NOVEMBER 26TH, 2017: CHRIST THE KING Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
I Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Matthew 25:31-46 Our sacred authors have a unique problem: how do they conjure up images of God which accurately represent their experiences of God? They presume no matter what picture they surface, it’s not going to do total justice to the God they know. Some aspects of their images work, others fail horribly. The author of the Song of Songs, for instance, discovered a parallel challenge when he compared his lover’s hair to “a flock of goats streaming down from Gilead,” and her nose to “the tower on Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.” I don’t think she appreciated every aspect of either image. In spite of the “limping metaphors,” our sacred authors present us with three distinct images of God in today’s liturgical readings: a shepherd, a new Adam, and a king. Deeply affected by the Babylonian Exile, Ezekiel hopes for Yahweh to directly break into Israel’s salvation history and shepherd his/her dispirited people. They’ve been aimlessly wandering around for far too long. They’ve no other leader but Yahweh. “I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered . . . I myself will pasture my sheep; I will give them rest, says Yahweh God.” Unless Yahweh steps in, they’ll be left to a dog eat sheep world. God is their only hope. Paul, on the other hand, reflects on the impact the risen Jesus has had on his friends in Corinth. It’s as though the Apostle has read about President Roosevelt’s plans for a “new deal.” We’re all starting from scratch. Just as Adam got us into the mess we’re in by bringing death into the world, the risen Jesus – as the new Adam – has turned everything around by bringing life into our everyday experiences. What we once thought inevitable, the risen Jesus has destroyed. He/she’s created a whole new “game” with a whole new deck of cards. Yet, on this day of all days, the divine image on which we’re most concentrating is that of king. Today’s gospel pericope is one of our most frequently used passages of Scripture, especially employed during funeral liturgies. It’s always comforting to reflect on how the deceased discovered the risen Jesus in his or her life by caring for the helpless in their midst. But today it’s also important to reflect on how the Jewish biblical image of king revolved around caring for the helpless. Historians remind us that on their 12th century BCE entrance into the Promised Land, those former Jewish Egyptian slaves didn’t immediately set up a monarchy. Instead, as the book of Judges narrates, the 12 tribes formed themselves into a loose-knit confederation. Only when that confederation no longer met their needs did they begin discussing the possibility of a king. But it would be a unique king, quite unlike the kings reigning in the countries surrounding Israel. Those monarchies were created to protect the rights of the high and mighty. Yahweh’s kings, on the contrary, came into existence to defend those who had no clout. The high and mighty could take care of themselves. In Israel three groups of people always had legal access to the king 24/7: widows, orphans, and resident aliens. Given the customs of the ancient world, none of the three had anyone – except the Israelite king – to plead their cause. That’s why Matthew’s Jesus, given the image of a Jewish king, identifies with the helpless in our midst: the poor, the refugees, the imprisoned. He not only pleads their cause, he becomes one with them. Whenever we care for any on that well-known list we eventually discover we’ve been caring for the royal, risen Jesus. The most surprising discovery we’ll experience at the pearly gates. We’ve actually became royalty ourselves by helping the helpless.
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