Lectionary blog for Nov. 23, 2025
Christ the King Sunday
Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 46;
Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:33-43
Did you ever help elect someone to a position of responsibility, only to be surprised by their actions in office? I’m currently reading about Clement Attlee, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1945-1951. He has sometimes been called the “accidental prime minister.”
A contemporary of Attlee’s, Beatrice Webb, wrote of him: “He looked and spoke like an insignificant elderly clerk, without distinction in the voice, manner or substance of his discourse. To realize that this little nonentity is the Parliamentary Leader of the Labour Party … and presumably the future P.M. is pitiable.” (The Diary of Beatrice Webb Vol IV: The Wheel of Life, p. 447, Harvard University Press, 1985.)
And yet, when handed power in 1945, Atlee surprised many. He built the National Health System, decolonized and disbanded the British Empire, built up subsidies for public housing, and created the National Parks system in the U.K. Succeeding Winston Churchill after years at the helm, Attlee, the so-called “quiet nonentity,” totally transformed postwar Britian with his quiet demeanor and pragmatism. He was not what the people had been used to in a leader. In the lectionary texts for this week, we see that Jesus was not the kind of king that people were expecting, either.
In Jeremiah 23, God describes both bad and good leadership. Shepherds who divide the people and chase some away are anathema to God’s kingdom (1-2). God will call such wicked leaders to account for the ways that they have terrorized the people they should have been protecting (2-4). God will then show what good leadership is like. God will gather people from multiple countries (3). And God will raise up multiple shepherds over them who will take care of them and undo the trauma inflicted by previous leaders (4).
Of these shepherds, one will be raised up as an heir of David. This one will act with wisdom and perform the justice and righteousness that was purposefully neglected by previous rulers. This shepherd is characterized mainly as someone who does not terrorize and scatter his own people. Instead, this shepherd will be one who undoes the ways in which selfish leaders have divided and intimidated the people.
The author of Colossians develops the point of godly kingship further. The writer says that God rescues us from the authority of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of God’s beloved son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. The language here, of rescue, transferring and redeeming, is important. In this framing, the people have been taken prisoner by the “power of darkness” (1:13). God mounts a rescue operation to save people from an evil power and to bring them (and us) as subjects to a righteous and just power—namely, the beloved son.
We see that Jesus was not the kind of king that people were expecting.
In Jesus’ kingdom, we have redemption (1:14). What does that mean? To redeem is to buy back or liberate something or someone that has fallen into ownership by a third party. Think about it this way: you “redeem” a coupon by using it to buy something at the grocery store. You haven’t actually redeemed the coupon, but instead, you redeemed the bananas. They used to belong to Kroger, but now they are yours, ready to be put to work making some delicious banana bread. The kingdom of Jesus is founded on providing a home for liberated prisoners.
So, with those expectations about redemption of compassion, let’s look at the crucifixion scene on this Christ the King Sunday. As if being publicly tortured to death by the Roman empire wasn’t enough, Jesus also has hecklers. The rulers sneered, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one” (Luke 23:35). One of the Romans supervising his suffering told him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (37). Even one of the men being executed with him tormented him, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” (39). Jesus, where is your liberation?
But the other man being tortured to death that day recognized what kind of king Jesus was and is. “This man has done nothing wrong,” (41) he said. Jesus had only provided comfort to the afflicted and shown the way of righteousness to those who were being terrorized by evil shepherds. Here the Romans and those aligned with empire wanted to know why Jesus wasn’t acting like them. Essentially, “If you have power, why are you not fighting us? Come off your cross and wage war against us!” But Jesus is not that kind of king. Jesus’ mission is one of comfort and redemption from the powers of sin and death.
There are too many who want the apocalyptic images of Revelation to be literal predictions of violence, rather than comforting assurances of God’s presence and power through times of persecution. To get to such an understanding, one must remove the Jesus of the Gospels. If the only thing you know about Jesus is that he once made a whip (that he only used on animals—the people are still there at the end of the story asking him questions), you have missed the plot. Jesus isn’t that kind of king.
On Christ the King Sunday, we remember that Jesus isn’t a king like other human kings. His mission is one of liberation and redemption of his people from the forces of sin and death. Jesus doesn’t win victories over violence and empire by participating in violence and empire. Instead, he unifies, soothes and rescues.
