The Royal Breakthrough: First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 - Christ the King Sunday

For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken. (NRSV)

Breaking Storm in Bodie by Jeff Sullivan on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Christ the King Sunday is a relatively new addition to the church year calendar. It was instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in response to the rise of communism in Russia, fascism in Italy and Spain, and Nazism in Germany. It was intended as a bold defiance of dictatorships and ideologies which legitimized violence and oppression. Proclaiming Christ as King is the most audacious political statement anyone can make—for it is Christ, through his death and resurrection, who brings salvation to the world—and not rulers, empires, or ideologies.

 

Initially, Christ the King was celebrated on the last Sunday in October—which, for Lutherans, is Reformation Sunday. But after Vatican II, the festival was moved to the last Sunday of the church year. Lutherans began celebrating Christ the King Sunday in the 1970’s. Today, we proclaim Christ as King, which is good news in light of the terrifying resurgence of Covid-19 and our absence from each other once again.

 

I don’t know about you, but this new shutdown is a sucker punch to my soul. It seemed like we were almost back to normal. Attendance was climbing, and events were reappearing on the calendar. But now, the crisis is worse than it ever was—and we have no idea how much longer it will go on, or how bad it will get.

 

How can Christ be king with so much loss, so much chaos, so much death?

 

Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel takes us back to when God’s people were exiled in Babylon—the capital of the most powerful and most evil empire in the world at that time. This was a regime that built and maintained itself through brutal violence and oppression. Surrounded by evil and bordered by death, what else was there to conclude but that God was a delusion?

 

But through Ezekiel, God promises to seek out the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak. God will be seeking, gathering, feeding, healing, forgiving, and restoring—right up until the moment when Christ returns.

 

But right now, it’s hard to believe that. Death and the devil have been winning lots of victories. People are dying. Jobs and livelihoods are being lost. Parents are separated from children and children from their parents—in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and migrant detention centers. Many Christians worry that they won’t have a church to return to when this is all over. Yet somehow, through all of this, the rich keep getting richer. The warnings of public health officials go unheeded. There’s not enough love to go around.

 

Even still, it’s frightening to hear Ezekiel (and Jesus) speaking of God judging between the righteous and the unrighteous. Some will hear this and be terrified that God has marked them for destruction. Some will hear this and be excited, believing that God has marked their adversaries for destruction. But remember—Christ is not king to condemn.

 

Like a physician treating the sick, divine judgment is an act of mercy. God’s judgment destroys sin’s power by exposing it to you and by liberating you from it. It is because God loves you that God forgives. It is because God loves you that God seeks to rescue you from sin’s deadly grip. And God will not stop searching for you when sin and selfish ambition lead you astray. God will not stop loving you when your faith fails.

 

God is God claiming you exactly as you are now, sinful and broken, lost and afraid. God is calling you to faith, so that you greet the fulfillment of God’s promises, even in these difficult days. God is also calling you to the Body of Christ, so that you see God defeating death and evil as God uses your own hands, feet, and voice to do it!

 

The world is a messy and dangerous place—as it was in 1925, and as it was for the exiles in Babylon. Yes, we are a scattered church today. But we still have each other—and we have the promise that Christ is king. God’s power within us has not been diminished. We can sit around, feeling sorry for ourselves, indulging anger and bitterness, or we can follow the lead of Christ our king: seeking out the lost, bringing back the strayed, binding up the injured, and strengthening the weak.

 

Who comes to mind when you hear those words? Who is broken? Who has gone astray? Who has given up on God?

 

When you hear of people being separated from those they love, who comes to mind?

 

This is our moment to be the Body of Christ, and witness the power of his love, bringing hope and healing into the crisis. This is our moment to show the world that Jesus is here; and that we are here to make a difference. This is our moment to show ourselves and the world that Christ is not a delusion, but a love that will triumph over all evil. The curtain is open, and the stage is set for you to live for Christ to be your king.