Authority & Sacrifice
Readings: Colossians 1. 9-20, Luke 23. 33-43
We have in our readings today two thing we might assume are opposed, and they often are in our world; power and authority, and sacrifice. Often we think of them as opposite ends of the spectrum. But in Christ they’re brought together.
Paul in the opening of his letter to the Colossians which we heard is praying that God would strengthen the believers there, because he has brought them out from the power of darkness and into the kingdom of light; the kingdom of Jesus. And Paul immediately segways into who this Jesus is, and he doesn’t go in the direction we might expect. There’s nothing about his humble birth, earthly ministry, teaching or miracles. Rather what we have is a celebration of Jesus’ supremacy, how he is above all things. It’s something well worth dwelling on on a Sunday like Christ the King.
Before anything else was God the Son was, with the Father and the Spirit. And everything was created through him, and not just through him but for him. Everything we see, from planets and nebulae, to grass and treefrogs were created for the Son, the one we know as the person of Jesus. All for him. He is before all things, Paul continues, and in him all things hold together. God the Son, Jesus, is the one who sustains our whole universe. Not only is everything created through him, it all continues to exist through him. There’s no getting away from it, this Son is powerful, is God himself, the supreme over all things. If everything is created though and sustained through him, that’s no ordinary person.
And having covered creation as it is right now, Paul moves onto the new creation. Jesus is the head of the Church; he and he alone is its head. Not priests or bishops or archbishops or popes, Jesus and Jesus alone. Which means as the church we need to be listening to him, and carefully so. What happens in church isn’t about us, it’s about him. And he is the firstborn of the dead, having died our death he has been raised to life, the firstborn of many brothers and sisters who will be raised with and through him into everlasting life. That’s us by the way, who believe and trust in him.
As we reach the end of this bit what do we have; power and authority. The one who is all powerful, to whom every knee should bend, the one who is in every way supreme. That’s the one we call King.
I’ve recently been watching the BBC series ‘His Dark Materials’ based on the book trilogy by Philip Pullman of the same name. I read the books as a teenager and am only a few years late to the TV series. Now in those books and series the big bad is essentially a version of the church. The anti-Christian, and particularly anti-catholic messaging is pretty unsubtle, moreso in the books. But in this universe the church, known as the magisterium serves a god they call ‘the authority’. And this is a being of immense power who demands submission, who seeks control over everything. And as such the Magisterium who serve this ‘authority’ is high on power and control and censorship. A constant grasping after power and control, at the expense of everything else. Here the saying certainly holds true, you become like what you worship.
But that can be how we end up thinking on Christ the King Sunday, a King who is high on power, high on control and authority, low on personality, compassion and mercy. Because often that’s the way of the world. Kings, particularly in the ancient world, were served, they were supreme, everything was about them, often at the expense of their citizens. Kings sent people off to war to die for them and their causes. Kings would have you executed for speaking out of turn or doing the wrong thing. They did as they pleased and there was little anyone else could do about it. High on power and authority, control and even coercion.
But the reason Paul is pushing this aspect of who Jesus is isn’t because that’s all there is to him, it’s to remind the Colossians just who this man is who has died for them, who has brought them back to God through his own blood on the cross. Paul doesn’t want them to accidentally play down just who Jesus is; the God of the Universe in human flesh.
And as Paul says, when the God of the Universe takes our nature upon himself, he does so not to exert power and authority and control, but to reconcile us to himself, to bring us home. Which brings us to our Gospel reading.
Here hangs the God of the Universe. The firstborn of creation, the one through whom and for whom all things were made, hanging between two criminals, slowly suffocating under his own weight as the nails tear at his flesh. Not crowned with gold but with thorns, not robed in purple but naked. Enthroned not on a great chair but a cross. And yet here is Jesus’ glory, here we see his kingship most clearly, the King of glory, dying for you.
The King of the Universe is not marked by raw power, but by the holding it back to die in your place so your sins can be forgiven. Not marked by an authority that demands submission through coercion or power, but through winning you to himself that you might obey out of love for him. His supremacy revealed by how far he will stoop. And he can stoop to the lowest place, because his supremacy isn’t something he needs to hold onto for fear of losing it, instead he can stoop to raise you up with him.
This isn’t a king who is high on power and authority, low on personality and compassion. Rather this is a King who flips everything on its head and dies for his people, dies for you, to bring you home. This is the one we call King.
How will you respond to this King who calls you to follow him, to become part of his Kingdom? Will you serve and honour him who has served you by his death and resurrection?
We have two pictures in that Gospel reading. The leaders and soldiers and one of the criminals who deride and mock him. For them this isn’t a king worth serving, he is weak in their eyes, worthless. He should save himself, that’s what Kings do! And yet if he saves himself, he cannot save you.
And yet on his other side hangs another criminal. And as Jesus bears the weight of all our sin on his shoulders, this criminal turns to him, recognising his own sin and guilt, recognising Jesus’ purity and righteousness. And what does he say ‘remember me’. It’s a prayer that echoes down through the Scriptures, Abraham, David, and many others praying to God in desperate moments ‘remember me’. And now this criminal says this same thing, hanging beside this same God. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And in his repentance, turning from his sin, and in his throwing of himself upon Jesus, he hears the words we should all take to heart ‘truly I tell you’ this is no lie, you can be certain of this ‘today you will be with me in paradise’.
And often we focus on the paradise part of that, and in many ways rightly so. The Greek translation of the Old Testament that the writers of the New used referred to Eden not as a garden but as a paradise. God planted a paradise in Eden. Jesus is assuring this criminal of a place in the new creation. But more than paradise, this criminal will be with him. You will be with me, Jesus says. And that truly is paradise, to be with this king.
Seeing the King who dies for us, the one who lays down all royal privileges and dies the death of a criminal such that we, criminals against God might be brought into the royal fold and given glory and honour, seeing him, will we respond as this second criminal? Recognising his power and authority will we throw ourselves on his mercy and compassion? And having done so, will we serve him as the one who is supreme? For now we can trust his power, obey his authority, because he has shown even unto death that he is truly for us. A King who will serve his people, who, whilst he is supreme, isn’t so occupied with that that he cares little for us, but because he is that can use it all for us.
My brothers and sisters, our King is Supreme, filled with power and authority over his people. And our King is Sacrifice, filled with love and compassion for his people. So in our following of him let us not lean too far to either side. Let us not see him as solely power and authority thus forgetting his love and compassion, serving him out of fear and having no assurance of our place as beloved children. But let us neither think so much of his love and mercy that we neglect his authority in our lives, living as we wish in the vain hope that he will simply affirm all our desires. Rather let us hold before us the King who is love and mercy, power and authority, knowing that he is for us in all things and love and serve him faithfully, now and all our days.
Amen.