Recognizing the King

There is an old children’s story in which a knight’s aide advised the mayor of a small village that his majesty, the King would be making a visit to their humble little village. With great fanfare the mayor began to make the appropriate arrangements for a visit from the King. On the day of his arrival, the mayor stood out on the town square dressed to the nines awaiting the arrival of the king. The hours slowly ticked away but no one ventured into the village. No one, that is, except for a lonely, lame beggar who asked the mayor for a drink to quench his thirst. The mayor brushed him aside with great irritation. He had no time for such a thing. He was waiting for the king. But by the end of the day, the King never arrived. Furiously, the mayor wrote to the aide asking what had gone wrong. Why hadn’t the king come? The King’s aide responded that he had in fact come to visit that day. He was traveling incognito. He came disguised as a lonely, lame beggar. 

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of the church year. Next year begins anew with the season of Advent. Advent is a season of preparation like Lent for a significant event in our faith. Advent is about preparing our hearts for the birth of Christ. Truly it is not just remembering the birth of Jesus 2000 plus years ago, but it is allowing Christ to be born in us, to grow in us, to live in us in a fresh and new way. Next week as we begin Advent, we will be doing a sermon series entitled On the Way to Bethlehem and we will look at the significance that 5 geographical locations play into the Christmas story. Next week, we will begin with Rome. As 

But the liturgical year which begins with Advent, looking ahead to the birth of Jesus, ends on this day, Christ the King Sunday. It is a day when we look ahead to when Jesus returns and sits on his throne and takes his rightful place and sets the whole of creation back to the way God made it to be before sin entered the world. Oftentimes when we think about the return of Christ, we automatically think about the book of Revelation—and there is some truth in doing that, though the book of Revelation is so much bigger than the end-times prophecy we limit it to. Yet there is a piece of it that speaks to what will happen when Christ returns. 

But if we limit our understanding of the return of Jesus to that day when he comes and assumes his throne, then we are absolutely missing what Jesus himself told us about what we should be looking for. In fact most people miss it. And so, I am prepared today to make a prediction of when Jesus will return. You know how there are crazy people who are always saying that they have cracked the code of Revelation and now know when the end of the world is? There is one guy who has been saying that since 1988, and every time it doesn’t happen he says - oh wait I realized something else. It will now be on this day. His latest is MAY 21, 2025. So according to him you have six months to live. But he has been wrong about a dozen times so far. 

BUT NOT ME. I CAN DEFINITIVELY SAY WHEN JESUS WILL RETURN. . . YOU CAN TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I HAVE IT RIGHT WHEN EVERYONE ELSE HAS BEEN WRONG. Are you ready for it? . . . you may want to pull your phone out and plug it into your calendars so you don’t miss it. I’m going to give it to you by counting down from three just to give it the apocalyptic tension it deserves. Are you ready? Here we go in THREE . . . TWO . . . ONE . . . TODAY! JESUS IS RETURNING TODAY. That is if you believe him. 

He is clear that when he comes back and assumes his rightful throne to set the world right he will provide judgment by separating the sheep from the goats. And the way he will do that is by looking at how we gave him water when he was thirsty and food when he was hungry and clothed him when he was naked and housed him when he was homeless and visited him when he was sick and in prison. And at that moment, those gathered who have been separated by whether they did or did not do those things to Jesus will ask when was it that you were sick or imprisoned, hungry or thirsty, naked and homeless and we did or didn’t care for you. His response: every time you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. Every time you failed to do it to the least of these, you failed to do it to me. 

I say Jesus will return today simply because I feel certain we will have an opportunity to encounter someone on the fringe, someone who has been cast off or beaten down or pushed to the fringe, we will have an encounter with the least, the last, and the lost of the world TODAY. And Jesus will say that when you did it to them, you were doing it to me/ when you failed to do it to them, you failed to do it to me. The king is coming today - incognito/ in disguise. And he will come tomorrow and every day after that until Christ finally comes and sits on his throne to set the world right. But when that day comes, Jesus says that will be the day he separates the sheep from the goats. Let me tell you something that I hope will help you in figuring out your faith - we are all infatuated with the book of Revelation, but it can be a distraction for us. What is more important is the Gospel of Jesus. And Jesus says here is how judgment will happen by me when I get on my throne: by how you treat those on the fringe - HOW YOU TREAT ME WHEN I’M INCOGNITO. 

Our text for today is important in this conversation because it happens when Jesus has been arrested and put on trial and they are mocking him because he has allowed people to call him THE KING OF THE JEWS. Pilate demands to know if Jesus is a king. Jesus says I AM A KING BUT MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD. In other words, I am just passing through incognito. He didn’t dress like a King. He didn’t act like a king, he didn’t ride on a stallion with an army like a king, he didn’t wield power like a king, he didn’t have servants wait on him hand and foot like a king. In fact, he dressed and lived like a pauper. He had no palace. He rode on a donkey with a band of rejects. He hung out with the poor and cast aside and with sinners. Instead of expecting to be served, he served others. He was a king but not the way the world looked for a king so they missed him. And instead of worshiping him, they crucified and hung a banner over him mocking the fact that he was a king and they yelled at him that if he was a king with power why couldn’t he even save himself. His whole life was incognito from the powerful, so it makes sense that his judgment will look the same way: based on how we care for those the world doesn’t. 

Rest assured, church, that Jesus will return one day to sit on his throne and set the world right. He will look like the king we have expected all along. HOWEVER, every day, he comes to us as a king in disguise looking at how we treat those on the fringe. 

There was a song that was very impactful to me when I was in college in the 1990’s called WHAT IF JESUS COMES BACK LIKE THAT by Collin Raye. the song begins: 

He came to town on an old freight train 

He jumped off in the pouring rain 

Everybody says he's insane 

Just a low down no account hobo 

He made his bed beneath the county bridge 

The city folks said "hey, that's not his" 

They signed a petition they're gonna get rid 

Of that low down no account white trash 

What if Jesus comes back like that? 

On an old freight train in a hobo hat 

Will we let him in or turn our back? 

What if Jesus comes back like that? 

Oh what if Jesus comes back like that? 

She was born into drug abuse 

She couldn't help what her mama used 

It wasn't like she got to choose 

Now she's layin' there all alone 

Got a monkey on her back 

The nurses say they never saw a smile like that 

Doctor says she might stand a chance 

If somebody takes her home 

What if Jesus comes back like that two months early hooked on crack. Will we let him in or turn our back? What if Jesus comes back like that? Where will he find that our hearts are at? 

Today is Christ the King Sunday, but don’t be fooled, church. He won’t be like we expect a king to be. He will come to us incognito/ in disguise. Think about how next week, as we begin Advent, we look to an unwed peasant couple who had to give birth to our king in a barn surrounded by animals lying in a food trough. What if Jesus comes back like that? 

Thanks be to God
AMEN