Sermon on Luke 23:33-43

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Today’s Gospel reading might seem like a strange one for Christ the King Sunday. We might expect to read about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem or Jesus’ righteous anger as he drove the moneychangers out of the Temple. Or maybe something from Revelation with a throne and a tongue like a sword.

But instead, we get Jesus at his lowest. He’s been arrested, passed from government authority to government authority in a sham trial, humiliated, tortured, nailed to a cross, and is waiting his last few hours for his body to give out.

What kind of a king is this?

Our country rejected having a king, but our society still glorifies power. We follow the lives of the rich and the influential.

We have a president, not a king, and still, British royal weddings always set the media on fire. We can’t get enough of the pomp and circumstance.

We want to see the insides of billionaires’ vacation homes in magazines, find out who designed the suit for that politician, and copy the habits of Fortune 500 CEOs.

We relish living vicariously through people who can’t be pushed around. Wouldn’t it be so nice to just throw money at a problem and not count the cost?

Despite our country’s values of independence and liberty, we still admire kingly attributes: powerful, prestigious, rich, aggressive, victorious.

But in order to gain and hold onto these attributes, it often requires an enemy.There needs to be an enemy to conquer or humiliate to make oneself grander, an enemy to unite against so that one’s followers will seek shelter in one’s protective walls.

In order for there to be an “us” for one to rule over, there must be a “them” to defeat. When we admire “kingly” attributes like power and aggression, what are we scared of?

This divisive, power-grabbing attitude is part of what Martin Luther called “theology of glory.” It’s basically a “name it and claim it” philosophy that means we get God’s blessing by our own power and achievement.

Luther contrasted “theology of glory” with “theology of the cross.”

There’s no better way to explain theology of the cross than by telling the story of our Gospel reading today.

Jesus was a king—his enemies taunted him with that title and wrote it sarcastically on his cross. But he was the Messiah, the Son of God. He could have saved himself, just like his mockers dared him.

But instead, his power was made perfect in weakness. At his lowest, he was at his most powerful. He joined humanity in all of our suffering. We have a God who knows what it’s like to hurt, to be mocked, to die.

The word “compassion” means to “suffer with.” We don’t have a God distant from us, who’s indifferent to suffering. We have a God who became one of us to fully enter the human experience (we’ll be celebrating that in the upcoming seasons of Advent and Christmas). God knows what the whole human experience is like, including suffering, humiliation, and death.

Jesus showed us a different kind of king and a different kind of God than we humans could imagine.

Instead of “power over,” “theology of glory” domination, he showed us what real power looks like.Real power is forgiving, reconciling, merciful.

When the new Superman movie came out this year, my spouse, Eric, showed me several older Superman movies to get me oriented. He pointed out how much restraint Superman had, especially in his younger years. He was literally stronger than anyone else on Earth, and so when his classmates would bully him, he could have destroyed them. But he didn’t. He didn’t defend himself—only others. He didn’t give in to his ego—only used his powers to protect people from harm inflicted by those who exhibit the aggressive, dominating form of power.

As with any analogy, it breaks down eventually, but Superman and Jesus both showed the self-emptying power that surpasses the dominating, “kingly” power of this world.

Jesus shows his kingly power by living out his mission statement that he set out in Luke 4:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

To the end, he was proclaiming release to the captives by telling the person on the next cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

This is the king we say we follow. He doesn’t protect his ego or dominate others. He lifts up the lowly and brings healing and love to our world that needs it so badly, this world dominated by the powerful and ego-driven.

Jesus was creating a Beloved Community that continues to grow to this day, and we get to be a part of it. It’s not easy, and it’s not comfortable. It goes against the way we’re told the world works. There’s no pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. There’s no “God helps those who help themselves.” There’s no “looking out for number 1.”

There’s only following our dying king, emptying ourselves of power the way he did, showing the world there are other ways of being.

Instead of climbing the ladder, we love our neighbor.Instead of adoring the rich and powerful, we glorify our crucified God.

By Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are freed from the world’s power, freed from the striving and hustling and posturing.Thank God!

We are freed to live in Jesus’ example, bringing good news to the poor and healing to the world.

Not only is today Christ the King Sunday—it’s also Thankoffering Sunday. We’ll get to why that’s an especially meaningful day for this congregation a little later in our service.

But today’s a day when we get to celebrate Jesus’ compassionate power—our God who suffers alongside us and promises to wipe our tears away. And it’s also a day when we get to offer our thanks as we learn to follow his example with generosity.

We won’t ever follow his example perfectly, and we don’t have to, thanks to him, but we do get to do what we can to live out the Beloved Community where everyone belongs and is cherished.

As we sing “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” remember what kind of king Jesus is and give thanks.