Christ the King’s Reverse Kingship: A Curtain-raiser to the Story of Christmas

by Raj Bharat Patta.

For ‘Christ the King’, a week before Advent, the lectionary gospel this year was Matt 25:31-46, with the Son of Man as the king judging the nations. This text offers alternative and even reverse kingship, radically different from the Roman emperors and today’s political kings and kingmakers. This is the last speech of Jesus Christ before his passion, about sheep and goats, before, ultimately, he becomes the scapegoat of the empire, for preaching the kingdom of God against the kingdom of Rome.

Christ the king reverses kingship by offering the kingdom of God to people of his choice. Those who have addressed the needs of the ‘others,’ who have been quenching thirst and feeding the hungry with food and justice suddenly became the inheritors of Christ’s kingdom. Christ the king invites all those who served the weak and vulnerable: ‘come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’ (v.34). Christ the king offers his kingdom based on God’s grace to people who challenged the structures and offered hope by sharing food, water, clothing, shelter and care. It is important to recognise that it is God’s grace that chooses people to inherit the kingdom of God, and it is God’s grace that helps them to serve the vulnerable in society. No one can serve the ‘other’ by their own strength and merit.

Christ the king reverses kingship by choosing the vulnerable, the least in society, the outsiders as his family members: anything done to such people is done unto him (v.40). By reversing the norms of power and status, Christ the king chooses people who are hungry, thirsty, poor, sick, foreigners and strangers, and in prison, those who are supposedly the ‘invalids’ in society, as his family members. It takes courage to choose such vulnerable people as valuable, and even to make them a family. This is Christ the king’s radical reversal from the norm of power.

All that matters in this life, according to Christ the king is this: it is only love that thrives. Particularly love for the ‘other’, the outsiders, powerless and vulnerable is the yardstick to demonstrate the grace of God in our lives and communities. Three particular points for us as a Church can be drawn from this text.

Firstly, does our church’s mission mandate match this message, that love for the ‘other’ in actions thrives? Feeding the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting the imprisoned; these six representative acts of love in action to vulnerable people should be the activity of our churches. When our mission is such, we are truly serving Christ the king. Church is all about serving our community in love, outside the walls of our church building, and particularly the most vulnerable people.

Secondly, Christ the king chose not to be with the powers but consciously chose the powerless as his family members. In aligning with Christ, we are called to give up pride, positions, and power and seek to identify with the weak and vulnerable in our communities. The call is clear and loud; to give up our privilege and supremacy. It is time to relocate our churches to the margins of society, away from the centres of power, for among such people does Christ pitch his tent. As a church, if we want to encounter Christ today, we must pitch our tents with Jesus on such sites of margins and vulnerability.

Thirdly, Christ the king distinguishes those that demonstrate love in action to the ‘outsiders’ from those who don’t demonstrate love in action to the ‘outsiders.’ The calling from this text is to move from not demonstrating love in action to demonstrating love in action, for Christ the king is a God of love and justice, and would not want anyone to be lost. This text is a challenge and encouragement to submit ourselves to the grace of God who receives anyone and everyone into her fold.

In most versions of the Bible this text is titled ‘judgement of the nations’, but I propose two better titles. First is ‘Christ the king’s reverse kingship from power to love,’ and second is ‘Love alone thrives, for love to the “outsider” is all that matters.’ This text thus serves as a curtain-raiser to the story of Christmas, where God in Jesus Christ reverses kingship by pitching his tent with the margins, being born as a baby in Bethlehem. To demonstrate love in action to this world, God comes down as a child born of Mary, identifying with the weak, the vulnerable and the outsiders. The whole story of Christmas is a celebration of the reverse kingship of God, for God did not come to discipline the world with a cane in his hand, nor as a rich guy enjoying all the privileges and comforts of life. Rather, God came down as a baby, born in a manger, in a corner of the Roman empire, to give life in all its fullness to the entire creation. If I need a Biblical advert for Christmas, I will choose this text as my plot to convey the message that ‘love alone thrives, for God in Jesus was born for love, offering love as a way forward for any life situation.’

As we begin the season of Advent, let us strive in keeping Christ the reason for this season, and if Christ is the reason, then his family members, the vulnerable, weak, powerless and the outsiders should be at the heart of our mission and ministry of love.