The kingdom he came to proclaim was the kingdom of God’s merciful love. It was his capacity to love that put Jesus on a Roman cross. What kind of king was this crucified man? There is hymn I like very much and its opening line is, ‘The king of love my shepherd is, whose goodness fails me never’. As Jesus hung from the cross, God was offering him as King to all of humanity. Yet, those who looked on this title with eyes of faith knew that it was proclaiming a profound truth. Nothing could be further from the power and luxury of kings of the time than this powerless, pitiful man, who had been stripped of everything. As Jesus hangs from the cross, the Romans place an inscription over his head, ‘This is the king of the Jews’. Rather, it takes us to the site of a Roman crucifixion. The gospel reading for today’s feast of Christ the King does not bring us inside a splendid and lavish palace. Service, especially service of those considered the least, would be the hallmark of his kingdom. The kingdom of God Jesus was proclaiming was not like any earthly kingdoms, and he would be a very different kind of king to the kings and rulers people were familiar with. But it is not so among you but whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant’.
In reply to their request, Jesus said, ‘You know that among the pagans, those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.
They imaged God’s kingdom to be a mirror image of the kingdoms of the world and they wanted as much status as possible in that kingdom. On one occasion, two of Jesus’ closest disciples, James and John, asked Jesus for the most honourable seats in his coming kingdom, one on his right and the other on his left. Most of Jesus’ contemporaries, including his own disciples, struggled to understand this difference. The kingdom of God whose coming he announced was a very different kind of kingdom to the kingdoms of this world. Jesus was a very different kind of king to any earthly king at the time or since.
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