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Episode 11 - King
Today the word is king.
King, yes, because it is the solemnity of Christ the King, so the word is king.
But King is a strange word, I mean, there are no kings any more, and the few that are left
give an impression which is better..
Let's say that the few that are left are not really important.
And why in the church we insist to talk about Christ the King?
Well, about Christ the king, because obviously the Christ is the only one that can truly be called a King.
Note that our distrust towards the word king does not only come from our
unshakeable Swiss Republican past which has never had a monarchy.
Of course, of course.
But it belongs also to Israel, because also in ancient Israel there was a great distrust to
give to one man the title of king because the only king of Israel is God, but if you look at
the book of Kings, not one will be saved. Because of all of them it is being said: "That one did
wrong in front of the eyes of the Lord, and that one committed a sin". Only two are saved..
Of course.
One of them who makes good things, besides David, and another one that makes very good things,
but he dies in battle.
Right.
It is Subi, so..
It is always the best that leave us.
And so there is really a strong mistrust, because the king, for the ancient mentality, but
actually also for our mentality, is above all he who gives life. In fact
he king, if you note, takes the symbol of the globe, of the sceptre, of the crown, of the cloak,
which want to express the fact that he has something more, he has one life more, he has
one glory more, he has one splendour more, but in reality they are all jewels with which
he covers himself. God does not need to cover himself with jewels to express the fact that he has
life. Why? Because he has it. In fact the scene that the liturgy proposes to us today,
which is the one of Jesus on the cross who forgives the good thief, well, certainly
there Jesus does not have around himself a Royal set, but it is an explicit scene of coronation.
In effect the liturgy comments it by paralleling it to the scene of the coronation
of David.
Well, in which sense the crucifixion is described also as a coronation?
Well, because especially in ancient Israel the king is almost never a fighter, because
it is God who is the fighter, so, the Royal attitude of the King, and it is the first act of
jurisdiction that the king of Israel does after having been anointed and crowned, is that of
sitting on the throne and listen to the judicial causes.
Yes.
So, the first function of the King is to exercise judgement. And here Jesus
is doing nothing else than exercise judgement.
With the thief, you mean?
Of course, because: "Jesus remember me when you will enter in your kingdom", and he replied:
"In truth I tell you, today with me you will be in the Heavens". So, it is an act of jurisdiction.
Not by chance, Jesus, in this scene, presents himself crowned with a crown of thorns. He has besides himself,
close to himself, the two thieves and he administers Justice. "Jesus remember me when
you will enter in your kingdom", so the thief paradoxically recognizes the royalty of Jesus,
then Jesus replies " In truth I tell you, today with me you will be in the Heavens", so he gives a
verdict, he gives a judgement. So it is obvious that in this scene Jesus is represented as
exercising a legal power which lately is a divine power. The king is always related to God.
Obviously even today the last kings that are left, have,
hey preserve at least in the official protocol the title of "By grace of God".
Yes.
But it has to do with a divine power because he is the one who has the fullness of life to give.
In fact, not by chance, the liturgy uses the Epistle to the Colossians, the hymn to the Colossians
where it talks about the fullness of the life of Jesus which is the image of the invisible God
in which all things where created, all things were created in sight of him,
is before all things, and all things subsist in him.