Jesus' power

Year B – Christ the King

Readings: Daniel 7:13–14; Revelations 1: 5–8; John 18: 33b–37

The application of the word ‘king’ to Jesus is not a happy one, at least in relation to the sociological and ideological concepts it suggests in our time. To us a king would probably be indicative of someone who claims to be descended from some noble birth, possesses a political kingdom, and rules with force. Alternatively, kings today are merely decorative. Jesus is none of any of these things.

In Greek the word used for kingdom is βασιλεία (basileia). It translates the Hebrew מַמְלְכוּת (mamlakuth), which may be used to mean kingdom, dominion or reign (kingship). It is in this third sense that the word ‘king’ is mostly applied to Jesus.

The feast which is today called ‘Christ the King’―celebrated by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, other mainline Protestants, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia―was instituted by Pope Pius XI with the encyclical Quas primas on 11 December 1925 (at the end of the Holy Year or Jubilee). Originally, according to the encyclical, the name of the feast was the ‘Kingship of Christ’ (‘Christum Regem’; para. 28). The pope also states that the title of ‘king’ is applied to Jesus in a metaphorical sense (para. 7).

Jesus’ power is primarily mystical. “God is Love and Truth,” Pope Benedict XVI stated, “and neither Love nor Truth are ever imposed: they come knocking at the doors of the heart and the mind and where they can enter they bring peace and joy. This is how God reigns; this is his project of salvation” (Angelus, St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 November 2006).

This is the ‘dominion’ that Daniel speaks about, which he calls ‘everlasting’, and ‘which shall not pass away’, nor shall it be ‘destroyed’.

In Revelations, John proclaims that, through his immense love, Jesus became ‘the ruler of [all] kings on earth’, an assertion which compliments what Jesus himself had said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt. 28: 18).

Jesus is unequivocal about the fact that his power has nothing to do with any human form of what we would associate with political power. No violence is involved in his power. Only love, and thus freedom.