11-25-2018 “Two Crowns”

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

Sunday, November 25, 2018 ~ Christ the King Sunday

Sermon: “Two Crowns”

This is an interesting day. Because of the way the days fell on the calendar this year, we have a week between Thanksgiving Sunday and the First Sunday of Advent. Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the liturgical year — the Sunday before Advent — but this year, it has its own day.

Now that we have a color copier in the office, our Church Administrator, Patty Doyle, has become very creative with bulletin covers — trying to match the theme of the day with an image (a photo or picture) that reflects it. The one that appears today is one of my favorites so far. Jesus Christ is our king. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as we often say. But the entire scope of his lordship requires a two-crown depiction.

The crown we see Jesus wearing at his Second Coming is golden: the type of crown that an earthly king would wear. During his life, though, the crown of thorns was emblematic of his servant-king status. The image immediately makes us think of the crucifixion — how Pilate’s guards made and placed this crown on Jesus’ head to mock him. But this crown is about so much more.

During his life, Jesus did not rule like a typical king. He did not hold court. He did not amass a great deal of wealth. He did not use his power for political advantage. None of that. He was a servant. He ate with the outcasts of society. He washed the feet of his disciples. He was an itinerant preacher. He was not the image that anyone had of a king. As Jesus told the twelve, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35). A thorny crown is the image that fits this theological reality best.

Jesus turns the tables — thwarting our assumption about power, privilege, and prestige. We value the strong and the wealthy. Jesus has a preferential option for the weak and the poor. What’s more, he identifies with them, saying we must be humble to be exalted. Darrell Johnson is a preacher who wrote a homily entitled, “The King Whose Scepter is a Towel.” What a great image! Classic portraits of kings illustrate them on burnished thrones, wearing gold crowns, holding majestic staffs. Jesus is just the opposite. He rules from a place of apparent weakness. Only when we allow ourselves to be open, to be truly vulnerable, to be truly present to another, is true spiritual power revealed. That is what Jesus offers us.

The website bible.org offers the following explanation of servanthood. It reads, “Servanthood is the state, condition, or quality of one who lives as a servant. Further, a servant is first of all one who is under submission to another. For Christians, this means submission to God first, and then submission to one another. Then, as one in submission, a servant is one who seeks to meet the real needs of others or of the person he is serving. To put it another way, servanthood is the condition or state of being a servant to others, of ministry to others rather than the service of self. It means willingly giving of oneself to minister for and to others and to do whatever it takes to accomplish what is best for another.” The great eighteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant said something quite similar. Kant said that we are to never treat other people as a means, but as an end in themselves. In other words, we are never to use people for self-serving purposes.

This is exactly what Christ did.

Now don’t be too quick to equate Christian servanthood with being a slave. Servanthood is very different. First of all, servanthood is voluntary. The very name of slavery indicates that the person is compelled against his or her will. (No one volunteers to be a slave.) Second, being a servant means that you are seeking the good of another, because in so doing both the servant and the one served are built-up. Slavery is a condition that exploits another for the benefit of the master. Being a servant of Christ builds us up as we identify with Christ, just as Christ’s servanthood enabled him to nurture and exhibit his oneness with the Father.

The article on bible.org continues: “Christ’s plan and that which produces maximum blessing to the world and the church is servanthood. A servant is one who, even when in positions of leadership, seeks to lead and influence others through lives given in ministry for the blessing of others and their needs…the Lord Jesus came as a servant with a commitment to serve. Just think, if He had come to be served, our redemption could and would never have taken place. Likewise, our failure to live as servants throws up a huge barrier to effective ministry as representatives of the Lord Jesus.”

But it isn’t just about rags. There’s a riches part of this story as well — the part that speaks about Christ’s return at the end of time to make all things new. This is when every leader of this world will bow before the lamb seated upon the throne. There will be no comparison. The crown Jesus will wear will make those of Presidents and Kings, Emperors and Dictators look like tin! But even then, the reign of Christ will not be based on power and strength. The reign of Christ will be rooted in justice, equality, and love. No one will be hungry. No one will be oppressed. Sin and evil will live only in history. Enemies and friends will gather around the throne of God reconciled in a peace that passes all understanding. This is what the rule of Christ will bring.

There’s an old story about a king who felt so alienated from his people. He wanted to know them on a more personal level, so that he could hear their joys and concerns and, therefore, be a better ruler. Whenever he summoned them to court, however, they fell prostrate at his throne and only said what they thought he wanted to hear. So the king decided to dress like a beggar and, under the cover of night, made his way into the town. “This way,” he thought, “I will discover how my people really are.” And so he did. And when he interacted with the common folk, he found them to be kind and generous — to be helpful to the poor beggar, offering him food and shelter. He saw a side of his people that he didn’t know about. Although he wasn’t a malevolent ruler by any means, he knew that he had to be more like his subjects.

This story is sometimes told to illustrate the incarnation: the king (God) becomes a commoner by dressing up like one of them (by becoming Christ). But there’s something else going on here. By becoming a servant-king, Jesus shows us how we should be. In the story, the people teach the king how he should act. In actuality, it is the opposite: Jesus, as a benevolent king who becomes one of us, teaches us how we should live.

Crown him with many crowns. The crown of a peasant, of a criminal condemned to a torturous death, of the Lord of all creation. His rule is just. His rule…is love. Amen.