Christ the King
November 26, 2006


Did you ever play “King of the Hill” as a kid?

When the members of St. Ann’s men’s club were going to take out the old soccer goals, they were very proactive, figuring that whoever had put them in prior to them would have anchored them firmly in concrete. So they ordered a load of dirt to fill in the holes that would be left behind, once they removed them. This would have been perfect, except that the people who put in the prior goals did not set them in concrete. The came right out, no mess, no hole, no nothing! So, all the dirt that had been piled on the far corner of the asphalt became the perfect site for KING OF THE HILL. And since the playground was non operational for a while, it was the best and almost only game in town.

You know the rules. They are very simple. Get to the top, how ever you have to, and stay there, how ever you have to. Usually it involved pushing and shoving and the exercise of power. The one who was the strongest stayed the longest as KING of the Hill…

As ‘enjoyable’ as this game might be on the playground, it does, however, has a serious religious drawback. For most of us, that is the only “lived experience” we have of a king. Living in a democracy, we don’t have the experience of being subject to another as to royalty. So it is easy to distort this image. To wrap ideas of power and might around the image of kingship.

Jesus images a very different type of kingship. It is one not based on power or force or physical violence. Rather, as John’s gospel tells us, it is based on a simple concept – TRUTH. “For this I was born, to testify to the TRUTH.”

For this I was born… Powerful words. Before we go any further, I need to fill you in on why those words kind of stopped me in my tracks. You see, my uncle Wally, (Fr. Wally Boul of St. William’s parish) on the occasion of my father’s death nearly 15 years ago, said this about death. It is the day that we were born for. It doesn’t make the letting go easier or the loss any less difficult, but it reminds us of what it is all about. So to hear Jesus say: “For this I was born” wakes in me a different kind of hearing – that ‘arriving in heaven kind of listening. And I realize that Jesus’ sense of the Father and his mission are hugely different than my own. I find myself focusing on the goal of heaven. Jesus focuses on the Father’s work and the Father’s mission. For this I was sent – to testify to the truth.

Standing there before Pilate, knowing that Pilate holds Jesus’ physical life in his hands, Jesus is very deliberate. I have come to be a king, not like you think – not with power, not with force or violence. I am no threat to your earthly kingship. But I am a huge threat to what you think really matters. For what really matters is testifying to the Father. What really matters is living in a way that gives everything away. What really matters is loving without holding back. Loving without holding back!

Could you imagine how transformed this world would be if we Christians really believed and lived that message? IF we really loved the poor in a way that held nothing back? If we really worked for Justice without holding anything back? If we really loved our enemies without holding anything back? FOR THIS I WAS BORN, says Jesus. And for this, you and I, subjects of the king, were also born. To love without holding anything back!

It’s definitely NOT King of the Hill as we know it. But Jesus is king, and the hill of his victory was a place called Golgotha, and his throne was a cross, and if we want to share in his truth, then our lives will have to mirror his love…