Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. On many crucifixes a tablet is fixed above the Savior’s head, shown crowned with thorns, and the tablet is inscribed INRI. These are the first letters of the four Latin words Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, meaning Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.
Saint John tells us in chapter nineteen of his Gospel that in the praetorium Pontius Pilate ordered these words written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek to be displayed on the cross of Christ, and this enraged the chief priests who had clamored for the execution of Jesus. Recall that when the moment of decision had arrived, Pilate asked the crowd “Shall I crucify your king?” and the chief priests replied “We have no king but Caesar.”
On this last Sunday of the old Year of Grace, the Church around the world proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the King of the Jews, but more than that, he is the King of all creation, the King of the entire universe. This proclamation is not a matter of pious titles or political positions; rather, acknowledging the dominion of Jesus Christ is at the very heart of the Gospel and determines the eternal destiny of the whole human race.
And so we must therefore take great care not to misunderstand the kingship of Christ, as did the Roman soldiers who wove his crown of thorns, clothed him in royal purple, beat him savagely, and spat in his face even as they cried out in mockery “Hail, King of the Jews.”
To understand the true meaning of the title King of the Jews which was hurled at Christ with hatred and contempt, we need to look back to the beginning of his human life. Saint Luke in chapter one of his Gospel recounts the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary at Nazareth, and we know by heart the beginning of their conversation: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”
Then the angel said “Be not afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
So, at Christ’s conception in the womb of his holy mother, God the Father’s eternal Son was revealed as the true heir of David, the shepherd king of Israel, and Mary was promised that her Son’s kingdom would never end. The Lord Jesus is then indeed the King of the Jews, and the Magi who sought for him after his birth in the City of David hailed him with this very title, causing Herod to fear for his throne and so he slaughtered the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem in a vain attempt to murder the newborn King of the Jews.
Three decades later, when Jesus began his public ministry, he spoke boldly of his coming kingdom. “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” Over and again in his preaching, Christ spoke of the Kingdom of God, and when he taught his disciples how to pray, he told them to say “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But for those who heard these words and received this way of praying, this was no mere set of abstract philosophies or political aspirations.
About one hundred sixty years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, the Seleucid Empire which then controlled Judea and Galilee sought to create the original naked public square by destroying Jewish worship in the Jerusalem Temple and throughout the land and replacing it with the pagan practices common throughout the ancient Mediterranean world.
This, it was thought by the Seleucid rulers, would help bind together all the disparate peoples of their empire into one new people - a false and empty unity which the indomitable Jewish people resisted with all their strength as they had in earlier centuries with the Egyptians, the Medes, the Babylonians, and the Persians. The Jewish refusal to become pagans, of course, resulted in the Maccabean Revolt which led to the rededication of the Temple and the eight day festival of Hanukkah which begins this year on Christmas Day.
No, the children of Israel would not be assimilated, and their Messiah would one day rule all creation, as was foretold by the Prophet Daniel in our first reading: “I saw one like a Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven … and (he) received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.” And now we come back to Christ in the praetorium.
Pilate asked “Are you the King of the Jews?”, and Jesus answered “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over … But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So, Christ is a king, but his kingdom is not of this world. This paradox is one of the reasons Christians have had such difficulties over the centuries in teasing apart the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men.
A certain strand of Christian thought argues even today that the Church must be legally established or at least privileged in the laws of every human society in order to bear witness to the dominion of Jesus Christ, because the Church is on earth the seed and beginning of the Kingdom of God. And those who do not share our faith in Christ the King fear precisely this sort of privileged establishment as a path to theocracy and tyranny.
But, friends, as Christ himself taught us, his kingdom does not belong to this world, and at the Second Vatican Council the Church renounced once and for all any claim to holding a privileged position in this world, seeking now only the liberty to fulfill the Great Commission by inviting others to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
The Church does not seek to rule the world but to serve others by teaching the Gospel in both public and private, by assisting the needy according to the truth of the Gospel, by arranging the Church’s own internal life according to the same Gospel, and by worshiping the living God in all the ways he has commanded us.
But if earthly Christian kingdoms are not the instrument of bringing the Kingdom of God among us, what is? Saint Luke tells us that Jesus was questioned about just this matter by the Pharisees, and “he answered them ‘the Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say ‘Behold, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the Kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Friends, the Kingdom of God is in our midst because Christ the King is in our midst. And he did not inaugurate his kingdom through violence or the will to dominate others; he brought the kingdom among us by suffering and dying and rising to new life to atone for our sins and to redeem us from the grave, and in Christ’s kingdom to serve is to reign. We become citizens of that kingdom by faith, hope, and love, and when we live the new life of grace we are already living in his Kingdom. Recall the prayer he gave us: Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
When we do God’s will by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and the imprisoned, welcoming the immigrant, teaching the ignorant, correcting the straying, comforting the sorrowing and fulfilling all the other corporal and spiritual works of mercy, we are already living in the Kingdom.
When we love God above all others and all others for the sake of God, we are already living in the Kingdom. When we show our love for the King by keeping his commandments, we are already living in the Kingdom. When we repent of our sins and surrender our entire lives in the obedience of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are already living in the Kingdom. And by such a life we give witness to the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord, the only Savior of the entire human race, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Which brings us back to the praetorium. Jesus said to Pilate “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” Pilate could not comprehend the meaning of these words, as so many in the world today cannot or will not: Truth? What is that? But giving faithful witness to Christ the King demands that we know the truth, believe the truth, love the truth, live the truth, and share the truth with others.
One part of the truth we believe and teach is that every human person is endowed with inalienable dignity and intrinsic worth, and so the Church reminds every nation on earth that both governments and individuals persons are bound to keep the eternal moral law and to preserve, protect, and defend the basic human rights of all persons, including the unborn, the chronically ill, the aged, the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned, and the immigrant.
For this reason, the Church condemns as unjust any human law which does not correspond to the eternal moral law known by right reason. But teaching this truth and persuading others to accept it is in no way the same thing as attempting to establish a theocracy or claiming the power to rule.
Another crucial part of the truth we believe and teach is that this earth and its kingdoms are not permanent. The entire universe came to be and will pass away, and on the Last Day the final and full revelation of the eternal King will remove all doubt from every mind. This is what Saint John records in the Book of Revelation as we read in today’s second lesson:
“Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come … and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will lament on account him … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” (Revelation 1:4-8)
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
This is the text of my homily for 24 November 2024, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Fr Jay Scott Newman