The Kingship That Saves

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, marks the final Sunday of the liturgical year and invites us to step back and consider the whole story of salvation. Throughout Scripture, God reveals his desire to shepherd his people, to guide them, and to draw them into his own life. Yet history also shows how easily we wander and how deeply we need a king who can heal the human heart. This feast leads us to reflect on the kind of king Christ is and what it means to belong to his kingdom.

In the book of Samuel, the people demanded a king. Before this, God had been their king. Yet the people kept drifting into sin, and so they wanted a king like the other nations and accepted the consequences that came with it. Saul was anointed, but the situation did not improve. This leads to David, a man after God’s own heart, whom God made shepherd of his people.

But David, like all of us, was a flawed and sinful man. The unity he established did not last past his son Solomon. Israel fell again into the familiar pattern of sin and repentance because the people of God could not save themselves.

God therefore planned to fix the problem Himself by sending a new king, his own Son. Yet Jesus was a very different sort of king from what the world expected. He did not insist on his own greatness but emptied himself. He did not dominate his subjects but called them by name. He did not command from a distance but walked among the poor and the forgotten.

As Saint Paul tells us, he is the image of the invisible God, made flesh and now sensible to our eyes. All creation is subject to Him, yet he did not come for himself. He did not come to rule for his own benefit, but for ours. He came to reconcile us to God and to make peace through the blood of his cross so every knee should bend to Him.

His dominion is shown not through force, but through self-giving love. It is exercised not by elevating himself, but by lowering himself for the sake of the world. This is the kind of kingship into which we are invited.

Yet, like the kings of Israel before him, Jesus was rejected. His rejection was absolute. The people chose to beat him, torture him, and put him to a humiliating death. He could have prevented all of it, yet he accepted it for our salvation. Even those crucified beside him mocked him although he suffered unjustly.

In today’s Gospel we stand beside those two criminals. One continued the mockery, demanding proof of power. But the other recognized a different kind of king, one whose authority was rooted in mercy rather than might. He asked for forgiveness and received more than he could have imagined. His simple prayer, Remember me, opened the door to paradise.

This is where the heart of this feast lies. Christ reveals that true kingship is inseparable from service, from humility, and from love that endures suffering. By baptism we are brought into this kingship. We are called to serve as he served, to forgive as he forgave, and to let his peace take root in our lives.

Like the good thief, we come before Christ as sinners in need of mercy. He offers this mercy freely, and he invites us into his kingdom if we desire it. He does not force us. He waits, offering a share in his own authority which is ordered entirely toward the good of others.

Each of us should look to him with gratitude. We should consider the gift we are being offered and the cost at which it was purchased. Christ has made us fit to share in his inheritance. Let us rejoice as we go to the house of the Lord, giving thanks for the gift he has given us and seeking to live according to the kingship he revealed on the cross.