“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him.” (Matthew 25:31-32)

Matthew 25:31-46

This week, we are reflecting on the Scripture Readings for Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) Sunday, which concludes “Year A” of the Revised Common Lectionary. This feast celebrates the conviction that God is in control and that the eternal purposes of our good and gracious Saviour will be fulfilled.

Next week, “Year B” begins with the season of Advent. In one week, Christianity’s two Advents — Jesus’ “First Coming” at Christmas and his “Second Coming” at the end of the age — come alongside each other. The one who presides on the “throne of glory” in this week’s passage is the same one who, in just a few weeks, will be born helpless in a manger after being denied a place at the inn.

Jesus’ teaching has announced and illustrated the Kingdom of God throughout the Gospel of Matthew. God’s kingdom does not function like a typical kingdom. A few days before the events in this week’s reading, Jesus entered Jerusalem, hailed as the king who would rescue God’s people, yet he arrived on a donkey and brought a rule of peace rather than violence.

Christ’s “kingship” is something new. Here is a king whose final word is a call to serve the most vulnerable in our communities, “the least of these.” Here is a regime in which the unmistakable mark of “the greatest” is to humbly, genuinely serve “the least.” Here is a reign that turns conventional kingship, with its focus on domination and superiority, upside down: a reign of servanthood and a community of justice, kindness, and humility for all.

Jesus the King reveals his daily, mysterious presence in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the impoverished, the sick, and the prisoner.

On the eve of Advent, the season of waiting and anticipating the coming Child of God who arrives as a humble human baby, this week, we acknowledge that this child is none other than the Almighty God who sits on a throne of glory, the King of Kings!

What does it mean to declare that Jesus is King, particularly with the understanding that God's Kingdom differs from the world's traditional kingdoms?

Reflections by Rev Joe Taylor

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