The Emperor Has No Clothes Sermons at St. Dunstan's

Today is Christ the King Sunday. This Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays to preach because the preacher has one job this morning: to talk about the kingship of Jesus Christ.



A few weeks ago, I preached about the end of the biblical story, which is not disembodied life up among the clouds but rather the return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the dead. That’s the end, so to speak, although even that isn’t precisely the end but rather the beginning of the fullness of the new creation.



But perhaps that sermon left you wondering. Maybe it left you wondering what Jesus is doing between his ascension and that last, great day when he will return, and the dead in Christ will rise, never to die again. This Sunday is the answer to that question. Jesus Christ is King; he is Lord of Heaven and Earth, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That’s the first point I want to make this morning.



‌Jesus Christ is King Now



We might be tempted to look at how the world is today and say, “I can’t wait until the day Jesus is King.” There are whole eschatologies, beliefs about the end time, built around precisely this idea. They cannot fathom that Jesus Christ is King already, and so they push his kingship out into the future. This way of thinking is not how the Bible thinks about the kingship of Jesus. ‌



In the Bible, Jesus was enthroned twice, and please notice the past tense. He was enthroned twice. The first time he was enthroned, he was dressed in purple, a crown of thorns was placed upon his head, and a reed was put in his hand as a scepter. And before the soldiers took the reed from him, beat him with it, spit on him, and ripped the garments from his body, they unknowingly spoke a truth that would change the world:




And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
Matthew 27:29 (ESV)



The king was lifted up, enthroned on a Roman cross, and the same words hung above his head.




And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
Matthew 27:37



This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. On that day, Jesus was crowned as the King of the Jews, and if he was King of the Jews, then as the Psalmists and Prophets had always said, he was also the king of the whole world. Jesus was enthroned as the king of all the earth on Golgotha, but then he died, rose, and ascended, and this is his second enthronement.



When Jesus ascended on high, he sat down at the right hand of God. We see this in several places.




After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Hebrews 1:3




​But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Hebrews 10:12



Even the more extended ending of Mark, which I don’t consider to be canonical but does summarize well certain early Christian traditions says,




So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Mark 16:19



Do you know what Old Testament chapter is quoted or alluded to the most in the New Testament? It’s Psalm 110.




The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Psalm 110:1



Jesus was enthroned at his ascension. He took his seat at the right hand of God as the Lord of heaven and earth. And notice that little bit right there: “until I make your enemies your footstool.” That last bit of the verse is what Paul refers to in our epistle reading this morning when he writes:




Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:24-26



If the question is, “What is Christ doing now between his ascension and his second coming?” that’s the answer. He is reigning as the Lord