Brief synopsis of the readings: In the 2nd book of Samuel we read how David was named king of Israel. All the tribes of Israel gathered and offered their support for this. When the elders came David “made an agreement with them there before the Lord” and David was anointed. Luke’s Gospel describes the point where Jesus was being crucified between two criminals. The crowds mocked Jesus for not saving himself and was joined by one of the criminals. But the other criminal rebuked him and professed Jesus’ innocence. He then asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom. Jesus replied: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical year, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, often called “Christ the King.” There is an irony in commemorating this just a few weeks after the “No Kings” nationwide political protests. These protesters feel that President Trump is concentrating power to himself and is making himself a king.

The idea of a king is problematic to many of us these days. Until a few hundred years ago most people didn’t think much about whether or not a king (or queen) was a good thing, it was just assumed. It was often believed that kings and queens were humans who were chosen by God to lead and the idea of democracy, of allowing ordinary people to govern themselves, was thought to be dangerous. Our value came from the royals and they had full power over all of us. I say this because we can make sense of this only if we go back to a previous understanding of kingship. The fact that we’ve moved on from monarchy to democracy does not lead us away from Jesus, just the opposite. In many ways it brings us closer.

If we believe that a king is a human who leads other humans we need to see how this applies to Jesus. For centuries after Jesus’ resurrection his followers grappled with Jesus’ nature. Was he simply an excellent human and not divine (this is the heresy of Adoptionism)? Obviously not, and this heresy didn’t last long. OK, was Jesus divine and only “looked human”? (this is the heresy of Docetism). Obviously not, because it would deny his bodily death and resurrection. We eventually came to the belief that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine.

Does this make Jesus a “super king?” Well, in a way it does, but I think it goes beyond that. Every king we’ve ever had has disappointed us. Before David was king, Saul was. The people asked for a king God warned them against it (a king will eventually serve only himself) but they persisted and God granted them their wish. You can read 1 Samuel, chapter 8 if you’re interested. The monarchy lasted with only 3 kings (Saul, David and Solomon) before it fell apart. Around the world and over the centuries we’ve learned that anointing someone a king does not take away their faults, it just gives them more power.

But since Jesus is “like us in all things but sin” he won’t let us down. He won’t amass power and wealth at the expense of his people. He won’t push his own agenda and demand the lion’s share of all resources. He will be a king in all things but sin.

Now, if that was it, then why do we need to celebrate, or even acknowledge this? If Jesus is king and the king’s subjects are just called to do what they’re told, what does that say about us?

I think Christ the King transforms all of us in profound ways. Earthly kings had ultimate power but limited reach. They all had a kingdom, normally a geographical area. There were laws on how the king is to be treated by his subjects and how the subjects were supposed to treat each other. But outside of the kingdom, all bets were off. An “outlaw” wasn’t necessarily a criminal, he was just a person outside of the protection of the king. If a person committed a crime that banished him from the kingdom he was considered an outlaw. But also if a person traveled from one kingdom to another he needed some form of security, normally armed guards. Anyone without that could be beaten, robbed or killed without consequence. Those criminals would not be brought to justice either because the king had no power outside of his kingdom or because he didn’t care about them.

You probably see this coming but if we believe that Jesus is the king of the universe there are no limits on his kingdom and nobody outside of his protection. There is no place he can’t demand justice and he is not a king who doesn’t care about someone. But it also means that if nobody is an outlaw to Jesus, nobody is an outlaw to us.

There is a wonderful scene in the 2012 movie Lincoln where President Lincoln, speaking to two telegraph operators, struggled with the status of people of color. He quoted the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid: “[I]t is the self evident truth that things which are equal to the same things are equal to each other.” If all people, regardless of skin color, are equal in God’s eyes, then we are equal to each other. Lincoln always opposed slavery because slaves could never improve their lives no matter how smart they were or how hard they worked. But the idea that we are all equal to each other was a tougher reach for him and for a while he entertained the idea that former slaves should be returned to Africa. But he was right on Euclid and people of color.

We live in a world that still hasn’t gotten the message, where we continue to draw distinctions of value based on our own prejudices. But we are moving closer and democracy has a place. Only when we see each other as equally valuable can we make decisions as Christ’s subjects where we govern each other. If Christ is the perfect king, let us strive to make ourselves the perfect subjects.