Making Peace Through the Blood of the Cross

Christ the King Sunday is something of a mystery to me. I don’t remember it growing up, so I don’t have a childhood context. We don’t have a monarchy in this country, so the concept of a king does not resonate, and such autocratic authority is inimical to an egalitarian, democratic spirit. And worst of all, this year’s Gospel reading suddenly propels us into the midst of Jesus on the cross. At least during Lent we have some preparation for the crucifixion, but it’s hardly what we expect in the midst of Thanksgiving plans.

“If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” The soldiers mock Jesus as he hangs on the cross under an inscription that says, “This is the King of the Jews.” The two criminals on either side argue with one another. One derides Jesus because he didn’t save any of them, but the other rebukes the first and asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Finally, Jesus speaks. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The paradox of the day is clear. The one who is supposed to be king dies an ignominious death. He who is destined to save others cannot save himself. It just doesn’t make sense. No wonder some who want a more rational explanation argue that Jesus was a victim of Roman oppression and religious machinations and that this wasn’t really part of God’s plan. Those who espouse that idea also seem unwilling to entertain the thought that Jesus was in any way divine. He was just a good man with a special connection to God who ran afoul of the authorities.

The problem with that approach is that it doesn’t fit the witness of Scripture. It doesn’t fit the experience of faith, either. Faith is more comfortable with paradox than reason is. How else can one understand the reading from the letter to the Colossians? “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Making peace through the blood of his cross! How outrageous is that? That someone should have to suffer so that reconciliation could occur – it offends all of our Western sensibilities. Yet that is the witness of the gospel. It is the witness – but not the end of the gospel. Yes, Jesus dies, but he also rises again on the third day. For me, resurrection is the key. If Christ has not been raised, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, then our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. It is only through the new life of Jesus Christ that we, too, have new life available to us. Only through Jesus can we be reconciled to God.

The image of Jesus as King reminds us that, although he was just like us in his humanity, he was wholly other than us in his divinity. The two have to be together for reconciliation to occur. Without the humanity of Jesus, we have no one who lived and was tempted like us. Without his divinity, we have no one who has the standing to approach God on our behalf. That’s the paradox of our faith – a paradox clearly captured by the image of the King of the Jews dying on a cross.

Last Pentecost: Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43; see also First Corinthians 15:17.