What does it mean to be king?
In the Second Book of Samuel, David is made king of Israel when the elders of Israel come to him with the request that he unite the people once again. David is one they recognize as having led them into battle; they recognize in him the qualities necessary to a successful king. They are his bone and his flesh, his strength and his vulnerability. It is thanks to David’s conquest of the Jebusites that, in Psalm 122, the people can go rejoicing to the house of the Lord. Jerusalem thus becomes his city and represents the united people of Israel; the temple there is their spiritual heart. David is a temporal king of a specific geographical region; his house will give rise to the King of all Kings, Jesus Christ. '
And yet… when Jesus is on the cross, the soldiers jeer at him, calling out, If you are King of the Jews, save yourself. In Luke’s Gospel, the cross is Jesus’ moment of coronation, not because he is crowned with a crown of thorns, but by his death and resurrection. The kingdom is present wherever Christ rules, even in our world, but the kingdom in its fullness is beyond this world. The jeering that surrounds Jesus is part of the earthly kingdom, where the human desire is to control, to dominate. But the kingdom of God is not about military power but about loving humility; Jesus is crowned King because of the power of his love, and that kingdom is revealed every time we open our hearts in love to another person. Thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul tells the Colossians, we are delivered from the power of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Our focal point should be Christ, who delivers us from darkness into a kingdom of light. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, is and must be the King that rules our hearts, that we might join him in death; he is our hope.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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