Proper 29C’25 Christ the King
23 November 2025
Luke 23.33-43
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone +
The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. King of kings, and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever, Hallelujah! – “the Hallelujah Chorus “from Handel’s Messiah, by GF Handel, based on the Book of Revelation chaps. 11 and 19.
Narcissus was the center of a Greek Myth that told the cautionary tale of a man who was cursed by falling in love with his own self by gazing at his own image in a reflecting pool. The beautiful nymph Echo called out to him but he was deaf and blind to her charms, and was unable to draw him away from himself. This ultimately resulted in his own death from starvation and thirst. From the name Narcissus comes the name of a flower and of a personality disorder known as Narcissism. According to the Oxford Dictionary a Narcissist is “a person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves.”
Everything truly was and is “about them.” There lies within them an insatiable need for outward admiration and ultimately for everyone around them to mirror them. This disorder begins early in a child’s life and at the core is an experience of a lack of mirroring by their parents. When deprived of this necessary nurturing they spend the rest of their lives trying to get validation from everyone around them. Bullying, firing, banishing, humiliation, stamping out the competition, even killing; no price is too high for the feeding of their need for adulation. These folks naturally gravitate toward positions of power and often become the kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers of this world, the empire builders who aren’t concerned with connecting with others but are very concerned with the controlling of others resulting in their subjugation, and oppression when necessary. They live in palaces, drive the finest Camels, Chariots or Cadillacs and servants are the people they pay but usually isn’t in their job descriptions.
Fortunately, we as Christians follow a King who is nothing like the earthly rulers I have just described. The entire New Testament paints a picture of an entirely different kind of King. He was not born in a palace but born in a stable. He was a commoner born into a family with a tradesman father and a homemaker mother. He didn’t make it to college but did learn a trade, and spent his free time in study of Holy Scripture the law and the prophets. In them he sensed a vision of a God who wanted to lead God’s people from a position of love rather than of fear and control, like a divine parent with nothing but their best as the agenda. As the Church Year begins with the Advent we start from the beginning of Jesus’ life and we follow his growth, development, and the ever-clearer discernment of his mission to be the Messiah of the World.
We are given many clues along the road of his life and teaching of just what kind of King he was to be. Once he got separated from his parents at the age of 12 and wound up in the temple, where he was already stumping the rabbis of his day. When his heart sick parents finally tracked him down, he said that he had been busy conducting business for his Father, you know – ‘God is my dad!’
At age 30 his ministry started out with a bang – the miracle at the wedding of Cana, where he turned 30 / thirty-gallon pots of water into 30 pots of wine – not Welch’s! Many other miracles followed: the deaf heard, those who were physically and spiritually blind regained their sight, the lame walked and danced once again, little girls in comas were awakened by the laying on of Jesus’ hands and prayer, the hungry were fed, captives and prisoners of all kinds found release, and the poor were given hope, doubters were given second chances, sinners found forgiveness, gave grace to all who didn’t deserve it and mercy so they didn’t get what they deserved, proclaimed that all are made in God’s image and are worthy of dignity, he welcomed prodigals home, and transformed enemies into friends. He left the 99 sheep that were safe to find the one that was lost.
I suppose it’s only fitting that is exactly what he was doing as he was physically dying on the cross. As we know he was crucified between two thieves, one wasn’t interested, and mocked Jesus, but the other thief was that one last lost sheep that Jesus reached with the message of God’s unconditional love. The good thief that church tradition calls “Dismas” said “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus the King of a different sort said, “Tomorrow you will be with me in paradise.”
It wasn’t all about Him, He came, He lived, He died, and He rose again, because it was all about us!
Today is the last Sunday in the Church calendar and is called Christ the King Sunday, where we celebrate Christ’s ultimate triumph over evil and look to the Great Day when all people from all tribes will stand reconciled around Christ’s throne. As one preacher said once, “Folks I have read the end of The Book and I know who wins!” The last chapter in Revelation reads: “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”1 In a world of Narcissistic kings who think only of themselves, we worship the truest King of them all – the King of kings and Lord of lords and to this King, and this King only, may our knees bend and our hearts bow. Amen.
1 Revelation 22.12-13 NRSV