Christ the King Sermon: Homeward Bound

Christ the King Sunday: Luke 23:33-43

Homeward Bound

Pr. Paul Cannon

Grace and peace Bethany Lutheran Church!

Our gospel reading today, sort of reminds me of when, as a camp counselor, we used to heat the sauna up to like 200-250 degrees (don't try this at home), and then sprint down the hill and jump off the docks into the frigid, recently thawed, waters of Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota.   

As we plunged into the ice bath, the shock of the temperature change would literally make you see stars. Not that sauna’s and lake jumps have anything at all to do with the text, except to say that reading about the passion of Jesus Christ in November, strangely feels like jumping into frigid waters as we prepare for the warm fuzzy feelings of the holidays.

Today is Christ the King Sunday, and it’s a day where our lectionary – the three year cycle of Bible readings – gives us this out of place text about Jesus being crucified next to two criminals.  It’s like we all fell asleep and woke up in April, just in time to celebrate Lent and Easter (sorry kids, you missed Christmas this year).  It’s the church calendar equivalent of doing a sauna lake jump. You shouldn’t jump into a Minnesota lake in May, just like you shouldn’t jump into the passion narrative in November – especially not right before Thanksgiving and Advent … but here we go.

I will say however that the readings for the day (from Jeremiah and Luke) are appropriate in this sense – that they are about that very human longing to be home, and how God goes about bringing his people – bringing us – home.  

But in order to understand this, you need to know a bit of the history of the Jewish people.  It’s a history of a people and a country constantly being invaded by larger empires because of it’s important location as a trade route between Europe, Middle East and Egypt.  First, the Assyrians conquer Israel around 700 BCE and then it was the Babylonians around 600 BCE and finally it was the Romans around 60 BCE.  And when the Assyrians and the Babylonians conquer Israel, they don’t just conquer it – they exile thousands of Jews.  They force them out of the cities and homes they lived in to resettle in Babylon and Persia.

As you can imagine, many Jews were desperate to return home, but they were powerless to do so.  And around this time, the prophets started writing about their future homecoming.  They started writing about how God would deliver them from exile in a foreign nation.  And they prophesied that a leader would rise up from amongst the Jews to lead them home.

Jeremiah was one such prophet.  So he writes about the sheep who have been scattered all over the land, and God the Shepherd, promising to gather his people together.  Jeremiah writes, “Then I (God) will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.” I will gather them and I will bring them back.  Those became powerful words to a people longing for a homecoming.

Many Jews began to expect a King from the line of David to rise up and

save them, but really they were looking for more than a king. What they wanted was a hero – a messiah, a chosen one who would gather the flock of Israel from across the world – so they could be one big happy family again.  

Of course, if the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays teach us anything, it’s that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Everybody misses their family until they are elbow to elbow for eight hours in a small kitchen with them. You go home for Thanksgiving, and pretty soon, your sister starts to boss you around like you’re ten, you’re fighting for legroom sitting next to your brother in the back of the suburban even though you’re both almost 30 years old, and a pie gets burnt in the oven and somehow that’s your fault even though you followed the instructions EXACTLY! Am I right? The Holidays can be stressful, but then by the time you leave you’re hugging each other saying “Let’s do it again next year!”

And though I say that jokingly, the desire to be with family - the desire to be home – is usually strong enough to bring us back, year after year.  There’s just something irreplaceable about being with your loved ones.  I often miss home. My family is scattered throughout the Midwest and California, and then most of my other relatives are in North Dakota and South Carolina.  Home with family is one of the few places can count on being loved despite your flaws.

I’m sure you have your own stories about missing your home – missing your family.  To that degree, we can understand a little bit about how the Jewish people felt – what it feels like to be hundreds of miles from your loved ones, from your friends and relatives.  The Jewish people were searching for a hero to come and bring them back to the land of their birth.  They wanted a homecoming.

500 years later, in comes Jesus.  And this time, it’s the Romans (not the Babylonians) who are in control of Jerusalem.  And though many Jews returned home from exile by this time, there’s still a deep longing to restore Jerusalem to the way it used to be – to restore their homeland to Jewish control.  

And that’s why the Jews welcome Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday like a King.  They throw branches down in a path to make way for his arrival because they think he’s come to restore their home.  They want a king who can raise an army and take back their country, from the Romans, but as we know, Jesus is not that kind of King. He’s not Ceasar.  He’s not a conqueror.  He’s not the guy who is going to restore Jerusalem to Jewish control.

When the Jewish leaders discover that Jesus isn’t going to be their political instrument of power, they send him away to be crucified – to die next to criminals.  And the Romans, are too happy to oblige them.  Jesus is tried by Pontius Pilate, and convicted, and sentenced to die a very public execution.

“This is the King of the Jews” were the words inscribed above him on the cross.  They were written there so the world could see what happens to would-be king usurpers.  Of course, there is irony in that statement.  Jesus was a King, but he was a different kind of King, just like the cross was a different kind of throne. 

And that’s exactly the point, isn't it? The cross tells us what kind of King Jesus is and isn’t. He is not a king of political power.  He’s not a king of violence. So what is he? I think that our gospel writer is making the claim that Jesus is indeed, the Messiah, the chosen one prophesied by Jeremiah and Isaiah, to bring his people home. Only it’s not the home that they imagined it would be.

In our gospel story, Jesus is crucified next to two criminals.  One turns to Jesus, half mocking, half pleading and says, “Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!”  If you know the history, you can hear the irony.  The Messiah was supposed to come as a King to bring his people home.  The Messiah was supposed to come and deliver the people from their oppressors – not die by their hands.

But the other criminal sees only an innocent man dying next to him, so he rebukes the other saying, “This man is innocent of any crime and WE, we are getting what we deserve!” Then he turns to Jesus, pleading with him, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  Remember me, when you get home.

This is a statement from a criminal who had lost his way and knew he was a long way from home. This criminal is the prodigal son returning home, back into the loving arms of God, back to into a relationship with Jesus.  And what this criminal recognizes, that nobody else (even the disciples) recognize, is that Jesus true home was with God.

Jesus’ was going home – to his kingdom. Now do you see it?  The messiah had indeed come to bring his people home – only it wasn’t what everybody was expecting.  It wasn’t a place.  It wasn’t a country.  It was a relationship.

You probably already understand what that means.  When we say we are going “home for the holidays” most of us don’t mean we’re going back to the house we were raised in.  If you’re like me, it doesn’t even mean that you’re going back to the state you were raised in.  It means you’re going to be with family.  Home isn’t being at the place you live – it’s being with the people you love.

So Jesus responds to the criminal “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  Today, you will be with me. Today, you are coming home. 

The beauty of this story is that it totally reinvents all of our expectations for God.  Where many of the Jews were looking for a King to bring them into political power, the cross is a place where the King opens his arms and welcomes his people home.  The cross is the place where God welcomes the lost and they wayward.  The cross is the place where God gathers his scattered sheep.  

Home becomes more than a location.  It’s a family gathering.  Flaws and all!

And in the end, I think that is what we are all really longing for – a place to be loved, a place to be accepted, a place to call home.  I think we find this home in the loving arms of Jesus on the cross.

So this Thanksgiving, no matter where you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter if you are alone or with 100 people, I pray you know, that with Christ, you always have a home.

Thanks be to God. Amen.