Thursday, November 22, 2012

Feast of Christ the King: 25 November 2012


Worship Christ the King!
The Christian year ends celebrating Christ the King, in victory.   We gladly bring honour to Jesus who has not only saved us from our sins by his sacrifice, but also triumphed for us in his resurrection and ascended victoriously to the right hand of God.  Our celebration of the work of Jesus culminates in the great finale called the Celebration of Christ the King, on Sunday. We rejoice that his Kingdom has come on earth, just as it is in heaven.

And yet, his dominion is also still coming to us and to the world.  We still live in hope, and in faith that we truly heard the Word of God that testifies that he certainly will come to us in glory to effect, in the smallest detail, his glorious reign. Yet, until he comes, we celebrate his heavenly rule, and the coming of his dominion over everything and everyone with great expectation. Even now he is the King of our lives and of his Church.  Our renewed lives testify to the truth that his complete and perfect dominion is coming !

On Sunday we celebrate that Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son of God, takes his place as King of kings and Lord of lords in our lives, our faith and we celebrate that he indeed will bring justice and righteousness to us, to his people and to the whole world. 

People ask, if Jesus is the King on the glorious throne of God, why are so many things wrong, impure and painful in this world? If the promised Messianic Kingdom of the Prince of Peace came when Jesus went to heaven to be crowned King of all, how must we understand that so much of our experience of life is still about injustice, sadness, sin and death?

Now consider the Word of God:  “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 and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  Matt. 25:31 - 32

Until Jesus comes again there are both goats and sheep in the world. He reigns and cares for his sheep amidst the reality that the sheep and goats have not yet been separated.  Jesus tends his sheep and leads them to his new heaven and earth and glorious dominion, in spite of the fact that his sheep follow him while goats are all around, often being influential and seemingly winning much too often!

This is how we glorify Christ the King!  We live for him.  We make his will visible, we show his heart and we allow the light of his dominion to become visible in this dark world through our faith and love.  The world can only begin to believe in Christ the King, when we live as true followers of our Lord. 

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