Christ the King

On Sunday we had an All-Age service with a very positive feel and slightly chaotic organisation on the theme of Christ the King. We had lots of people contributing from video interviews of views on the royal family and the idea of Christ as King to our young people leading a dramatised bible reading and the intercessions. There was a quiz on British Kings and Queens illustrating the way in which power can be used for good or ill and I said the following in trying to draw the different strands together:

The role of a King or Queen is to rule over the people that live in the kingdom. This gives them great power which they can use for good or ill. As we saw in the quiz, some Kings and Queens use their power to serve themselves, while others use their power to serve their subjects? Which of these is the more Christ-like?

Interestingly, those monarchs in this country who have used their power to serve others have been inspired to do that by the example of Jesus. Jesus said, “I, your Lord and Teacher, have just washed your feet. You, then, should wash one another’s feet.”

What he was saying was that he had come into the world to give us an example of people with power using their power for the benefit of others. As God, he has ultimate power - power of creation, power over life and death – but he chooses to give up his power and position as God’s Son in heaven to become like us, his subjects, and then gives up his own life to make us, his subjects, equal with him, as brothers and sisters in God’s family. None of the Kings or Queens we have thought about today ever went as far as that!

That is why Jesus should be our ultimate authority. It is why we constantly talk about putting him first in our life and imitating his way of life. When we do, we are living under the rule of Christ – something that we choose to do, rather than something which we are compelled to do. When we live under the rule of Christ, then we are part of the kingdom of God, which is the collection of people who are seeking to follow Jesus in the world and throughout history. When we live in the way that Jesus lived, by putting others first and serving those around us, then we bring a taste or sign of the kingdom of God into the world.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Vickie Winans - Long As I Got King Jesus.