Imagining Christ the King

The Kingdom as Jesus declared is “in our midst” yet “not of this world” or beyond. A mystery we cannot fully comprehend at the moment, perhaps only imagine.

With the disasters our country has experienced both natural and manmade how hard it is to consider the kingship of Christ in the lingering pain of tragedy with the burden and drudgery of recovery. How could Christ the King allow these to happen? The Christ enthroned like the extravagant monarchs of fables and fairy tales or celebrated royalties of history in the midst of adversity may be alienating. But breaking the worldly royal standards connects our question with this song:

“what if God was one of us
just a slob like one of us
like the stranger on the bus
trying to make his way home”

In the broken image of Jesus on the cross shines his kingship amidst mockery. No crown of gold but of thorns, no ring but pegs piercing his hands and feet, no scepter but the cross that hangs himself still uttering forgiveness and commending his spirit to the Father. The wisdom of this world is indeed a folly to God.” For His is the reign of love, that rather longs to make home than rule in our hearts turning us from slaves into friends and heirs of his kingdom.

John Stott’s book, The Incomparable Christ, ends with this story.

There was a sculptor once, so they say, who sculpted a statue of our Lord. And people came from great distances to see it – Christ in all his strength and tenderness. They would walk all around the statue, trying to grasp its splendor, looking from it now from this angle, now from that. Yet still its grandeur eluded them, until they consulted the sculptor himself. He would invariable reply “there’s only one angle from which this statue can be truly seen. You must kneel.”

Our words on the kingship of Christ will always fall short of its immensity that challenges us to humbly believe and see with our religious imagination beyond the limits of our human understanding.