Preaching Peace: Christ the King

I think it's especially difficult for those of us who live in "Western" democracies to appreciate what it means to celebrate the feast we call "Christ the King." After all, a lot of blood has been spilled by our fathers and grandfathers and their grandfathers and for generations uncounted to make sure than none of us ever has to bend her knee or his knee to a king ever again.

We have accepted the notion that democracy (certainly the most humane form of government we have come up with in the realm of what Paul would call "the flesh") has the potential to generate the Kingdom, or Utopia as we might call it if we aren't allowed to use God language. Despite disappointment on top of disappointment and an irrefutable slide toward cultural collapse we cling to the idea that we can fix things, because every human king we've ever known has let us down.

I'm deeply indebted to my friends the "Giradians" for introducing me the work of Rene Girard, a system also known as "mimetic theory." In my favorite book by Rene (Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World) he speaks of the origins of monarchy, kingship in human culture. It explains a lot about the way we put folks who wind up on our pedestals.

You see, back in the day when appeasing the gods meant sacrificing a human being every so often, the one selected as the sacrificial victim often enjoyed considerable privileges in the period (as long as I year, I think I remember) leading up to his death. He had great power in the village and extraordinary prerogatives. He was "King for a Day" as it were. But the king's job is always to be the sacrificial victim. Until one day, some intended victim managed to use his influence to deflect the death meant for him onto some other poor slob in the village, and "Voila!" Monarchy! The cultural peace is preserved through the shedding of blood, but there is now a monarch to relieve us of the unpleasant (if unconscious) task of selecting a victim. A new cultural institution is born.

But somewhere deep, we remember that the king's job is really to die for us, and so we crucify most of the folks we choose as our leaders at some point.

Now, here's the thing.

I think we were right to see the king as one whose job it is to die for us. The only mistake we made was asking a human to fill in for the King of Kings, and this human's blood just didn't quite do the job. I think we made "kings" out of our sacrificial victims because the King of Kings has been our victim since the foundation of the world. So of course, it's not a really good idea to let folks make you a king in this world because we aren't very good at remembering that the dying has already been done for us by a King (or High Priest) whose blood, shed once, has atoned for all of us for all time and given us everlasting peace.

But it's precisely because Jesus is the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" that He is worthy to be King of Kings. There is no contradiction here between kingship and sacrifice, they are inseparable.

Western culture has spent centuries now trying to approximate the kingdom without the King. We have determined from our readings of Scripture and our own bent faculty of reason what such a kingdom should look like and we've tried to create the effect without the cause.

We can't make the world better. No matter which end of the political spectrum you sit on it's hard to imagine that we can fix things by doing more of what we've already done. In twelve step programs that kind of thinking is labeled "insanity."

Want the kingdom?

Make Jesus your King. Not your example. Not your friend (at least, not ONLY your friend). Not your teacher or healer. Your King. When I am surrendered to His Kingship (which isn't nearly as much of the time as I wish it were) I live in the kingdom, and His reign is that much closer to being a reality for everyone. Your surrender to His reign doesn't just change your life (though it does that, and wonderfully) it opens doors for others to do the same.

Worship Him. Magnify Him. Adore Him. Glorify Him. Make Him King and the kingdom you want will follow.