MT 25:31-46 

 Matthew in the margins…Reign of Christ / Christ the King…Revised 2017

No matter how we expect the Cosmic Son of Humanity to come in His glory as King we have to hold our expectation in tension with the Earthed Son of Humanity glorified by being named & crowned King on the cross. (JN makes this point strongly.)

But there’s more! There’s yet another tension. This self-same Incarnate, yet Cosmic, King has never left us (as He promised!) Physically, maybe, yes; but in the Person & Power of His Spirit, the Spirit of God, He’s always present tense among us. As He is, too, in the Person of those who say, Eucharist by Eucharist, “We are the Body of Christ” & get on with the job of being that Body in the world at large. Apocalyptic aspects of Christ’s reign may appeal. But lose sight of the crucified, glorified, Christ earthed in & among us by His Spirit & His people, & we lose the plot of God's agenda for Planet Earth - for humanity plus. 

Praying, as we do, “Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” means embracing the Crucified King, serving the Raised Everyday King, & expecting the Apocalyptic King. It’s a package deal, or no deal at all! Many international folk tales, not necessarily from a Christian background pick up on the thrust of Jesus’ allegory Jesus; the Unknown who comes among the simplest of folk unrecognised & is either provided for or rejected.

The great attractiveness of the Kingship of Christ for me is the inclusiveness of His Rule. By God’s grace there is room in Christ’s Kingdom for a lot of people who might be thought unlikely candidates for finding a place at Christ’s right hand. Me for starters! The way we treat others especially those at the bottom of life’s pile, not least the persecuted, the poor, refugees & asylum seekers, & how we serve them, is a litmus test of the kind of Christ the King we believe in & serve. If we’re choosing the wrong kinds of leaders, & serving those same wrong leaders in wrong ways, we’re simply fulfilling Jesus’ teaching by proving ourselves to be more goats than sheep! Choose, at all costs, Christ as King above any other would-be contender. 

Though He speaks of judgment, Jesus makes clear we choose our own present & future state & fate. Christ reigns through us being little Jesuses to others or He doesn’t rule at all! More, when we feed the hungry Jesuses, give drink to the thirsty ones, welcome those who present as strangers, clothe the naked ones, minister to those who are sick, visit the ones imprisoned then we’re speaking Jesus’ language by doing it; for all who are marginalised. God's Rule always includes looking out for & looking after God's 'little ones'. Again, not to do that is to place ourselves at Jesus’ left hand rather than His right! Goat stuff! 

Is ‘everlasting punishment' anything other than choosing to live without the King of the Cosmos by choosing to live without the Crucified, Raised, Earthed One here & now? Who needs hell-fire & damnation (if that's your line) when such a fate looms? Speaking of looming, Christ the King’s Passion looms in the very next verses!