Hello, my friends,

With the phrase "long live the king" and others like it causing all kinds of conversation this last week, I wanted to focus today on why Jesus has been referred to as king by those who have followed in through the ages and why it still matters today. Especially in a time when the Caesars of our world are asserting their dominance.

But before we get to that, here are some resources to consider:

​-The Evolution of Presidential Power by Throughline. This episode from one of my favorite history podcasts was really informative about what has happened in U.S. history that has led us to see the presidency and its power in the way we do today. I found it helpful.

​-Mosaics This is a podcast put on by a close friend of mine here in Idaho. She works for the Idaho office for refugees and each episode of this podcast features a one on one conversation with local people who have lived the refugee experience as well as local community builders who are working to create a community of belonging. It is such a beautiful and crucial resource for being able to understand the nature of refugee resettlement from those who encounter it first hand. I encourage you to listen and follow along for future conversations.

​-We Need to Talk by Hidden Brain. This episode is so heartwarming and enjoyable but also really insightful when it comes to the art of communication. I am finding that communicating effectively is one of the most vital needs in our world today, not just to make things happen, but for us to live fully into our values. This is the first in a two part series by Hidden Brain and I learned quite a bit from it about how I communicate in conversation and how I would like to grow. I think you will too.

Okay, onto today's content.

​
​No King But Jesus

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to them.

But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

“We have no king but Caesar,” they answered.

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

John 19:14-16

​
As I am sure you may have seen, the president posted on Truth social about ending congestion pricing in NY, which concluded with the words “LONG LIVE THE KING!” in reference to himself. This was later reinforced by the official White House accounts on X and Instagram, along with a photo of him wearing a crown on what looked like a Time Magazine cover.

This was of course after he had already posted earlier, “He who saves his country violates no law” while in the thick of all the ways he has wielded the power of the presidency in this short time since inauguration.

In the wake of all this, I posted about it online asking how Christians in America would have responded if the last president or perhaps former President Obama had said these same things only to have several people I know well lay into me about taking it seriously.

“He’s just trolling people exactly like you” and “he’s just joking” was the theme of their many messages and comments.

Tragically, every single person who said this to me had spent the entire year leading up to the presidential election posting “Christ is king!” in their support of the current administration. Some of them even had that phrase in their online bios. Yet here they were defending someone who was insinuating that they were the king and that they were the law themselves. Both claims that are not only deeply unAmerican, but also very clearly ascribed to Jesus in the Bible.

I did my best to point out this conflicting stance to them. I do wonder if they will ever see this tragic irony of their past and present declarations.

The Kingship of Jesus

The notion of kingship can make us uncomfortable when it comes to labeling Jesus that way. It can fill our minds with images of tyrants and authoritarians who ruled from a throne with an iron fist.

Believe it or not, this discomfort is actually at the heart of why the New Testament and the church throughout history have called Jesus a “king,” but for a subversive reason. The goal was not to turn Jesus into yet another tyrant in a long line of tyrants, but rather it was to turn the definition of king and kingdom on its head. To redefine them through the way of Jesus in stark contrast to the way of kings and empires of our world.

Jesus isn’t like any king or kingdom the world has ever seen and that is the entire point.

Unlike earthly kings who privilege their group, their language, their religion, their nation, and will call others to die out of loyalty to them, Jesus calls together a loving community, where every race, nation, language, gender, and caste find belonging in the expansive embrace of God’s love. The same love through which Jesus gave up his life for the whole world. Even his enemies.

Unlike earthly kings, Jesus never used all his cosmic or even political power to force the world into submission. Jesus had the power to call down legions of angel armies at any moment to do his will, yet he pursued the world through teaching, healing, feeding, giving, pursuing justice, showing mercy, forgiving sins, and serving others instead.

Unlike earthly kings, it wasn’t about wielding power over others for Jesus, but about sharing power for and with others instead. As Paul beautifully describes in Philippians 2:6-7, Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.”

“We have no king but Caesar.”

This is the tension we are glimpsing in the short passage from John 19:14-16 we read above. In chapter 18, Pilate has a long conversation with Jesus about whether he is a king or not. It would be convenient for Pilate if Jesus was claiming to be an earthly king as he could easily charge Jesus with sedition against Caesar. Yet Jesus responded, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Jesus continues to try to explain that he isn’t like earthly kings and his kingdom is not like earthly kingdoms that people fight and kill over. Pilate seems to find this conversation frustrating and confusing and moves on. Jesus doesn’t fit the category of power Pilate is working with. Jesus' way of power is not like our way of power.

Even though Pilate sees no reason to charge Jesus, the people demand that an insurrectionist named Barabbas be released instead of Jesus. Then as we read in chapter 19 they declare, “we have no king but Caesar” and demand he be crucified.

The whole theme in these chapters is revolving around the question of power. Barabbas is someone who committed murder during an attempted insurrection against Rome. Caesar is the ruler of Rome. Barabbas will come back and help the religious leaders lead the violent fight against Rome they want but they will also declare their loyalty to Caesar, the ruler of the empire they want to overthrow, for short term gain. That short term gain is to eliminate someone they deemed as a threat to their plans. A teacher who was gaining widespread prominence among the people by his teachings on peace and nonviolence and his loving way of life. The religious leaders didn’t want the kind of king Jesus was or the kind of kingdom he came to bring into the world. They wanted to fight against earthly kings and kingdoms exactly like earthly kings and kingdoms do and have always done. All while using their religion to justify these decisions.

The people in this story are us. This is the story that has happened throughout Christianity in the past. This is the story happening within Christianity today. We are still given the choice between Barabbas and Jesus and between Caesar’s empire or Jesus’ kingdom. Tragically, many Christians still choose the former over the latter.

Power really is the ultimate goal in this. This is why “efficiency” and “productivity” are defined by whatever is advantageous in the pursuit of power by the few over the many. This is why it is so baffling to many of us. Many of the justifications and actions we witness don’t seem to have any logic. That’s because we are looking for reason and reason isn’t the logic that governs these decisions and actions. Power is the logic that governs. So when power is the singular goal, the gospel of Jesus is traded for the gospel of “any means necessary,” like loyalty to Caeser today and then deploy Barabbas tomorrow. Jesus is simply an unacceptable candidate for a king when dominion is your goal. So another is chosen instead.

Jesus never declared himself as king. Jesus didn't come for dominion but for love. It is precisely because of that love that we follow Jesus as our King.

The feast of Christ the king is recognized by many different sects of Christianity throughout the world and it falls on the Sunday right before the season of Advent. It was first introduced into the Christian liturgical calendar by Pope Pius XI in 1925 shortly after WW1, which had left the world devastated and divided. With nationalism and fascism on a feverish rise across Europe, the Pope introduced it as a way of reminding Christians that their primary allegiance is not to an earthly ruler or empire, but to Jesus.

On the feast of Christ the king in 2024, Episcopal Bishop Craig Loya wrote so eloquently, “As we find ourselves in a moment when Christian Nationalism—that abomination that equates the dominance of a racially narrow understanding of America with the kingdom of God—is again ascendant, this feast is as important as it has ever been. I, for one, am unwilling to cede the language of God’s kingdom that is given to us in the scripture to such a gross distortion. We cannot allow those who would corrupt the gospel of Jesus to steal from us the way that very gospel speaks of the savior. We are invited in these days, and all days, to follow our spiritual ancestors in pointing to Christ the King of peace. We point to that kingdom by sowing God’s reckless generosity wherever we go, by meeting the hatred and vitriol all around with God’s love, by standing with those the world’s kingdoms constantly push aside, and by walking day by day the way of the cross of Jesus, which alone can bring true life, true liberation, true peace, and true joy.”

The Emperor’s New Clothes

Do you remember the folktale of the emperor’s new clothes? Where the emperor was convinced that he was wearing beautifully designed and invisible clothes, when in reality he was just naked? How the townsfolk uncomfortably go along with this pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a little child blurts out that the emperor isn’t actually wearing anything at all? How the people then realize that they have all been fooled? How the emperor is startled, but opts to continue the procession, walking more proudly than ever rather than admit he had been fooled?

This is what it feels like for many of us who grew up within American Christianity watching all that is happening right now. We are watching everything we have been taught just disregarded and ignored for the sake of political power, yet we are expected to just go along with the charade as if that’s not what’s happening at all.

Think about it for a moment. If a president from a political party many Christians opposed declared themselves as “king,” what do you think they would do?

Being a Christian my entire life and a pastor for all my adult life, I have seen firsthand what happens when a president opposed by many Christians does something they don’t like. So let me give you a few examples.

The internet gets flooded with “End Times” prophecies and claims of them being “the Antichrist.” A myriad of quotes from the founding fathers about standing up to tyrants get plastered everywhere. Even public protests are formed and participated in.

So the matter of integrity here I need us to understand is that if Christians did all these things towards presidents they opposed, but not towards a president they support, even though that president is doing the exact same things they would disprove of from “the other party,” that is the very definition of hypocrisy.

I know that if the previous president did even half of what the current president is doing now, the outrage from Christians would simply be burning the internet down right now. So where is their voice now?

Perhaps you are among those who feel like you can’t speak out or that it wouldn’t even matter if you did. As a pastor, let me give you full permission. At any moment you can say, “this is wrong” and “this is too far" and it ALWAYS matters to stand up for the right thing, no matter how big or small.

Moral and theological integrity dictates that we hold all those in positions of power accountable to the gospel of Jesus, no matter the political stripe. But this is especially important that we do so if it’s a president and party known to be supported by many, many Christians.

Raging against the party you don’t like is easy. Everyone does that. Standing up the party and politicians that have enjoyed unquestioned support by many Christians for decades is the difficult yet important work. That takes integrity and great courage.

Many of us have been saying it for more than a decade now: The emperor has no clothes. We aren’t going to stop. We must continue to let others know that they are free to join us at any time and welcome them with open arms when they do.

To be frank, I am sure many of us have all but given up hope to see such integrity reveal itself from Christianity at large in our country. It seems that the worship of wealth and power have gained far too deep a foothold for many that even the teachings of Jesus sound weak and offensive. Other kings and kingdoms have been chosen instead. But we who follow Jesus must not tire from asking Christianity in America at large, “How far does it have to go before you gain the moral and theological integrity to hold your preferred political party accountable and say, “this is wrong.” We must continue to hope, to pray, and to work towards calling people to make that decision and soon.

For while the Caesars of this world continue to declare themselves as king and demand that we must live in accordance with their will to the disregard of others, we remember the words of Matthew 25:34-40 describing what our one true king will say to the faithful upon his return:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

We Have No King But Jesus.