Who is our King?
Who is our King?
His character is revealed.
When Jesus is crushed, what is revealed about our King?
Welcome to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican Church is located in Georgetown, Texas at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org.
Our sermon soundbite today is based on Luke chapter 23, beginning of verse 35. Jesus here has been crucified and he's naked and he's in great pain. And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him saying "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one." The soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." There was also an inscription over him. "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." But the other rebuked him saying, "Do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation. And we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise."
But what was the King about? He was about others. He was about his father's business because our God doesn't use his power in this way. He's not a selfish God. He's a self giving God. He is a God for the sake of others. And so Jesus says, "I do nothing except what I see my father doing. He is the King for the sake of others." Now, we talked about how you know someone when they're in power because they don't have the constraints that they had on them before, so they're able to just do what they feel like doing. There's also another time where we see the character of people. When we're in suffering, the character of people is revealed, and it's in the hard times.
Here we're seeing those two things happen simultaneously. We're seeing the King of the universe. And remember he says, "No one's going to take my life from me. I lay it down on my own accord." Christ as he's crucified on the cross is there because he wants be there. He still has all of the power. He still has the connection with God at one word from his mouth and armies of angels would come and save him. And he's in extreme pain and crucifixion is, it's torture. And so here in Christ we see both, not only someone who has absolute power, but someone who's in incredible pain and suffering.
I was with Mike the other day and we were going around my house. He's going to paint my house and we're walking around the house and so we're looking at different things that need to be painted. And suddenly I'm like, what is that smell? We're at the front of the house. And I couldn't figure it out for a while, but the smell kept following me. I was like, what is this? What is this? Well, I eventually I looked down and what was on my shoe. You know what was on my shoe, some dog poop, right? When you step on it, when it's crushed, you get its essence in your nose, don't you? Similarly, when a rose is crushed, you get its fragrance, don't you? That beautiful fragrance of a rose. When Jesus is crushed, what is revealed about our King? What does he think about? He thinks about others. When Christ is crushed, the fragrance of love pours forth. That's our King.
Notice as he's hanging on the cross, the King of the universe first thinks about who? Others, specifically here, who is he thinking about? He's thinking about the spiritual needs of the criminal that's crucified next to him. He's dying in pain and he's thinking about the needs, the spiritual needs of the criminal crucified next to him. And this criminal represents Christ's heart to all of us.
Thank you for listening to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from the book of common prayer. You can find this prayer on page 623.
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
