Sermon for Sunday, November 23, 2025, Christ the King Sunday

November 23, 2025, Christ the King Sunday

By Kristin Berkey-Abbott




Luke 23:33-43



Last week we had a hint of Advent, and today we’re in full-blown Good Friday mode—and it’s Christ the King Sunday? Where is our story of final victory? Maybe something like Jesus coming back to earth, splitting the sky in splendor and glory, coming to judge us all, and give faithful folks their one-way ticket to eternity. But this festival day reminds us that if we get our expectations too focused on one aspect of Jesus, we’re likely to miss the signs of God at work in the world. If we’re expecting one kind of king, we will miss something essential about the essence of Jesus.


Certainly many first century folks would define a king as having splendor and glory, even going as far as to see the ruler as being divine. Not just godlike—divine. Historian Mary Beard notes that Roman emperors were often deified, with elaborate cults and temples dedicated to worshipping them. This religious aspect of their role further consolidated their authority, as they were seen as intermediaries between the people and the gods. To question their authority was seen as heresy beyond free speech or disrespect.


Throughout his ministry, we see people assessing Jesus as to how big a threat he might be to the Roman ruler and all the people like Pilate and Herod that are ruling on behalf of the emperor. We probably remember the question about taxes and Jesus’ clever answer involving a coin. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey can be seen as threatening or mocking; the emperor or his emissary would often enter cities on a majestic horse. It’s this kind of behavior on the part of Jesus that made many Galileans think he might just be the Messiah.


Of course, Galileans would not expect the Messiah to wind up on a cross, executed by the ruling authorities of Rome. The Jewish people had been looking for a Messiah for generations, always with the hope of deliverance from whatever empire oppressed them at the time: the Egyptian pharoah, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and in the time of Jesus, the Romans. Centuries of prophecy, like the kind we see in today’s reading from Jeremiah, kept that hope for deliverance alive. Clearly, if Jesus was killed by the oppressing empire of his time, he wasn’t the Messiah the Jews had been yearning for.


In today’s Gospel, we see people still trying to figure out who Jesus is. King of the Jews? Ruler of the world? Messiah? What kind of Messiah? A messiah who will save us all or a messiah who is only sent for some?


Christ the King Sunday shows us that the way of Christ as King is not the way that the world sees a king. The way of Christ the Messiah is not the way we would expect Christ to come as a Messiah. In today’s Gospel, we see how Jesus uses his power, and its not in the earthly ways of leadership. Jesus shapes his leadership as one of service and love, from his earliest days of ministry through his death on the cross and during his time after resurrection. Love and service—that’s the power that Jesus wields.


Jesus spent much of his ministry cautioning against the expectations we have about what a Messiah looks like. Our readings for today, taken in their totality, show us a multi-dimensional savior. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise. We confess belief in a triune God, after all, the kind of God that our reading from Colossians tries to describe. And yet, it’s hard to remember that fullness, especially in the busyness of our lives.


I admit to being partial towards the aspect of Jesus that we see in our Gospel reading. Here’s Jesus up on the cross, in the process of dying one of the most agonizing forms of death, and he’s still fulfilling his purpose, forgiving those who don’t know what they’re doing and saving those who repent. Here’s Jesus, showing concern for the very lowest on the rungs of society, the criminal on the cross beside him, while at the same time, continuing to feel pity for those in power who are not living up to God’s vision for creation.


Some days, though, I long for the savior I sense in our reading from Jeremiah, the one who says, “ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” We don’t have to look far to see sheep destroying behavior and shepherds who should know better. The prophets who came before Jesus have a warning for those who practice this kind of behavior—the days are surely coming when God will punish those that act this way. Jesus, too, issues this warning periodically, although this part of Jesus’ personality doesn’t surface as often as the Jesus we see on the cross. A King of vengeance Jesus—yes, that’s what we want! We often feel powerless in the face of those who would scatter the flock. Maybe we want Christ the King to be more like a modern superhero, dispatched to save us, with no effort required on our part.


Today’s Gospel reminds us, however, that our vision of vengeance, even if it’s on behalf of the oppressed, isn’t the way God operates. God sends prophets and messengers to remind humanity of our obligations, of what we’ve promised and what God expects. God goes so far as to come to earth to live with us, not to deliver the last blow of vengeance but to teach us by way of example. Jesus comes to us in a spirit of mercy and a yearning for connection.


And it’s not just in today’s Gospel. Throughout our Scripture, we see God acting mercifully, especially in the face of repentance. Think of God’s forgiveness each time people choose a different god, from the Golden Calf in Exodus to more modern examples of people worshipping anyone and everything else instead of God.


But when people repent, God forgives. Think of all the pillars of the faith who have needed forgiveness, like King David, who behaved badly as many times as he executed justice and righteousness. Consider Peter who denied Jesus, and Jesus not only forgave him but gave him a leadership position in the church that was to come. Jesus not only tells the disciples that they must forgive more times than they think possible, but Jesus models this behavior too. Like any good teacher, Jesus doesn’t ask us to do what he’s not willing to do himself.


As we think about Jesus the teacher who through the centuries has been transformed into Christ the King, it’s helpful to think about what we want from Jesus and why. It’s also helpful to think about which aspects of Jesus make us uncomfortable and why. We may think that we would never make a golden calf and worship it, but it’s all too easy to focus on the aspect of Jesus that makes us most comfortable and leaves us feeling championed, not challenged. But we know that Jesus came to earth not only to be a way that God is revealed to us, but also to challenge us and move us out of our complacency. Sometimes shaking us out of our complacency takes righteous indignation on the part of Jesus. Sometimes, it takes mercy and forgiveness. Always it takes love and compassion. Luckily, unlike earthly rulers, Jesus has a bottomless supply of love and compassion.


This festival day has an important reminder to us, as we think about Christ as both human, king, and God. Like any human, Jesus is more than the sum of his parts—and to understand this fully, we need to know all of the parts. Luckily, we have many paths to know Jesus. There’s scripture of course. There’s the larger religious community, whom Luther reminds us we need to help us come to an honest understanding of the scripture. We have the larger creation; many a theologian and mystic would tell us that we can gain an important understanding of our creator by observing creation.


On this Christ the King Sunday, may we find in Christ the ruler that challenges us to be the best version of ourselves, the merciful and loving version. May we follow the model of Jesus, as we find our best ways to be of use to others. Let us always remember that the best way to glorify Jesus is to be of service to the world, this world that Jesus loves so deeply.