This Sunday is called Christ the King Sunday. The image of Christ as a king, seated on a throne, always seems slightly jarring. Yet the later writings of the NT often portray Christ as ruling at God’s right hand and, in the book of Revelation, as a figure of unimaginable power and glory.

What do we learn from this image? First we need to get our heads around the fact that Jesus is a King. That is what the title ‘Christ’ implies in Greek, which is a translation of the Hebrew ‘Messiah’, Anointed One or King. A better question is how did a crucified pretender king come to be known and worshipped as a king, and as a rival to Caesar.

Second, what sort of king is Jesus and what sort of kingdom does he reign in? Our discipleship has most likely taught us to regard Jesus as a servant king who establishes God’s upside down kingdom through his ministry of teaching and serving. Yet early Christian hymns such as the one found in the Colossians reading suggest a far wider role as co-Creator and as the reconciling agent between God and humanity, no less than the human face of the invisible God. Again, a better question is how will we approach this king – both in worship and in our everyday life.

Download and read the whole message here: The king in God’s upside down kingdom