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I remember seeing crucifixes different from the usual crucifixes we usually see. Usually the crucifixes we see show Jesus as a suffering figure with nails fixing His hands and feet to the cross and perhaps even with a crown of thorns on His head. But these unusual crucifixes I have seen show Jesus on the cross wearing robes of a priest or of a king, with a royal crown on His head. You may well have seen such crucifixes also, or you may even have one. Obviously, these crucifixes showing Jesus on the cross as a priestly or royal figure are meant to convey the reason and the result of Jesus on His cross. Such a crucifix may bring to our minds passages from the Letter to the Hebrews, such as this one from the tenth chapter: “When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet” (verse 12).
This Sunday is the last of the church year; next Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, begins a new year on the church calendar. These final Sundays of the church year refer us to the end of all things and to the Second Coming of Christ to this earth, then in power and glory. This final Sunday has been called Christ the King Sunday, referring us to Christ now reigning in His heavenly glory. Of this period St. Paul tells us: “For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God had put all things in subjection under His feet’” (1 Cor. 15:25-26a, citing Psalm 8:6). Today, let’s consider this Gospel Reading appointed to be read today, a reading we might at first think somewhat out of place and which we would expect to read in Holy Week. Let’s see how, by His suffering and death on the cross our Christ walked “The Royal Road” that led to His throne and then listen as Christ calls us to follow Him on “The Royal Road.”
We well know that our Lord Christ came into this world to do battle to redeem us from slavery to sin and thralldom to the devil. Christ came as our heavenly Champion, stepping between us and our spiritual enemies: sin, death, and the devil. This was His role in life from the beginning. When the angel Gabriel came to announce to Mary that she would bring the Savior into the world, Gabriel told her: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33). The same angel, when bringing this news also to Joseph, Mary’s espoused husband, the angel instructed him, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). And the priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer, was inspired to prophesy about Jesus: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath that He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days” (Luke 1:68-75).
Jesus, through all of His life in this world, was well aware of why the Father had sent Him into this world and of how our salvation would be won. He had come to walk the royal road that would lead to victory. But the royal road, though it would lead to glory in the end, would lead through bitter suffering and a wrenching death. Jesus knew what was ahead of Him and even prayed: “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me....My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matt. 26:39, 42). When His disciple Peter foolishly tried to defend Jesus by striking out with his sword, Jesus told Peter: “Put your sword back into its place. Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once send Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?” (Matt. 26:52-54). Jesus knew the bitter suffering of the royal road that would lead to His glory, but He would walk that road for us, and He did.
St. Paul sums it all up in his Letter to the Philippians: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God and thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:5-11).
“Have this mind among yourselves...” Paul tell us. For as Jesus walked the royal road that led through pain and suffering to win the victory that frees us, so He now beckons us to follow Him along the royal road that leads to glory in heaven. And, as for Jesus, this road may bring us hardship and even suffering. St. Paul once advised the Christians of Lystra, where Paul had been stoned by the opponents of the Gospel, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22) Certainly no one gets through life without experiencing many kinds of hardships and temptations, including those that Paul called “common to man.” (1 Cor. 10:13). Christians receive these trials from God’s hand as ways by which He trains and strengthens us, and which we endure with patience and trust in God’s mercy, confident that “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
Sometimes, however, Christians are afflicted with suffering only because they are and insist on remaining faithful Christians. At such times we recall the Lord’s encouragement through the words of St. Peter: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you also may rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you....If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name....Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” (1 Peter 4:12-14, 16, 19).
Christ, who walked the Royal Road through suffering to His glory and our salvation, beckons to us to follow Him along the royal road which leads to glory, though sometimes through hardship. I often find that our hymns say it best. “Let us ever walk with Jesus, Follow His example pure. Through a world that would deceive us And to sin our souls allure. Onward in His footsteps treading, Pilgrims here, our home above, Full of faith and hope and love. Let us do the Father’s bidding. Faithful Lord, with me abide; I shall follow where You guide, Let us suffer here with Jesus And with patience bear our cross. Joy will follow all our sadness; Where He is, there is no loss. Though today we sow no laughter, we shall reap celestial joy; All discomforts that annoy Shall give way to mirth hereafter. Jesus, here I share Your woe; help me there Your joy to know...Amen” (Lutheran Service Book, 685, st. 1-2).