Christ the King Sunday
Matthew 25:34-40
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And, when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And, the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
Finding God
When I was younger, I would have these moments when it seemed like I could feel God’s presence with me. Sometimes, when I prayed, it would almost be like I was having an out of body experience. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’m going to try. Sometimes, it would feel like my sense of self, my consciousness would shrink down into this tiny dot, and I would be floating in the middle my body. And, when that happened, my body would feel like this huge, cosmic, empty space. And, I could hold on to that otherworldly feeling for maybe a minute, before I would just snap back to normal reality and normal sensations. Other times, it would feel like I was having vertigo, or I would think of something that seemed to come out of nowhere, and I would think that was God speaking to me.
As I got older, I experienced these things less and less, and I started to wonder if I had lost my ability to feel God. Or, maybe I was praying the wrong way, or not praying enough. I’m not saying that I never experience these things anymore, but they’re rare, now, and I miss it. I miss the days when it felt like God was laughing at something that I did, or when it felt like God was wrapping a warm blanket around me. But, as I’ve gotten older, as I went to seminary and I learned more about the Bible and how others approach spirituality and the divine, I learned that there are many ways to know that God is with you.
Today is Christ the King Sunday, which is a little strange for us in the United States; we’re not really used to dealing with kings and queens and things. It was a feast day that the church came up with around World War I, as a way to combat the nationalism that was beginning to crop up at the time. The goal was that Christ the King Sunday would help people to see that everyone was a part of God’s family, one family together, instead of dividing ourselves along national lines. As we think about Christ as King, we can think about what it means to be a citizen and what it means to be a Christian, who we give our allegiance to, and what it means for us to be part of the Kingdom of God.
The title of King is one part of the three-fold office of Christ, the other two being Christ the High Priest, and Christ the Prophet. In the verses just before our reading, all of the nations of the world have been gathered together before Jesus, and he sits in judgement over them, as Christ the King. It makes me want to ask, what would Jesus see in our own actions? How would Jesus judge us?
Being part of the Kingdom of God means that we are living as the embodied demonstration of God’s grace in the world. In this gospel reading, we can see that means feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison.
Prison in the time that this gospel was written was not typically used as a punishment; those hearing Jesus speak would most likely think of it as a place to hold people awaiting trial. It was the responsibility of their loved ones to provide for their basic needs while they were in jail, so food, water, clothing. But, Jesus was telling his the disciples that they needed to do more than to just serve one another, or the people in their family. He was asking them to take care of those who may not have anyone else to care for them. He’s asking them to make life less oppressive for those who need mercy the most.
The words used here in chapter twenty-five of Matthew, the last public address of Jesus in this gospel, are deliberate. When Jesus says, “Come, you that are blessed…” we are reminded of Jesus’ first public address: the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes. Just like last week with the parable of the talents, we return to the Sermon on the Mount because that is the author’s intention. Matthew wants us to think about Jesus’ first public address as we read about his last one. “Come, you that are blessed…” “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
A few verses later, in this final speech that Jesus gives, when the people in the story ask the king, “when was it that we did not take care of you,” the verb here is actually “to serve.” So, it might be more properly translated as, “When was it that we did not serve you.” This takes us back to chapter twenty, when Jesus said, “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus is drawing on all of the time that they spent together, reminding them of all the things that he taught them, to help them understand. As we look at our gospel reading today, we need to remember that these are some of the last words that Jesus spoke before he was arrested and crucified. He was telling his disciples that they had to continue his work without him.
And, that work continues to this day. There are untold numbers of sick, unsheltered, or imprisoned people in the world. There are people who have been displaced by war, there are people in our modern day who struggle to find clean water to drink. It doesn’t matter what country these people live in or come from or what their faith tradition is. The only descriptor that Jesus used to identify those who should be helped is by their suffering: hungry, naked, imprisoned. And, Jesus identifies with them.
We encounter Jesus whenever we help those in need. He’s embodied in those who suffer, in the imprisoned, in the hungry. I might not have these personal miraculous experiences of God anymore, but I don’t need them to know that God is with me. When we venture forth to do God’s work, we see that God is already there, waiting for us among the suffering people in the world.
I feel so blessed to be part of a congregation that understands this intuitively. As you all reach out to the wider community to help those in need, the hungry and the sick, the unsheltered and the refugees, you are reaching out your hand to Jesus. You are making the connections that bind us all together as the family of God, and you are helping to bring the Kingdom of God into the world, into our present day.
Today, as we look at the last days of Jesus’ life, we also look forward to the start of Advent, when we celebrate his coming, the beginning. As we await the coming of Christ the King, Christ the High Priest, Christ the Prophet, let us remember why he came. To bring us together, and to ease the suffering of all people. To teach us how to ease the suffering of all people. You have been charged with bringing God’s peace, mercy, and love to those who need it most. You are the face of Christ, the Caregiver, the Teacher, and the Healer. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
