Matthew 27:27-31 * November 23, 2008 *
Christ the King * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ the King,
A lesson from early church history. The year is A.D. 155…
His
name was Polycarp. He was the long time pastor
of the church in
Now 86 years old, Polycarp was sort of a living icon. In his youth he had been a personal disciple of the Apostle John. This made him one of the last links to the time when Jesus walked among us, an association that had obviously not escaped the Roman Emperor.
It
was a time of renewed Christian persecution in the
A Church Historian by the name of Eusebius records the stirring account of his last hours.
He
stepped forward, and was asked by the proconsul if he really was Polycarp. When he said yes, the proconsul urged him to
deny the charge [that he was a Christian].
“Respect
your years!” he exclaimed, adding similar appeals regularly made on such
occasions: “Swear by Caesar’s fortune;
change your attitude; say: “Away with the godless!”… “Swear, and I will set you
free: execrate Christ.”
“For
eighty six years,” replied Polycarp, “I have been his servant, and he has never
done me wrong; how can I blaspheme the king who saved me?”
“I
have wild beasts,” said the proconsul.
“I shall throw you to them, if you don’t change your attitude.”
“Call
them,” replied the old man. “We cannot
change our attitude if it means a change from better to worse…”
“If
you make light of the beasts,” retorted the governor, “I’ll have you destroyed
by fire, unless you change your attitude.”
Polycarp answered, “The fire you threaten burns for a time and is extinguished: there is a fire you know nothing about – the fire of the judgment to come and of eternal punishment, the fire reserved for the ungodly. But why do you hesitate? Do what you want…” (taken from Eusebius Church History)
And they did. They gathered the wood. When the pyre was ready, Polycarp prayed, thanking God for counting him worthy to suffer as a martyr and for the eternal life that would soon be his. They lit the flame. Not long after that Polycarp went to heaven.
What inspired such loyalty? What was behind the willingness to die rather than deny? Polycarp answered that question for us. He had a king. So do we. And it is upon this blessed truth we will center our thoughts on this final Sunday of the Church Year.
CHRIST IS OUR KING
The text we have before us takes us to the early hours of that first Good Friday, perhaps just after first light. Throughout the night Jesus has been tried by the Jewish leaders. They have condemned Him to death but were powerless to carry out the sentence due to the politics of being under Roman rule. So off they go to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, confident they can get him to consent to the legal formalities.
Pilate had been around the block with these people a few times before. He had a pretty good idea the last thing they were really interested in was justice, but he was called upon to do his job of governing. He hears the accusation that this man is setting himself up as a rival king to the Roman Emperor. This of course is not true, but it’s a charge the leaders knew he couldn’t simply wave off as religious infighting.
So he questions Jesus.
He asks if He is a king. In the
Gospel of John Jesus indicates the answer is “Yes,” but then
adds: “My kingdom is not of this
world. If it were, my servants would
fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.
But now my kingdom is from another world.”
In other words, He is a king. Just not the kind Pilate expected.
As Christians know (but Pilate did not) Jesus visited our planet not to expand border lines or conquer other nations or build earthly monuments to Himself. Nor did He come to make life entirely trouble-free for His subjects. He came for a far more important reason.
Our King’s purpose was to carry out the meaning of His
personal name, Jesus, which means “Savior.”
So named, the angel told His foster father Joseph in a dream 33 years earlier,
because “He will save His people from their sins.”
Just as a King rescues His people, so Christ our King rescued us – and all mankind. But what He rescued us from is the most significant: the ugly, eternal, damning consequences of our sin. In His love this King provided the world not with its greatest want (because everybody wants something different), but with its greatest need: the forgiveness of sin.
He accomplished this through what theologians call His “active” and “passive” obedience for us. These are terms worth reviewing. Jesus actively did everything God asks us to do, but which we fail to do because we are sinners. He carried out all the commands and demands of God perfectly as our substitute. And then He passively allowed Himself to be put on the cross and die, the perfect, substitutionary sacrifice for all mankind.
Our text indicates the great lengths of humility, pain and
injustice Jesus underwent in His mission to save us from our sins. In the days leading up to these events, Jesus
told His disciples that He would be turned over to “Gentiles to be mocked and
flogged and crucified” (Mt
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
And that’s exactly what happened. It was all part of the plan. But the story doesn’t end with the cross. Our second lesson for today reminds us of another great enemy our King conquered. Death. By rising from the dead, death died for those who look to Jesus as their King. Not in the sense that our bodies won’t wear out or that someday each of us won’t have a funeral, because we will. That’s temporal death. But now – thanks to our King – temporal death is but the gateway to eternal life.
And that dramatically changes the equations in our lives right here and right now.
Let’s be sure we understand this correctly. Sin with all its sad and hurtful ramifications has not been eradicated from our lives – remember Luther’s quote that we are at the same time saints and sinners – but its ability to disqualify us from heaven has been taken away.
In the same way death has not been eradicated – we’re all going to die – but it’s eternally condemning hold on us no longer exists. Which means we as Christians now live in ultimate freedom. In our weakness and fearfulness we don’t always appreciate it or recognize this, but it’s there. As subjects of Christ our King we are a liberated people.
Sin and death are the big ones because they deal with the eternal. But there are other conquests Jesus made along the way that deal with the present. Let’s consider just a few of them, because they are such great blessings. Christ our King provides us with…
Freedom from worry. How is your portfolio doing in the recent economic downturn? Do you have enough to retire on? Maybe retirement is the farthest thing from your mind. Maybe the measure of success is just trying to pay all the bills with a little left over. Or maybe you’re okay there but you have some concerns about the kids or grandkids or parents or other loved ones.
Are you worried? Are
there things keeping you awake at night?
Listen to your King: “Seek
first the
Or how about this: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.” Or this: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” These commands and promises are not pious platitudes to make us feel better. They are statements of truth issued from the mouth of our King. And He who banished sin and death from our lives is also able to banish worry. Let us trust Him in this.
Something else Christ our King provides for us is freedom from incompleteness and disconnectedness. Social scientists tell us that within each human being is a great longing and need to be loved and validated and fulfilled. In fact, God places that longing within each of us in order to draw us to Himself. Unfortunately many people look for this fulfillment in all the wrong places. So people (and if we are honest, us as well) busily accumulate things or strive for accolades only to find out at the end of the day they don’t provide what they promise.
You’ve probably heard of that great classic of Christian literature entitled “Pilgrim’s Progress.” It was written by John Bunyan and it’s the fictional story of a man’s yearning for a deeper and truer relationship with God.
Chances are you haven’t heard of another book that plays off that name and is entitled “Pilgrim’s Regress.” It’s the spiritual autobiography of the 20th century Christian apologist C.S. Lewis. He also talks about a man’s (his) quest to find fulfillment as a journey. Along the way he dabbles in this and that – carnal pleasure, the arts, various philosophies – all of which fill the hole in his soul for a little while. But what finally brings Him lasting peace and contentment is a relationship with God through Christ.
And we are reminded that connection to the King who loves us
and cares for us is the only thing that satisfies. Isaiah the prophet put it this way
(26:3): “You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”
When we consider that Christ is our King and everything this means, how can that not inspire love and loyalty and the desire to live to His glory and honor before a watching world? Which is a final freedom our King grants us: the freedom to unashamedly and unabashedly live for Him. The freedom to not be enslaved to the passions and positions of the world around us, but to live only for Him.
That’s what ancient Polycarp did. He lived for his King. And we have the same One.
A final related thought before we close. Today is commitment Sunday. Every Sunday we offer Jesus our worship and praise and offerings. But on this Sunday of the year we have the special opportunity to tangibly indicate our love and devotion for our King through the commitment cards each member received in the mail. Please remember to view Christian giving as the high privilege it is. It is nothing less than Christ the King giving us, his grateful subjects, the opportunity for furthering the work of His kingdom.
Someday – maybe sooner than we think – He will come to judge the world and take us to be His own in heaven and we will reside forever in Jerusalem the Golden. On that day the world will see Him for the true King He is.
But until then let us engage in our own active and passive obedience by first enjoying the conquests He has won in our behalf and in our interests. And then through the life we lead actively reflecting loyalty and love for Christ our King. Amen.