Crown Him With Many Crowns: A Reflection on the Reign of Christ the King

By John Stephen Dwyer, CC BY-SA 3.0

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.  Revelation 1:4b-8.

In Christian liturgics, Kingdomtide (also referred to as Ordinary Time, the season after Pentecost to the first Sunday of Advent) culminates in the Reign of Christ the King. The liturgical calendar provides the church the sweeping arc of the Christian narrative and reminds us of God’s gracious provision of full salvation in and through Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is Lord over all of creation (yes, even now!), and is our soon-coming King. Bridging the beginning and end of the calendar year is the Alpha and Omega himself, giving witness that his reign is the fundamental reality that gives meaning to everything else, that in all things he has the supremacy. The church must heed the realities to which this feast day points and affirm it in both its confession and its common life.

The Feast of Christ the King was a relatively late addition to the Western liturgical calendar. Pope Pius XI instituted it in his 1925 encyclical Quas primas; Protestant denominations adopted its observance during the ecumenical reforms of the mid-20th century. Written in the aftermath of World War I, the establishment of this feast day was Pope Pius XI’s response to increasing secularization and global instability; it was to serve as a perpetual reminder of the need for submission to the true King and Lord, Jesus Christ, and our citizenship in his kingdom. This feast day was also to remind the church that peace is ultimately and only found in obedience to Christ within the realm of his reign. From the opening statement of Quas primas: “as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.” On this feast day, the church sounds a resounding “no!” to any individual, state, or nation that would claim ultimate authority and allegiance and raises a loud “yes!” to the reign of Christ the King.

What does it mean to call Jesus Christ King? There is a tendency in mainline Protestantism to strip Jesus of any claim to exclusivity, superiority, or transcendence. To ascribe to Jesus offices such as King and Lord is offensive to contemporary ideologies of diversity, equity, and inclusion, so Jesus is frequently reduced to a moral exemplar or exceptional religious teacher. Our wider culture (and often the church) affirms that people are wonderful just as they are; in the words of Lady Gaga, “Just love yourself, and you’re set.” If we are born without any fault, without an old nature that desperately needs the saving and sanctifying grace of God, there is no need for a King to whom we must submit our wills, desires, and impulses; nor is there need of a divine realm in which we are called to live the cruciform life. Sin and its epistemic consequences are mere psychological problems solved with a good therapist. Within churches influenced by this cultural milieu, neologisms like “kin-dom” and “kid-dom” often oust biblical words like “kingdom,” and titles such as “King” and “Lord” are deemphasized or even excised entirely from liturgical and theological language. In doing so, however, one is left with something different from traditional Christianity; the result is a Jesus that bears little resemblance to the Savior encountered in the pages of Scripture and affirmed by the church catholic through the ages. The pre-existent Word who became flesh, the “image of the invisible God” who himself created “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” is reduced to being just another one of the kin (albeit a special one) in God’s family.  

Demurring to language of kingdom and kingship reveals a limited engagement with the biblical text and an impoverished theological imagination. The desire to correct exclusively male conceptions of God and to elevate women’s place in ministry right alongside men is a laudable objective. I have and will continue to be an active participant in that effort; I am grateful to be part of a denomination that affirms women’s leadership, from lay ministry to the episcopacy. Altering biblical language, however, reveals a hubristic hermeneutic (do we really know better than Jesus the titles to which he should be ascribed?) that leads to misunderstanding and therefore misrepresenting the redemptive arc of history, “God’s mighty acts in Jesus Christ.” Part of the Messiah’s mission was to offer a corrective to the oppressive kingdoms of the world. The prophet Ezekiel, in the reading assigned for Christ the King Sunday in year A of the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), foretold of a time when God himself would step into history and be the sort of Lord over his people that the appointed shepherds of the worldly kingdom were unable to be. The bad kings of Israel and surrounding kingdoms would be supplanted by the one true King, who would then draw his people under his aegis to serve him in his kingdom. In fulfillment of that prophecy, throughout his public ministry Jesus continually subverted dominant structures of kingdom and kingship, revealing that true authority and dominion is manifest in loving, sacrificial service, especially to the marginalized. Through his ministry to the poor and the marginalized and through his healing acts around Galilee, Jesus redefined and reformed these concepts.

To affirm Christ as King is to declare that the kingdoms of this world are fleeting and will one day become the “kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15).” Our participation as good citizens of our worldly nation or state is a virtuous endeavor; but it is good only as far as it goes. Christ’s kingdom is eternal, and that fact alone puts all earthly kingdoms in their place. With Christian nationalism on the rise in the United States and Europe, rearing its ugly head at both the local and national levels, affirming the reality of the sort of kingdom Christ inaugurated is an essential endeavor. Instead of violence and politics, Christ’s kingdom is established through peace and Christian community, as Spirit-empowered believers live out the kingdom lifestyle that Jesus taught, doing the works he did, perhaps even greater things, all under his rule. 

What does it look like to live out the Feast of Christ the King? After all, it is one thing to articulate and affirm the claims implicit in this theological affirmation; that is necessary and right. But what does our participation in his kingship look like, lived out on the ground? We need look no further than Matthew 25, another reading for year A of the RCL. In this Scripture, Jesus is judge, separating sheep and goats into eternal blessing or condemnation. We know the criteria by which the judge renders his verdict: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me (Mt. 25:35-36).” Those who are invited to “inherit the kingdom (25:34)” are ones who have done these things; those that “go away into eternal punishment” (25:46) have not done what he requires; they have failed to follow the King and give witness to his reign. There are expectations that come with Christian citizenship. We believers do not earn our way into the kingdom; however, once we are brought into this realm, we are tasked with the responsibility of ministering to the “least of these.” Christ the King sends us out to do this work in obedience to him; this is how we participate in his kingship. 

During this feast of Christ the King, let us assess ourselves in light of Matthew 25. Following the example of the Ignatian examen, we might reflect on our day. Did we feed the hungry? Did we feed those who need spiritual nourishment? Did we slake the thirst of those begging for love and companionship? Did we minister to those incarcerated by addiction, abuse, and anger? When we do these concrete things, we are cooperating with Christ the King, as he exercises his lordship over space and time. We are the privileged means by which his kingdom comes and his will is done on earth, as in heaven. On this Christ the King Sunday, we praise him and acknowledge him as Lord and King, even as we take seriously our cooperation with him and endeavor to serve him in all things. 

Awake, my soul, and sing 
of him who died for thee, 
and hail him as thy matchless King
through all eternity!

Rev. Dr. Evan Rohrs-Dodge is the senior pastor of Belvidere United Methodist Church in Belvidere, NJ. He is a member the Editorial Board for Firebrand.