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"Who is this King of Glory?"
Pr. David Hewitt - November 24 & 25, 2007
According to my little red scheduling book for that year, I first visited the location of this congregation on October 3, 2001. As Diane and I drove up, I looked at the sign in front. “King of Glory,” it said, causing me to remember that line that we sing in “The Messiah” – “Who is this King of Glory? Who is this King of Glory?” And I thought to myself, yes, I may or may not be serving at King of Glory – who are these people? Who is this King of Glory Lutheran Church?
We ask this kind of question of each one of us – who really is this person or that person? What is he or she really like? We also ask ourselves this question: “Who am I? Am I this kind of person or that kind of person? It reminds me of a week ago when my family and I saw the musical “Les Miserables.” In that play, at one point, the lead character, Jean Valjean, asks himself, “Who am I?”
[singing:] “Who am I? Can I conceal myself forevermore? Pretend I’m not the man I was before?” You see, Valjean was going by a different name because he was an escaped parolee, yet now living a very moral and successful life as a factory owner and mayor of his town. But then a constable on his trail finally caught up with him – but didn’t realize it, telling Valjean that they had caught a different man who fit his description. Would Valjean let another man go to jail in his place? [singing:] “The innocent who bears my face – who goes to judgment in my place – who am I? How can I ever face my fellow man? How can I ever face myself again? And must my name until I die be no more than an alibi, must I lie?” Must Valjean lie? Or tell the truth?
“What is truth?” asked Pontius Pilate, the Roman chief constable in Judea, to this…prisoner in front of him, a man named Jesus, who was or was not be claiming to be the Messiah, the King of the Jews. When Pilate first glimpsed this Nazarene, he came right to the point: “Are you the King of the Jews?” and then asked Jesus, “What have you done?” Yes, what had Jesus done to deserve His reputation? What kind of “king” was He – if He was a king? Was Jesus the kind of king the Jews were looking for – the kind of king we would be looking for if we were the Jews back then – you know, the knight in shining armor, the “Superman” come to save the day? Well…maybe. Maybe Jesus was that person. After all, Jesus had healed many and fed many with His miraculous powers, raised from the dead a few and stilled a storm or two, and had, just earlier that week, kicked out the moneychangers from the Temple – with a whip of chords! In the eyes of many, all of this looked like He indeed might be “The One” – the King! What’s the rest of that line from the Messiah? “Who is this King of Glory? The Lord, strong and mighty – the Lord, mighty in battle.” “Mighty in battle”? Most people would say, “There’s only ONE kind of battle I know – the kind where people kill each other, and one side wins!” So we can understand if most of Jesus’ followers, such as Judas, see TRIUMPHANT SUCCESS ahead, because, in their eyes – and in the world’s eyes – that’s what real glory is all about – EARTHLY VICTORY!
But back in October, 2001, turning into this parking lot for the first time, I noticed next to the words “King of Glory” a strange intertwining of symbols: a crown – yes, that’s no surprise – “King” of Glory and all – and… something else…kind of slithering its way through the crown…thorns… that’s a crown of thorns! And those thorns reminded me of a certain death on a cross. Was that a death filled with glory – or shame?
“What have You done, Jesus?” demanded Pilate. Hidden behind that question was the real one: “With your so-called miraculous powers, what do you intend to do? Rule as king of the earth, or not? It was a good question – a question on the lips of the crowds of people, just 5 days earlier, who lined the streets of Jerusalem as Jesus passed by, riding a donkey, fulfilling a ROYAL prophecy, and proceeding, the next day, to cleanse the Temple with all the authority of a King.
From that point on and for the next few days, Jesus held the crowd in the palm of His hand. But then, with his popularity at its crest…Jesus…just… taught the crowds. Day after day He just sat there and taught them the Truth – the Truth of God, as He knew it to be.
Judas couldn’t believe it! Jesus was blowing it! Day after day Jesus was blowing His opportunity to use the crowd and His own powers to defeat the hated, oppressive Romans and their lackeys. So Judas betrayed Jesus and forced a confrontation, so that Jesus could overpower His enemies...and then GRAB ALL THE GLORY! The crown of glory!
But instead of the crown of glory, Judas and his ilk got the crown of thorns, the shame of the cross. The Jews sought a great and awesome sign of power from Jesus, and didn’t get it. “My kingdom is NOT from this world,” Jesus told Pilate. “If My kingdom were from this world, My followers would be fighting….But as it is, My kingdom is NOT from here.” (John 18:28-38) “So you ARE a king?” asked Pilate, confused. Jesus then admitted He was a certain kind of king…the King of Truth. Then Pilate – representing sophisticated Gentiles and modern unbelievers everywhere, scoffed, and said, “What is Truth?” To him, to the Greco-Roman world, and to many people today, what Jesus was doing – throwing His own life away by dying on a cross, JUST DIDN’T MAKE SENSE.
St. Paul heard that complaint many times. “Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom,” he wrote to the Corinthian Christians (1 Cor. 1:22) “But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiiles.” You see, what Jesus did, dying on the cross, was a not a very impressive thing for any leader to do – whether he be a king or a politician. To the Jews, Jesus wasn’t awesome enough. He didn’t destroy the Romans. To the rest of us, Jesus wasn’t smart enough – He didn’t play to win. That’s why St. Paul explains that Jesus was no ordinary king or ruler. “We [Christians] do speak wisdom, though,” he said. “It is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age.” [1st Cor. 2:6) In “King-and-Politician School,” Jesus gets an “F.” Our sinful side gives Jesus an “F.” Why? Because, instead of ruling us through POWER, Jesus rules us only through His proclamation of THE TRUTH. Jesus dares to force us – and all people – to do one thing – face the Truth; and Jesus goes on to expect us, His followers, to act according to this Truth – the Truth of God.
Now today we celebrate something on the church calendar called “Christ the King Sunday.” It is the LAST Sunday in the “church year.” Why? Because we know that Jesus Christ is now the uncrowned king of the world, but He will be the crowned King in the next world, the last world that ever will be. “My kingdom is not of this world,” Christ had said to Pilate. Our kingdom is not of this world, either, but in the next and last one – guaranteed by God’s grace through faith. Because that is the Truth – and because the “Truth shall make you free” – you and I have nothing to lose but our chains – the chains of our sins. We have nothing to lose but our fearful selfishness. Like Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, we have nothing to lose but the fake identities we’ve been constructing – based, as they are, on a false sense of self-sufficiency.
Valjean – the man who walked into a French courtroom in that play, the man whom everyone thought was Monsieur Madeleine, the mayor--schocked everyone there by proving himself to be the real man they were looking for. He told them to release the poor defendant, and instead arrest him, the rich politician who now was willing, with God’s help, to give up the house of cards that WAS his life, and live according to the truth, to live in the spirit of His Lord and Master Jesus, come what may. He sang: “My soul belongs to God, I know; I made that bargain long ago; He gave me hope when hope was gone; He gave me strength to journey on. Who am I? I’m Jean Valjean!” Why was the crowd shocked? Because, you see, what Valjean did made no earthly sense to those around him – but it made heavenly sense. In a second, he had given up a TON of earthly glory – things like riches, reputation, good standing, power, and control – but he gained – oh, he gained! – Valjean gained a rich, early experience of the glory that is real – the glory that is to come! In the next life! Then, after saving the defendant’s life, Valjean left the courtroom and saved many other people’s lives. He described his new life as “the never-ending road to Calvary,” where he, like Jesus, will carry his cross to die.
But we speak of God’s wisdom,” writes St. Paul, “which God decreed beforehand…for OUR glory.” To earthly eyes, an exceedingly foolish wisdom…but for our glory: the foolish wisdom of leading a life of self-sacrifice …the foolish wisdom of a sometimes-suffering love for all others…the foolish wisdom of facing our lives, our own sinfulness…the foolish wisdom of placing our lives in Christ’s hands, not in our own—in the hands of the One whom Paul calls today, “the Lord of GLORY” – and a strange kind of glory it is, too – strange, but TRUE.
So let’s have a deeper appreciation of what that symbol means that’s on our signs, in our literature, and on our website. There’s thorns in that crown we wear, as we take our cross and follow Him. Diane and I found more than just a new calling when we turned into that parking lot 6 years ago. We found a people who are responding, however imperfectly, to the call to live in real glory…the real glory of giving…giving more time than is wise, more money than is intelligent, and more heart than is smart. We have found a people who are more and more unsatisfied with earthly glory…a people realizing that big buildings and video screens and high numbers and “one time we did this great thing” is only the ‘surface’ kind of glory. We feel blessed to be with people who are more and more willing to be taken down by God toward that deeper glory, where the real “King of Glory” will be …through sustained outreach…much giving and receiving…deeper discipleship…more fervid prayer…and living every day in active Grace.
Who is this King of Glory, here in the northern Indy metro area? Once we understand that the real glory of God is giving up that false, earthly kind of glory….that it’s giving all, not some, of your life to Jesus, as He did for us…it’s then that the real glory shines through us…so that, on any given day, a person who rubs shoulders with a disciple from King of Glory will see the love of Jesus in their midst – and begin to want to live under His life-giving, loving rule. Amen!
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2201 E. 106th Street • Carmel, IN 46032 • (317) 846-1555
“King of Glory disciples are called, committed and challenged
through faith to be the heart, hands and voice of Christ.”
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