do know Him—by this human Name. We are brothers and sisters of the King by adoption, made children of the living God through faith in His Blood.

Today we are poised on the brink of Advent, four weeks during which we prepare ourselves for the Christ Mass, that special celebration of the coming of the King, the crucial moment in the history of the cosmos when the Creator God actually entered time and space, becoming one of His own creatures. Without the Nativity there would have been no sacrificial Lamb for Calvary, no precious Blood to wash us whiter than snow, no Sovereign to reign from His cross, and no union of a flawless human nature with the Source of Life itself to triumph over death at Easter. But the course of our salvation did not end with Christ’s empty tomb. With His Ascension into Heaven Christ our King carried His own perfect, sinless human nature into eternity, uniting our humanity—in the form the Creator meant it to have--with the Godhead in an unbreakable bond.

When we confess in the creed that Christ has “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father,” we are not saying that the Prince of Peace has left the scene and is reclining in regal retirement. We are recognizing that our Lord Jesus, the Word made Flesh, “sits” enthroned in sovereign rule over all creation as the second person of the Holy Trinity. Because Christ the King has ascended back to His Father, the hands that now hold the scepter of the Universe are human hands, hands that still bear the scars of perfect Love. The Lord who sits upon the great judgment seat of God is our brother, bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh.

But let us remember that the Christ was anointed not only as King, but as a Priest forever. Our Lord Jesus abides eternally in the presence of the Father as our great High Priest, interceding in His humanity on behalf of His kindred on earth. We read in the letter to the Hebrews that “when Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things to come … he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” For “Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” The One who pleads for us at the Mercy Seat with the Blood of atonement is Himself the sacrificial Victim without blemish. In the words of Saint John, “If anyone sins we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for our only, but for the sins of the whole world.” The Priest-King who ascended to the right hand of Power now pleads for us, interposing His own Blood between His Father and our sin.


When our Lord Jesus returned to His Father in the Ascension He was not only rising up to assume the fullness of His role as eternal Priest and King. He was also blazing a trail. All those who have repented of their sins and turned to Christ in faith, receiving the washing of regeneration, will ascend where He has led the way. One day you and I shall follow in His royal footsteps, if we abide in His truth and live in His love. Yet we need not wait until we leave this earthly life to follow our King into Heaven. We may do so right here and right now. For this Holy Eucharist we offer together is a portal into the very throne room of God.

“Lift up your hearts… We lift them to the Lord.” When we say these words in a few minutes we will remind all creation that the veil between Heaven and earth has once again been pierced, just as it was when Christ ascended into Heaven long ago. Our hearts and souls will rise to be with their Lord, and we shall join angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven in their great song of praise. We shall bask in our Lord’s heavenly glory, even as our King and our God descends in the power of the Spirit to share His precious Body and Blood with us on earth! An earthly priest will lend our Heavenly High Priest his hands and his voice so that our eyes and ears of flesh may see and hear the Truth that our hearts know deep within them. And our brother, the King, will again come down “the heavenly way” He trod so long ago and come among us to re-present His sacrifice of Calvary, made once-for-all yet offered eternally to glory of God the Father. Lift up your hearts indeed! Alleluia, praise the ever-lasting King! Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.