Christ the King

Sunday 23rd November 2025

By Rev Mark Payne

 

Bible Readings

Jeremiah 23.1-6
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.

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The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

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Luke 23.33-43
When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

 

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

 

Reflection

Today is the festival of Christ the King. A celebration of Jesus’ true kingship. It may come as a surprise then that, on this day, we heard the story of Christ’s crucifixion. An event during which Jesus is given the title of King, not to glorify him but to mock him.

That got me thinking about why we celebrate Christ as king and what Christ being a king to us really means. In short, I began to wonder about what the features of a true king were.

Helpfully we heard first from the prophet Jeremiah who says that the righteous branch of the house of David will be a king that deals wisely, executes justice and righteousness in the land and will save Judah and Israel. I would like to spend a bit of time with you this morning thinking about true kingship by these measures.

I should say at this point that we are using the term king and kingship, very male terms, but a lot of what we are talking about could equally be applied to any leader, male or female.

Let’s get started with dealing wisely. In Biblical terms, to be wise normally means to follow the will of God. To learn from God and follow the path God has set before us. Therefore, if a King is to “deal wisely” they must conduct themselves in the way that God would want. I don’t think there can be any doubt that Jesus conducted himself in this way. Throughout his ministry he furthered God’s mission on earth by dealing kindly with the marginalized, with those who had no voice and were on the edges of society and, at the end of his ministry, it was in obedience to God’s will that Jesus went to the painful death that awaited him on the cross.

But why is this an important feature of kingship? I think it is fair to say that we would like our rulers to be wise but, for earthly rulers, I suspect we equate being wise with simply making decisions that we think are the best ones possible. To somehow unpick the trickiest of situations that no one else can deal with. There is a saying that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit but wisdom is knowing that you shouldn’t put one in a fruit salad. That is worldly wisdom.

The kind of wisdom that I think Jeremiah is referring to is a bit different because it puts the power back in the hands of God where it belongs. Biblical wisdom is allowing God to unpick the hardest of situations for us and then all we have to do is listen and do what God tells us to do. That seems to me like a far better kind of wisdom for a true king to have, after all no one is going to be more powerful or better equipped to deal with any situation that comes along than God so, surely, we would want our true leader to be wise and follow the will of God.

The next feature of the true king that Jeremiah refers to is that they will “execute justice and righteousness”. Again, these terms have very specific meanings in the context of the Bible. We equate justice with seeing to it that those who do wrong get their punishment. Put another way, we see it in a very legal way. Biblical justice is far more than that. It calls for equality between everyone. It seeks to help the most needy in society and to make sure that everyone is seen as truly made in God’s image. Related to this is righteousness which is the value of being “right” with God. It is a profoundly relational term that says that if we are to be righteous, we need to maintain our relationship with God and to avoid that which moves us further from him. In other words to avoid sin.

So, for a king to execute justice and righteousness means to me that they are to bring about a situation where all can live as equals. Equally known by God. Equally loved by God and equally acknowledged as God’s beloved children by all around them. They must also lead in such a way that the people under their guidance have a way, not only of avoiding sin but, when they inevitably do sin, a way to forgiveness and hence righteousness.

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Now, I don’t know about you but that sounds remarkably like what Jesus did during his ministry on earth and what his death and resurrection made it possible for us to continue! Jesus showed us the image of God in the lowliest of people and he sacrificed himself for our sins to make it possible for us to become righteous again. He executed justice and righteousness.

Finally, Jeremiah refers to the way that the true king will save. In Jeremiah’s context that probably meant saving Israel and Judah from their exile but in the light of the crucifixion, we know that God’s plan extended far beyond that. Jesus as our king wants to save all of us, whether we attend church or not, whether we acknowledge his kingship or not. His saving is not through strength of arms or any sort of blatant display of power as secular leaders are inclined to do when they say they are making so and so great again. His saving power is through the opening of the pathway for us to be forgiven by God and to be in relationship with God.

Jeremiah has given us a model for true kingship and we can see that Jesus is the fulfilment of that model through his revelation to us in the Gospels. Jesus is the one true king. The righteous branch of David that Jeremiah was talking about. 

But not only Jeremiah. The other prophets speak in similar ways about Jesus’ kingship. For example, in Isaiah 11 the prophet says:

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A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel and might,
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth

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But why does this matter? Going back to my original question, why celebrate Christ as King?

Firstly, the nature of true kingship that we have explored a little bit today is the nature of one who is absolutely faithful. A king who deals wisely, executes justice and righteousness and comes to save is a king we can get behind. A king who we know will never let us down.

More than that though, Christ the one true king gives us a model for leadership. Whether we are leading hundreds of people or just our own family. Whether we are leading very publicly or just in our own private context, by following the example of Jesus we can get better at it and perhaps bring the one true king’s kingdom that little bit closer.

Let us pray:

Christ, our one true king,
We thank you that you lead us with wisdom,
We thank you that you lead us to justice and righteousness
We thank you that you came to save us.
May we always be loyal to you, worship you and model our own leadership after your example.

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Amen