Readings for 34th and Last Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We should not understand Christ the King in terms of the ego and worldly power. Jesus is the lamb of God, symbolizing the embrace of weakness and poverty. Generally, the Bible is against kings, except for Jesus. But even with Jesus, the Gospel of John does not present him like the kings of this world. He is a king from above. “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over.” In this world, based on obscene wealth and brute force, a king’s forces would fight violently for their king. But Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom works on gentleness, nonviolence, and the acceptance of weakness.

This coincides with both the story of Jesus’ death and the Book of Revelation presenting Jesus as the lamb of God. Even though the first reading from Revelation does not use the image of the lamb of God, the image stands behind everything the last book of scripture says about Jesus. And before we receive communion, we pray these words: “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.” The Lamb of God is the best way to understand Jesus Christ as the King.

Now, the Book of Revelation does not predict the horrific destruction of the world, as many movies might show. Instead, Revelation appeals to our imagination to foster faithfulness to Jesus, the Lamb of God. This is the central image of the book: the slaughtered lamb of God who, nevertheless, is victorious.

As an image, the slaughtered lamb communicates that Jesus is the weakness of God. Theologian John Caputo reflects, “The divine is not to be found in the highest, in the most brilliant and beautiful realm of being, but in the lowliest, the unsightliness, the base, ill-born, powerless, despised outsiders who are null and void, the nobodies, those who are nothing.”

One of the great surprises found in the Bible is found in Revelation chapter 5. John, the author of Revelation, is caught up in a vision of heaven. He sees a scroll in the hand of God, but no one can open it. The scroll represents God’s plan to save creation. But no one seems able to carry it out. So an angel asks, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” (Rev.5:2). John begins to cry. “One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals” (Rev 5:5). A lion will open the scroll! But here comes the great twist: “Then I saw…a Lamb that seemed to have been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these are the [seven] spirits of God sent out into the whole world” (Rev. 5:6).

Professor of biblical studies, Richard Bauckham, writes, “recognize the contrast between what he [John] hears (Rev 5:5) and what he sees (Rev 5:6). He hears that ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, had conquered’. The two messianic titles evoke a strong militaristic and nationalistic image of the Messiah of David as conqueror of the nations, destroying the enemies of God’s people…But this image is reinterpreted by what John sees: the Lamb whose sacrificial death (Rev 5:6) has redeemed people from all nations (Rev 5:9–10). By juxtaposing the two contrasting images, John has forged a new symbol of conquest by sacrificial death.” The Lamb of God conquers by letting go, by embracing weakness, and by dying on the cross.

Ultimately, Christ the King points to the supremacy of God. In the first reading, from the Book of Revelation, God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega…the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.” God simply IS, pure IS-NESS beyond all being and existence. God is the beginning and the end, the Omega. So the true end of the world is God! We find all our happiness, life, and being in the IS-NESS of God. And we discover this God in our poverty, weakness, and silence. We find God through the slaughtered Lamb, Jesus Christ the King of the Universe.