For us to declare in worship that “Christ is King” may seem like a non-controversial statement
for us to make. But, many times in our past whenever Christians have declared
that “Christ is King,” they were making a political and social statement as well as a theological statement. For
example, in Luke 2, it made King Herod very nervous when the Wise Men came to him seeking the new “King of the Jews.”
Therefore, in order to keep his political power, King Herod had all the baby boys in Bethlehem, who
were two years old and under, murdered by his soldiers. And in order to save
Jesus from likewise being murdered, Joseph had taken Mary and the infant Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s fury.
Likewise, in
the days leading up to WWII, Adolf Hitler viewed himself as the ultimate authority over human life. He therefore saw that
certain religious leaders were elected to church leadership. These were very prominent and highly respected church leaders
who were willing to declare that the Nazi vision was the same as the Christian vision. In their writings and sermons they
said that Adolf Hitler and his Nazi vision were “God’s Word” to the world.
However, a small group of pastors and other church leaders such as Dietrich Bonheoffer and Karl Barth
would not support the Nazi cause. They therefore formed what they called the “Confessing Church.” As the “Confessing Church” they wrote a confessional statement that is in our denomination’s
Book of Confessions. It is called the “Barmen Confession.” In the
“Barmen Confession” they said that, “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one
Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”
In making that statement they were saying that Hitler
was not their “Fuehrer”—the one to which they owed their ultimate loyalty.
Rather, Jesus Christ was their “Fuehrer”—the one to which they owed their ultimate loyalty. And for their willingness to declare that “Christ is King,” a number of
them paid for their witness with their lives.
Their testimony
speaks to us today. And, therefore as Christians we have to remember that we cannot give our ultimate loyalty to any political
party, social network, or any governmental authority. Rather, whenever we declare
that “Christ is King,” or that “Jesus is Lord,” we are declaring that we are giving our ultimate loyalty
to Christ alone.
And further, we are declaring that as Christians, we are going to work toward seeing that all political,
social and governmental authorities manifest Jesus’ ethical teachings. Therefore,
for us to celebrate “Christ the King Sunday” on November 22nd means that Christ is the King, not only of the Church,
but also that Christ is the One to whom we look for guidance as we made all the decisions of our lives.
