Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

I knew that my son Evan had reached a new stage of development when he, a rather easy-going toddler, behaved differently one day when asked to pick up the toys that lay strewn about his closet-sized room in our first house in South Carolina.

“Evan, it’s time to pick up your toys and get ready for your bath.” I said in a soothing motherly tone. No response.

“Evan, it’s time to pick you your toys and get ready for your bath,” I said again, this time a little more insistent. No response.

“Son,” I said, “I need for you to pick up your toys.”

Evan stood motionless and expressionless, all three feet of him, a new and noticeable starch in his arms and legs.

“You’re not the boss of me,” he said.

“You’re not the boss of me?” I laughed out loud and chased him out of the room and through the house as he shrieked first with resistance and then with pleasure. And, oh, by the way, he did end up picking up those toys.

There are so many times I’ve wanted to say “You’re not the boss of me” to a whole host of authority figures in my life—to my own parental bosses, to my workplace bosses, to my church bosses, to governmental bosses, to cultural bosses, even to certain parts of myself: “You are not the boss of me!”

But the truth is that each of us has a whole host of bosses—people or things we’re accountable to, people to whom we have given the power to tell us what to do or to influence us, people we have not consciously given that power to but who have power over us, nonetheless. And we have a mixed response to these, sometimes accepting their power over us as legitimate and right and other times not. “You are not the boss of me.”

And so it’s interesting this morning to be working with the image of Christ the King—the one, as our Epistle says, who has been put “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come,” in other words who has dominion over all, over everything, over everyone, now and forever.

Yes, it’s interesting because the Feast of Christ the King on the one hand, what we’re saying when we declare Christ as King is something about who and what is no longer the boss of us and, on the other hand, what we are saying when we declare Christ as King is something about what has authority for us, what we allow to press upon us with urgency and power in a way that we will lead to action.

And so, first, Christ the King is about who or what is no longer “the boss of us.” And so here is my list: Presidents, Kings, Governors, Mayors, governments of all kinds; Popes, Bishops, ministers, rectors, religious authorities; CEOs, managers, workplace bosses; fathers, mothers, partners, husbands, wives, children, bosses in family life of every kind; ideologies, political affiliations, allegiances, beliefs; memories, aspirations, dreams; gender, sexual orientation, age; vulnerabilities, physical wounds, psychological wounds, spiritual wounds. “Christ the King” means that these, all of these, have lost their dominion over us, have lost their power to tyrannize us, to “lord” it over us in a way that robs us and the world of its humanity.

But along with this loss of so many people and things that can have the power to tyrannize us, “Christ the King” also means that something else must come to sit upon the throne, to sit at the center of who we are, influencing how we see the world, something that presses legitimately upon us and calls out to us to respond: The Holy and Human one—the one who invites us into relationship with him and with one another—The Holy and Human One is relationship, with all the power that relationship has to challenge us, to build our understanding of others, to create compassion in our hearts, to inspire response, to shape who we are.  

Christ the King means that human relationship and relatedness is on the throne rather than anything or anyone that has the power to tyrannize us, to separate us from ourselves and others.

And, of course, as our gospel makes clear, the human relationships and human relatedness that we claim rightfully sits upon our throne include especially the needy of the world who it would be so easy not to be in relationship with, who it would be so easy to demonize and tyrannize—the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger and prisoners. Relationship with human beings, especially those in need, the gospel implies, must necessarily lead to our response, to action.

And so finally Christ the King means that who we are, who we are in relationship with and what we do are all of one piece, for this is who the Holy and Human One is—the one who showed us what it means to have a self, a self that once in relationship touches the world in a compassionate self-giving way.

In the prologue to his book entitled Leadership Jazz, Max Depree, former CEO of Herman Miller, tells this story:

“Esther, my wife and I have a granddaughter named Zoe, the Greek word for “life.” She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder. The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days . When Esther and I scrubbed up for our first visit and saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her naval, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.To complicate matters, Zoe’s biological father had (left)the month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave me my instructions. “For the next several months, at least, you’re the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I would like you to rub her body and her legs and her arms with the tip of your finger. While you’re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch.”Depree then goes on to say: “Ruth was doing exactly the right thing on Zoe’s behalf (and, of course, on my behalf as well), and without realizing it she was giving me one of the best possible descriptions of the work of a leader. At the core of becoming a leader is the need always to connect one’s voice and one’s touch.”The celebration of Christ the King is about the Human and Holy One, the Christ, who sits at the center of the universe, dethroning all others. It is also about our humanity on our throne, a humanity that is a self in relation to others and whose voice is connected to touch.

Works Cited or Consulted

Max Depree, Leadership Jazz: The Essential Elements of a Great Leader

Back to Sermons