Today is an especially important day in the life of the Christian body that we commonly call the Church. It is called ‘Reign of Christ Sunday’ in most Christian denominations and this is so because it is the one Sunday in the year that the headship and authority of Christ over the Church is emphasised and celebrated. The fact that we Christians are recognising Jesus as our head on this special day does not of course take away from the fact that He is to be recognised and honoured by our living out the Christian way every day of our lives.
As we honour Jesus our Lord and Saviour as king today it makes us bring into sharper focus the concept of a king and what a king does and represents in this unique position.
As I reflected on this, I thought of monarchies throughout history especially starting in Biblical times and then in more recent times. Not very long ago, we hosted King Charles and Queen Camilla who are not only monarchs of Great Britain but also of many other countries around the world including us here in Canada. As they visited and we had an opportunity to welcome them it would have made many of us reflect a bit more on what is the monarchy, why do we have or need a king or queen and what exactly is important about having a king or queen? What is their purpose? Some people are asking these kinds of questions more often in this modern age, especially our younger people.
In this light, if you are not a monarchist you may be rather ambivalent or even distrustful of anyone who bears the title of king or queen. After all, it is only monarchs who reign while other political leaders rule or lead their people.
In ancient times kings and queens held absolute and unquestioned authority and power over the affairs of their people and they required absolute loyalty from their subjects in return. In more recent times, the monarchies, especially in Europe, hold their positions on the will of the people and as such they wield very little power over the elected governments of the day. Their positions are mostly ceremonial. Considering this, the question can be asked: how relevant is it to highlight and commemorate today as Reign of Christ Sunday?
It surely is relevant because it points us to the one person who must have dominion in every part of our being, the one person who causes us to exist and the one person who we will meet again in eternity. This is Jesus our Saviour and Lord. This day reminds us that much like the idea of kingship in ancient times, we as Christians are a part of a kingdom, we have our monarch and like other monarchs, this monarch demands our absolute loyalty and devotion which cannot be shared with any other king or queen.
When Paul wrote Colossians, he was writing to a group of believers, a young church that he had not himself started or visited but whose growth was of supreme interest to him as he was evangelizing that part of the world at the time. At that time new ideas about the authenticity of the person of Jesus were developing into heretical beliefs that threatened to undermine the faith of the young church in Jesus. There seemed to be evidence that some of the demands being placed on the young church had its roots among Judaizers or Jewish people who wanted to minimize the importance of the gospel and of faith in Jesus. All of this was meant to diminish the importance and authority of Jesus starting with the claim that he was not really the Messiah and certainly not the Son of God. In this light, we can see Paul’s writing to the Colossians to rebut or refute the claims and false ideas that were beginning to take hold and create doubts among believers in Colossae and other places in the latter part of the first century.
The essence of the letter to the Colossians as borne out in our text today was to remind the Colossians that it was indeed Jesus who brought them into a relationship with God through his death on the cross and this same Jesus was with God from the very beginning of time at the creation. To emphasise his point, Paul says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Putting it another way, he was saying that in Jesus, we saw the visible manifestation of the invisible God and as such there is no difference between the two.
What must we ponder or reflect on this day, the day on which we remind ourselves of the supreme authority of Jesus over all creation.
I believe that Paul has shared some important thoughts that we should also reflect on today.
First, we should grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul always prays for the believers to grow in the Lord which really means knowing increasingly more about Jesus but not just for the sake of knowing. This should lead to a deeper relationship with Jesus as the Holy Spirit helps the believer to be more like Jesus every day. To know Jesus more is to become more like him in living out what is Christ-like in the world. To Paul this is akin to bearing fruit in every good work. Getting to know Jesus more closely will have the transformative effect of having a life that pleases God. A life that grows in the knowledge of Jesus is a life that readily accepts the supremacy of Christ in all things. That is how Jesus becomes your king.
Secondly, all of creation has its beginning in Jesus who as God’s son was with God at the beginning of time and will be with God at the end of time. Paul emphasises the creative power and authority of Jesus to essentially say that there is no difference between God and Jesus. Sometimes in the way we view the scriptures we have the tendency to give Jesus a minor position or a secondary position to God. The act of creation according to Paul proves that there was no difference between the two. The Creator God is the same person who revealed himself in flesh as Jesus and is the same God who holds everything that is created together. Everything about life and this created order is in Jesus’ supreme control.
Thirdly, we are reconciled to God through Jesus. For us human beings there are two important words that Paul uses in the text to show us the importance of Jesus to humanity. In verse 13 it tells us that He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and in verse 20 we read that through him God reconciled all things to himself. These two words, rescue and reconcile sum up Jesus’ saving work on Calvary’s cross and this gives him the supreme position as our king. The word rescue comes from a Greek word which also means save or deliver which suggests that someone was taken out of a precarious or dangerous state or situation. The question that arises here is what or who were we rescued from. It begins with the recognition that people need to be rescued or saved in the first case as Matthew recounts when Jesus was being named. (See St. Matthew 1:21) The word reconcile which also means reunite tells us the ultimate purpose of the rescuing act. We are rescued or delivered so that we can be reunited with God. These two words together remind us why we exist and why we belong to God. We are reminded in this way that Jesus is the supreme Son of God who gave himself as a sacrifice for us all and is therefore king over us all. We therefore have become a part of a new kingdom of all believers which here on earth is called the Church, the universal body of all Christians and Christ is the head of the Church. We are therefore his subjects, and He alone must have absolute authority over all Christians.
What does this absolute authority look like? How as Christians do we yield to the authority of Jesus in our lives?
We yield to this authority by recognising that we live according to the constitution that governs God’s kingdom. We live looking to obey his laws and principles for all of humanity. We recognise that as Christians we are governed above all by a different constitution than our national and provincial laws. This does not mean that we should ignore federal and provincial laws. In fact, Jesus himself told some Jewish leaders to, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (See St. Mark 12:17 NIV) But what it does mean is that as we live our lives, we seek to live righteously with one another respecting and honouring the fact that all people are made in the image of God and all of creation is a reflection of God’s power and authority in the world. When we live as Jesus would have us live our lives, then we will in fact carry out the requirements of human laws in a more upright and just manner. Being Christians means that we are loyal citizens of God’s kingdom and better citizens of our world.
Bearing all of this in mind, the big question that all of us must answer is this. Who is your king or queen? This is especially pertinent for those of us who say that we are Christians. Has your life reflected the supremacy of God in all that you do or has someone or something else taken pride of place? Do you find that your life’s choices and decisions are governed by your Christian principles or by the ways of the world at large? Do you find that the ways in which you relate to your neighbour, your co-worker, your family or even those whom you don’t readily approve of, reflect godliness? Do you find that the choices you make for your friends, your political decisions, your business decisions among other things reflect Christlike principles? It is of no use to say that we seek to make Christ known to the world if every facet of our lives does not reflect the Christ that we claim to acknowledge as supreme Lord of our lives. Jesus can only be seen to be king in our hearts and in our living when everything we do and all the things and people we get involved with are affected positively because Jesus the Christ reigns in our hearts.
There are many people who are citizens of a country because they are native to that country. They were born there. Yet they live their lives elsewhere not wanting to have anything to do with the country of their birth or family lineage. Some may have particularly good reasons for their decisions but the point I am making is that many Christians are just like those persons. We don’t live our lives in such a way that acknowledges or shows other people what citizenship we hold. Some even renounce their citizenship in God’s kingdom, not by intent or in words, but by their actions.
Today is the day that we should all pause to reflect on who is our king or queen. Who or what is the priority in our lives? Who or what determines our decisions and actions? Who or what do we hold allegiance or loyalty to? Is Jesus the king in our hearts or someone and something else? Think about it. Some of us may be surprised by the fact that we might need to renew our allegiance to the King of kings today.
May God give us the courage to honestly and humbly reflect and if necessary change course and get back to the One who is Lord of all creation, whose kingdom goes beyond national, geographic, political and all kinds of human borders, the One who deserves supremacy in our hearts and lives. Amen.