Solemnity of Christ the King

(Luke 23, 35-43)

Imagine this scene in a movie we may have seen in the not so distant past. A condemned criminal sitting on an electric chair in the last minutes of his life, an executioner just waiting for the signal to pull the lever to activate the electric chair, a police officer looking at the clock waiting nervously until the clock strikes 3pm, the time of the execution, another police officer waiting for the phone to ring. Then just a few seconds before the hour of three, the phone rings. It’s the President, suspending the execution, then the sigh of relief for everyone, especially the convicted criminal.

Our gospel for today, strangely enough, is not really the way we know what a king should look like. The gospel describes Jesus hanging on the cross in the last minutes of his life. Throughout history, there have been many ways of executing another human being. And during the time of Christ, the most popular way of execution was by crucifixion. This method was invented by the Persians and eventually perfected by the Romans. The idea is first weaken the criminal and this is usually done through scourging, which was done to Jesus prior to crucifixion. Then the victim is nailed in a very awkward position where the victim would have trouble breathing. And eventually, the victim dies through asphyxiation. The process can last from a few hours to a few days. And to compound the situation, this is done in a place where everyone can see it as a warning for everybody if anybody wants to mess with the peace or what they called “Pax Romana”. Now if you are looking for what a king should look like, this is actually the opposite of what we would expect. But still, why was this image chosen for this feast of Christ the King? Was it because in the gospel there’s a phrase that said, “There was an inscription above his head that says, ‘The King of the Jews.’” There must be more than just this.

Jesus throughout his life forced us to look differently at the things that are around us. What we think are valuable are useless to Jesus. And what we think are not important or trivial are important to Jesus. For example, when the Jewish society, and most of us, think that children are not important because they can’t be productive in society, Jesus says, if you don’t become like a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. When we think that forgiving seven times is already enough, Jesus says, that we should forgive seventy times seven times. When we think that loving our family and relatives are enough, Jesus says, we should love strangers and even our enemies.

So if Jesus Christ is truly King, how does Jesus wants us to understand his kingship? Our understanding of a king is about ruling. A king gives orders to his subjects on what they should do. If they disobey the king, subjects might get punished for disobedience. A king lives in a palace and lives a very comfortable life compared to his subjects. A king sometimes led an army to fight against the people who wanted to invade his kingdom. And also on important occasions give pardon to criminals who are doomed to die.

Jesus wants us to understand that his kingship is different. Jesus wants to rule in our hearts but only if we allow him to. Jesus never lived in a palace because he wants to be with his subjects and most especially with his subjects that are poor and marginalised. Jesus definitely leads the fight against evil but only if we choose to be on his side. And the last one definitely resonates with the gospel for today, he has the power to forgive and give pardon to everyone who asks for it.

This leads us to a reflection on the recent tragedy in the Philippines with Typhoon Haiyan. There will not be a few who would be asking where is God in all these things. Jesus as king could have simply taken over the whole world so that there will no longer be any wars, tears, death and sadness. However, Jesus never wanted do such things if our free will would be suppressed in any way.

What Jesus did instead was to be with us, to suffer with us and in many cases to die with us. When the thief who was crucified with Christ was also dying, he knew what kind of person Jesus was. And all he wanted was to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom. What he got is more than he asked and he became the first person to enter into paradise with Jesus.

In everything that is happening around us, let us remember that Jesus is still our King and if we ask to be remembered Jesus will never forget us.