Christ, Our Eternal King

 The Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe 2025 Year C

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. Today is the final Sunday in the church calendar, and at the end of the church year, we celebrate Jesus Christ as our King. This is the day the Church appoints for us to recognize and to celebrate our Lord’s Majesty over heaven, and over earth, and over all people since the dawn of time - until the end of time.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the whole of the Old Covenant, which is another way of saying the Old Testament. The second person of the Holy Trinity entered time and space to be born as a human being, for us and for our salvation. Jesus is the prophet who reveals to us the Love of God; Jesus is the priest who offered Himself as the sacrifice of the New Covenant; and Jesus is the King of all creation, for all eternity.

Jesus is the son and heir of the great King David whose anointing as KIng of Israel is recounted in our first reading today. We need to back up a bit to understand how KIng David came to be King of all Israel. Way before the time of Christ, the nation of Israel had asked the prophet Samuel to appoint a king for them. This request wounded Samuel to his soul. Israel’s only king since the time of Eden was the One True God, and it was considered blasphemy to request a human King. Israel had been governed by judges since they came to settle in the promised land, and the current judges of the people were Samuel’s own two sons. These two sons were using their responsibilities selfishly to make themselves comfortable. But deep down, the reason that the people of Israel desired a king was that they wanted to be like the pagan nations that surrounded them.

I once heard a saying that went like this: “Don’t give people what they ask for, give them what they want.” I’m sure Samuel was thinking something like that when Israel asked him for a king. What they really wanted, or rather, what they really needed was a repair in their relationship with their True King, Almighty God. So Samuel spoke to the people and told them all the reasons they should not desire an earthly king. He said, “the king over you will claim his rights. He will take your sons and make some of them soldiers, and others to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest; still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, you yourselves will become his slaves.”

The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said, “No! There must be a king over us. We too must be like all the nations, with a king to rule us, lead us in warfare, and fight our battles.”

As I said, it can be important to give people what they want, and not what they ask for, but once in a while we encounter someone who is stubborn and refuses to listen to any suggestions, but rather, insists on getting what they have asked for. In cases like these, it might be best to give them exactly what they asked for. One time when I was working in parish maintenance, the PE teacher bought a portable basketball hoop, the kind where you fill the base with water, and you can wheel it around. This teacher asked me to assemble it for him. So I asked him where he would put it, because it could not stay in the gym area evenings and weekends. He told me that he would put it in his storage closet, and I pointed out that it would not fit in there. He insisted that it would, and he pretty much insisted that I put it together for him. So, in this case, I gave him exactly what he asked for: I put the basketball hoop together inside his storage closet. At his next PE class, he tried to wheel it out, and he discovered he could not get it out of the closet. I gave him exactly what he asked for.

I imagine that’s the way the Lord felt when Israel asked Samuel to give them a king. Samuel prayed to the Lord, worried about the request for a King. But the Lord replied to Samuel, “Listen to whatever the people say. You are not the one they are rejecting. They are rejecting me as their king.”

The Lord directed Samuel to anoint Saul as King over them. Saul was temperamental and moody, he lacked confidence in himself, and he lacked confidence in God to deliver them from their enemies, and so they suffered defeat after defeat. This brings us to our first reading today, when the people of Israel come to David and ask him to rule over them. David had been loyal to Saul, even though Saul became jealous of David’s victories in battle, and his popularity with the people. Saul even tried to kill David more than once. 

Samuel again consulted the Lord, who sent him to anoint David as King. David became the Lord’s beloved, and although he was flawed, he always consulted the Lord before he made decisions as king, and he became known as “the Lord’s beloved.”

The Old Testament is full of prophecies that the Messiah, our Lord Jesus, would be a descendant of David,  and this was fulfilled at the Incarnation when Jesus was born of Mary. Jesus, by becoming man, fulfills Israel’s desire for a King. Jesus fulfills the people’s desire for a King, in order to lead us all to where our desire rightfully belongs, with Almighty God. 

Our Gospel today is taken from St. Luke, at the point when Jesus is hanging on the cross between the two thieves. One of them taunts Jesus: “are you not the king of the Jews?” he asks. “Come down from the cross and save yourself and us.” The other thief,  however, acknowledges our Lord as King, saying, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” This good thief does what Israel should have done, this good thief does what each of us should do: acknowledge Jesus as our king. 

This thief does this in the darkest of circumstances. Jesus and the two thieves have been sentenced to the most cruel and excruciating death the Romans could inflict. And yet, in the middle of all this suffering, the good thief calls out with faith and with hope to Jesus, saying, “remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Each of us should be moved to make the same cry to our Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” When we profess our faith in Jesus, we profess our belief in his three-fold office of priest, of prophet, and of King. 

Today, on this final feast of the church year, let us make ourselves “subject” to our Lord. Today, let us acknowledge his Kingship over us. Today, let us offer our worship to our Lord and Savior, let us offer our worship to Jesus, our eternal King.