Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

King of a Different Kind

The people of Jesus’ time, including his disciples, longed for a king they could be proud of, one who had power and knew how to use it, a king who would see to it that neither he nor his fellow countrymen got pushed around by the Romans. That’s clearly what Peter wanted, so when Jesus started talking about being handed over to death, he tried to put a stop to that – and got called “Satan” for his effort.

Jesus is a king, of course, only not the “normal” kind. Kings and others who rule our world cultivate the spotlight and public adulation. Not so with Jesus, for when a crowd of people came to make Jesus their king, he fled. And as far as we know, the only person Jesus ever let call him king in his lifetime was Pilate, who used the term in mockery of him.

Yet, St. Paul wrote that precisely because Jesus turned his back on our human understanding of kingship and laid aside the power he could have had over others, God “bestowed on him the Name above all other names so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend.”

Then and now Jesus’ kingship is all about love, humility, service and willingness to suffer for the truth, all in obedience to the Father’s will. It may not fit the world’s expectations. But it makes our King close to us and shows us how we, too, should live.