I speak in the
name of the one, true and living God: Creator and ruler of the kingdom of
heaven. Amen.
Today
we celebrate The Reign of Christ or Christ the King.
What
is Christ the king of?
How
is this different than other kings?
How
is Christ different than King David?
King
David is the chosen one, the favoured of the God of Jacob. … Both Matthew and
Luke talk about Christ being the Chosen one, chosen directly by God.
King
David is the anointed of the God of Jacob. … Christ is the Messiah which means
the anointed.
King
David is the king of all Israel and of Zion, God’s holy city. … Christ is the
King of the Jews and the ruler of the kingdom of God. Christ is the king in the new Jerusalem or
Zion.
You
would almost think that King David and Jesus Christ were kings in exactly the
same way. The same words are used to
describe them both. They are even in the
same royal line. Jesus is a son of the
house of David, a member of David’s royal line.
Jesus is a direct descendant of David.
Can
anyone think of ways in which King David and King Jesus are different?
King
David had a palace. … Did Jesus? … Not on Earth anyway.
King
David had at least nine wives. Two of
which he took from their husbands.
Michal was promised to David (essentially married) and then given to
Pelti as wife and taken back by David.
Bathsheba, wife of Uriah, David took as his mistress and when she became
pregnant he set Uriah up to be killed and took Bathsheba as his wife. David’s wife Abigail was the widow of one of
David’s enemies. David also married
Ahinoam, who may have been Saul’s wife.
Finally, David married Maacah, Haggith, Abital, Eglah, Bath-shua, . We know very little about these wives except
that they bore sons for David. David
also had concubines. We don’t know how
many. David was busy. Who his wives were and how he came to have
them was clearly an issue.
The
Bible says absolutely nothing about Jesus’ love life. In Jesus’ time it would have been very
strange for a Jewish man of his age to be single. It was absolutely expected that a man would
marry and have children to carry on his name.
Usually when something is unusual or out of the ordinary, the Bible
tells us. … Since the Bible doesn’t tell us, I’ll leave it up to you to make
your own decisions and to think about what differences those decisions make in
how we see and understand Jesus. … It is clear that there were usually women
around him. There were often children
there. Jesus was obviously comfortable
with both. Jesus treated all whom he met
and all who travelled with him as his own family. Even those who follow him after his death are
his family.
King
David had many subjects. These subjects
had to obey his decrees or they would be punished. King David had his enemies killed or killed
them himself. All of King David’s
subjects lived in the boundaries of his kingdom. When King David died, he stopped having
subjects. His kingdom passed to his
heir.
King
Jesus has many subjects. These subjects
are asked to obey his teachings and his example. These subjects are asked to love him and to
love one another. These subjects are
asked to love their enemies. King Jesus
died so that we no longer need to be punished.
King Jesus’ kingdom has no boundaries in either space or time. Jesus shares his kingdom with his heirs. All of creation shares in the kingdom of
Jesus.
Okay,
does anyone remember the key similarities between the kingdom of David and the
kingdom of Christ?
Both
are chosen by God.
Both
are the anointed.
Both
are king of God’s people.
Both
are king of Israel and of Zion.
How
are they different?
David’s
kingdom is very physical.
Christ’s
kingdom is spiritual.
David
is very concerned with the continuation of his line (lots of wives and
children).
Jesus
is also very concerned with the continuation of his line but in a very
different way. Jesus’ ‘son’ is the
Gospel. Jesus sired a message of
forgiveness and hope for all.
David’s
kingdom was limited in time and space.
Christ’s
kingdom is the Kingdom of God. It is
eternal. It is everywhere. It is for everyone.
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