Christ The King

Although his time on earth was short, Jesus created quite a stir during his even briefer ministry (Luke 23:35-43). He challenged the oppressive Jewish laws, tradition and the Roman hierarchy. He made no class distinction and consorted with the disenfranchised members of society. Conventional wisdom was an oxymoron to Jesus as he set aside the “purity code” by proclaiming it wasn’t what went into your mouth that mattered but what came out. He wasn’t a king, a priest, or a prophet. He performed many miracles that included healing the sick and bringing the dead back to life. Yet Jesus refused to save himself and was executed along with 2  criminals. And to compound the indignity, the soldiers knelt at his feet, not to worship, but to gamble for his clothes, while deriding his reign as “king of the Jews.” The crucified Jesus bore no resemblance to a "king" and so they mocked him. 

Yet, for some reason, one of the two thieves also being executed reprimanded the other who derided Jesus’  and spoke with compassion as he took pity on him and implored Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Now, what made this criminal know that he was in the presence of God? 
 

We celebrate the feast of Christ the King, not because of his regal bearing, but because of his humility; not because of his power, but because of his compassion; not because of his triumph, but because of his travail; not because he fixes our lives, but because he shows us the way to live. 

And what about this kingdom of God? Where is it? Richard Rohr writes that “if we go to the depths of anything, we will begin to knock upon something substantial, ‘real’ and with a timeless quality to it. We will move from the starter kit of ‘belief’ to an actual inner knowing. This is most especially true if we have ever loved deeply; accompanied someone through the mystery of dying, or stood in genuine life changing awe before mystery time or beauty. This ‘something real’ is what all the worlds’ religions were pointing to when they spoke of heaven or the kingdom of God. They were not wrong at all; their only mistake was that they pushed it off into the next world. If God’s Kingdom is later, it is because it is first of all now…In other words, heaven/ union/ love now emerge from within us much more than from a mere belief system and  as Jesus promised the Samaritan woman, “the spring within her will well up into eternal life. (John 4:14)”