What kind of King is Jesus? That was the question that was on people’s lips all the way through our Gospel reading (Luke 23. 33-43) this morning.
The Jewish leaders jeered at Jesus: “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah [or King] whom God has chosen.” The Roman soldiers mocked him: “Save yourself if you are the King of the Jews.” One of the criminals hanging there alongside him hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah [or King]? Save yourself and us!” All of them were asking “What kind of King are you then? If you are a King then behave as we expect a King to behave.” Their mockery came because Jesus did not look or behave as they expected a King to do.
What did they expect? For the Jews, the Messiah was expected to be a revolutionary able to deliver their people from the oppression of the Roman invaders. For the Romans, the Emperor was the leader of a vast military machine capable of defeating any army anywhere in the then known world. But the man given the title ‘The King of the Jews’ was a poor, pitiful, pathetic individual being tortured and killed by powers far greater than him. You can understand why their answer to the question what kind of King is Jesus, was no kind of King at all.
But there was one person there that day who recognised Jesus as King. The second of the criminals being crucified alongside Jesus recognised that Jesus had done no wrong and asked to be remembered by Jesus when he came as King, in other words when he came into his kingdom.
And here, in Jesus’ response, we begin to see the real answer to the question what kind of King is Jesus, because Jesus accepts this man, despite his past, on the basis of his recognition of Jesus as the true King. Jesus is the kind of King who accepts those who are unacceptable, who includes the excluded and who sees those who are unseen and overlooked. As far as he was concerned this criminal, by being killed, was only getting what he deserved but Jesus is the kind of King who does not treat us as we deserve and instead of punishing us promises that we will be with him in Paradise. So Jesus is an inclusive King.
More than this, Jesus is the kind of King who forgives his enemies. In verse 34, we have Jesus’ prayer for those who have had him nailed to the cross and have gathered there to mock and abuse him: “Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing.” Jesus is a forgiving King, who does not hold against us even those sins that we have committed directly against him.
Then, Jesus is a dying King. The one who died in place of, or in order to save, his people. Jesus is the kind of King who does not put all his time and energies into securing his position and power or into amassing great wealth for himself instead he is a King who gives up all he has in order to give himself for his people.
As a dying King, we remember his words about a grain of wheat remaining “only a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies.” “If it does die,” he said, “then it will produce many grains.” So Jesus connects his death with the ground, the earth, and with the natural cycle of death and birth that we see within creation. And in this way, we see that his death is not just something for human beings but also something for the earth and the creation.
Jesus is the King who, through his death, enters into the earth, as he is buried, and who rises from within the earth and from death in order to change the earth itself. The word ‘Paradise’ was originally a Persian word, meaning park or garden, which was taken into Greek and then Hebrew. It was used as a translation for ‘the garden of Eden’ and then became associated with the belief that God would, in time, restore us to a future Eden. So, Jesus here is promising the second criminal an immediate experience of Eden because he will be with Jesus the King who will, in time, bring the whole world into a Edenic future. Jesus is the King who will restore the world to its originally intended state as an Edenic Paradise.
Now, in this story, people responded to the kind of King that Jesus was in two ways. The majority mocked and ridiculed him. And we could be in that camp today. But, if we want to be part of a kingdom of acceptance, of forgiveness, of salvation and of restoration then, like the second criminal, we need to ask to be part of Jesus’ kingdom. And not just to come into that kingdom for ourselves and our benefit but to come into that kingdom in order to act like our King, as people who accept the unacceptable, forgive our enemies, give our lives in the service of others and seek to restore our world to its originally intended Edenic state.
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