Christ The King – November 21, 2021

Christ The King – November 21, 2021

34BKing21.     Daniel 7:13-14.  This Old Testament passage makes a wonderful presentation of  the New Testament Jesus, who here is not seen as a person in the flesh and who has subjected himself to the cruelties of evil human beings, but now as a glorious heavenly being who has everlasting dominion over all.

Psalm 93.   “The Lord is king, in splendor robed; robed is the Lord and girt about with strength.”

John 18:33b-37.   Jesus answers Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” “’My kingdom is not here.’ So Pilate said to him, ‘Then you are a king?’  Jesus answered, ‘You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’” For Jesus the truth is eternal, timeless reality, in which our universe amounts to no more than a tiny pin head.  For us as humans, truth or reality is quite often what is around us in space and time.  It is whatever touches us or what we individually are in contact with.  For Jesus, truth is infinite; for us, reality is infinitesimal, minute or microscopic, that is, our little world.  To recognize Jesus as our king is to accept his invitation to us to live in the whole of reality, the truth. What a spectacular realm it is over which Jesus is king!

Revelation 1:5-8.   “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.”   Jesus is at one and the same time king in his majesty over us and at the same time suffering savior in his unimaginable self-sacrificing love on the cross for us.  He is glorious by the power of his love.  We recognize his kingly glory by submitting ourselves daily to his loving will.