Christ the King 28.10.18 Imitating the King
We can think of Our Lord as King in two different ways.
He is King in the sense of glory. He is seated at the right
hand of the Father; He will come again to judge the living and the dead. He has
been exalted far above all else: God highly exalted him and gave him the name that
is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow —in
heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Ph 2,9-11)
He is worthy of all praise and adoration. No words we can
say would ever be enough.
Yet this is the same Person who is seen kneeling down to
wash the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper.
He is the same who is gentle with the poor and
disadvantaged, the sick, and sinners.
He has all authority as God, but holds back on the use of
His power. He seeks to persuade by love, to lead people rather than impose upon
them.
He shows great humility, especially on the way to Calvary
and on the Cross.
This is not what we would normally expect of kings; they are
not usually so humble.
What king would be born in a stable? Or allow himself to be
crucified, if he had the means of getting away? What king would be generous
enough to give his life for his subjects?
Our Lord did all these things, thus showing another kind of
power.
In His glory He can make universes, create great wonders
with just a word.
In His humility He can show great capacity to love and to
give.
In both ways He shows great strength - the strength of
glorious power with the strength of perfect self-control, every thought word
and deed in perfect harmony.
Either way He deserves to be worshipped – Worthy is the Lamb
(Rev 5,12).
If we worshipped with the angels all day we would never
reach the end. All His perfections are infinite, therefore unending.
We honour heroes. A hero could be someone who saved one life
once. What about someone who saves billions and is saving all the time?
On this feast we honour Him in both lights - Glory and Humility.
The praise that we can give is just a drop in the ocean, but
valuable to Him all the same.
We praise Him and we imitate Him, at least on the humility
side.
We can wash each other’s feet, taking that to mean mutual
service, and humility as regards each other; always happy to take the lowest
place (Lk 14,10); forgiving one another (Ep 4,32); to lay down our lives if required
(1 Jn 3,16).
We hope by this imitation to be glorified by Him, sharing in
His glorification as Man.
We hope also to give Him a Kingdom on earth, as He has in
Heaven.
He is King anyway, but if we let Him be King over us (instead
of resisting at every turn) this will serve to give Him glory.
We glorify Him in our prayer, but better still in our
obedience and trust.
If we let His royal power work in and through us we then we
will see better days.
It is in our power to live in imitation of Him, and to make that
way of living the norm, insofar as we can.
When people forget God they do a great deal of damage. When
they kneel before Him there will be peace. When people realize they belong to
the same King they lose the desire to fight. Swords are turned into
ploughshares (Is 2,4).
Better still, they lose the desire to sin. Sin is rebellion against
the perfect King, and perfect society. Why do we want to do that?
Far better if we learn from His humanity how to manage our
own.
If we humble ourselves as He did, we will be exalted as He
was.
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