…bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all!

I’ve been singing this hymn at the top of my lungs in church since long before I even knew what a diadem was. I probably should have figured out that it was a crown, but mostly I just belted the tune and loved the way the word, “diadem” flowed off the tongue. 

There are many images and depictions of Jesus Christ in scripture and tradition, including Shepherd, Savior, Redeemer, the Second Person of the Trinity, The New Moses (according to Matthew,) the New Adam (according to Luke,) “Our true Mother” (according to Julian of Norwich.) But arguably the identity that is most wrestled with is the one we observe and sing about today; that of Christ the King. 

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne.

As we celebrate Christ the King we focus on the image of monarchy and power; specifically the image of Christ at the Second Coming, reigning in glory. The Church of England’s collect for the day petitions God to “bring the whole created order to worship at [Christ’s] feet,” while the Episcopal prayer asks that God will, “Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.” In one prayer the whole created order worships Christ, while in the other we are ultimately freed and brought together under Christ’s rule. So even within the Anglican Communion we can see subtle differences in how the Church encounters the Feast of Christ the King.

It’s really nothing new; Christ and kingship have always been linked. We see in the Gospels the conflict between Herod and the infant Jesus, the long-prophesied King of Israel. Jesus speaks all the time in parables about what the Kingdom of God is like, and it is never what anyone expects. And at his trial Jesus is mocked by those who believe that “Jesus, King of the Jews” is fake news, and inscribe it on his cross ostensibly as a joke, though in John’s Gospel, when Pilate inscribes the sign, “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”, and is prompted to correct it to read, “This man says he is King of the Jews,” Pilate cryptically responds, “I have written what I have written.” So, there is tension from the beginning.

…and hail him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

What does it mean for Christ to be King?

In 1925, in the aftermath of the First World War, concerned about a rise in nationalism and secularism worldwide, Pope Pius XI instituted what it formally known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. It has come to be observed by a number of denominations as Christ the King Sunday, Reign of Christ Sunday, or Feast of Christ the King. The main idea behind it, which was particularly important in a time when authoritarian leaders like Hitler were gaining power and influence, was that there is no one on earth or in the divine realm that is not subject to Christ. And since it is observed close to Advent, the Feast has also come to take on an eschatological dimension as well; the anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ when he will be established as king and judge over all of Creation. As the Church of England articulates it, “[t]he year that begins with the hope of the coming Messiah ends with the proclamation of his universal sovereignty.”

So, we have the two interwoven concepts of Christ: As understood through his incarnation, resurrection and ascension; and in the future at the end of time. 

Jesus shall reign where e’r the sun doth its successive journeys run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, ‘til moons shall wax and wane no more.

This hymn was written in the 18th century, during England’s rise to world dominance as an Empire. Here’s the thing about monarchy and empire: It is most extolled and supported by those who benefit from its power and influence. Those who get in the way of expansion, who do not add value, or who dare to demand participation in the benefits of empire or the dominant culture, are marginalized. As we heard during the funeral observances for Elizabeth I, even as her passing was mourned by many, there were those who pointed out that the British Empire’s racist, colonial, and military enterprises over centuries did great harm to indigenous and colonized populations around the globe–harm that the British monarchy is increasingly forced to reckon with as Charles III begins his reign.

So even as we sing of Jesus’ reign, we need to realize that not everyone is comfortable with equating Christ with monarchy. It is easy for those within patriarchal, hierarchical systems to say that Jesus is one of theirs. It was easy for Pope Pius XI to do so, yet within a decade of the declaration of Jesus King of the Universe, Pope Pius XII was turning a blind eye to the plight of Jewish, gay, disabled, Roma, and other minorities targeted by the Nazis. 

“…forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Those marginalized by power or crushed under its heel would be within their rights to be skeptical of centering their faith on the language of that power. Which is why it is so significant that the readings for this day epitomize Jesus’ assertion that his kingdom is not of this world–it does not in any way resemble an earthly power structure. Jeremiah portrays a righteous, just, and wise monarch as opposed to evil and inattentive shepherds. The writer of Colossians portrays the Cosmic Christ, the firstborn of all Creation whose self-offering as a free and costly gift of himself for the world was the source of our salvation. And in Luke’s Gospel we see Jesus on the cross, scoffed at by leaders, mocked by soldiers, and derided as powerless by a criminal crucified beside him.

This story, often read on Good Friday, shows us what Jesus’ kingship really looks like. Commentator Eberhard Busch writes: 

“This passage…takes us by the hand and gives us surprising news: Christ is the highest, and he has to suffer awfully. Both fit together in the event of the Savior. The Lord above all lords is exactly the same one who was humbled on the cross; no other is the Lord…Conversely, this man who is beaten and driven into death has more power than all those who sit in positions of authority and who have forced down so many men and women. That this Lord is hanging helpless on the cross does not stand in contrast to our confession of him. We have to confess of him: “Yours is the power.” 

The other criminal crucified with Jesus understood this. Outcast and condemned, he understood the source and nature of Jesus’ kingship, that his power was an inversion of earthy power, and always had been; from the moment he was born in a Palestinian backwater among the livestock, cradled in a feedbox, and worshiped by outsiders and angels alike. 

Perhaps for many of us this is a no-brainer, something we’ve been told (I hope) since we were in Sunday School. But we now live in a world where authoritarianism is back in fashion and in a country where White Christian Nationalism twists religion into an ideology that ignores the Jesus of the Gospels to the extent that a politician, recently re-elected, declared, to riotous applause, that “Jesus wouldn’t have been crucified if he’d had a gun.”

So yes, it matters today that we fully understand the countercultural, anti-militaristic, anti-imperialist, anti-triumphalist nature of the Reign of Christ now and in the age to come. It matters today that we fully understand, in the words of William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign, that 

“Jesus lived among the rejected. He ministered among the rejected. He died and was crucified as rejected, as somebody who was outside the political power structure. But early Sunday morning, from the grave he led a resurrection movement—a revival of love, a revival of justice, a revival of mercy, a revival of grace.” 

This is what the Reign of Christ looks like. This is what we celebrate today, and this is the message we are called to carry into the world:

That Christ our King is the Dream of God; crowned with thorns and enthroned before a table set with bread broken and wine outpoured, where all are invited to eat and drink. “Come,” he calls to all of Creation, “Come! You are beloved! You are part of the Kingdom!”