Christ - King or Kaitiaki?
Christ the King Sunday. What comes to your mind when the word king is mentioned - crowns, thrones, jewels, wealth, pageantry? Do you think of a despotic king shouting “off with his head” perhaps some sort of demented Henry the 8th in period costume? or do you think of foolish kings from fairytales such as in the emperor’s new clothes? Many of today’s kings & royalty are little more than celebrities - fodder for the tabloids and symbolic figureheads rather than possessing any power. If we take a contemporary concept of Kingship and apply it to Jesus we may see Jesus as somewhat distanced, privileged and possibly something of a tyrant - most definitely this is not the kind of king Jesus is or will ever be.
There was a slightly daft song released in the 80s called “Star trekkin’ “ - parodying the tv series Star Trek and I found myself thinking of a line from it “It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it; it's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain”. Jesus’ response to Pilate was along the lines of “it’s royalty Pilate, but not as you know it”.
Royalty and kingship is a biblical theme which runs from beginning to end and if we are to understand Christ as king we need to understand what kingship is in scriptural terms. Daniel 7 is considered a key chapter in the book of Daniel and for understanding other Biblical themes in both old and New Testament as well as critical for understanding who Jesus understood himself to be. This chapter needs to come with some sort of hazard warning. Imagine if you had to describe a Dali painting in words or, even worse, to describe it to someone who was blind - you can’t just jump in and read Daniel 7 in isolation - because we need the rest of the Bible to understand it (along with some basic understanding of that mysterious apocalyptic genre of literature).
Apocalyptic literature for all its bizarre images and symbols is written to give an oppressed people hope. Scholars have debated when Daniel was written and to whom it was addressed. But whether it was written in the time of Belshazzar around 550 BC to an oppressed people in exile or much later reflecting back on their time of exile to a people still oppressed back in Israel - the message of hope in desperate times is much the same. We can spend time debating which particular rulers are represented by which beasts in the beginning of the chapter or we can see it as part of a recurring pattern throughout the Hebrew scriptures and one which we see in our own world today - the rise and fall of empires with stories of oppression and violence characterising them. Sometimes in Israel’s history Israel was the oppressed one and sometimes Israel became the monster and oppressed others.
After the horror and violence in the vision there is a judgement scene, God is portrayed as the ancient one - not ancient in the sense of frail and doddery but ancient in wisdom, eternally present.
In the Chronicles of Narnia, when confronted by the idea of Aslan, the lion, who is a picture of God, Lucy asks, "Is He safe?"
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
Mr. Tumnus also says, "He's wild, you know. Not a tame lion.”
The white haired “Ancient of Days” portrayed by Daniel is anything but a safe grandfatherly figure here - he’s on a throne with wheels of flaming fire. God is passionate about justice and mercy and here in this cosmic scene God is looking to destroy systemic violence and oppression.
Then the son of man figure arrives and as is so often true of scripture there may be many ways of interpreting who this figure is and these all add layers of meaning and truth. It is possible that the original writer had an individual person in mind - a new hoped for messianic king bringing the peace and justice Israel so desperately needed. Some have seen this figure as a representing a collective or group, perhaps being representative of Israel or perhaps of all humanity.
The son of man figure is given dominion - royal power and this should take us back to Genesis 1. In the ancient near east kings were seen as image-bearers of God or even God’s themselves. In Genesis 1 humanity is created to be the royal image-bearer and given dominion over all of creation - to care for it and mediate God’s blessing. This was revolutionary - not just “the king” as the image bearer but all of humanity. The vocation of all of humanity is be kings together in God’s creation. But this is not the despotic tyrant king who abuses those he rules over - from the beginning the scriptural concept is different.
Perhaps a better word would be kaitiaki - a person, group or being that acts as a carer, guardian, protector and conserver. Much of the rest of scripture can be seen as stories of how we as a species failed to take up or abused this royal vocation.
In the synoptic gospels Jesus’ favourite title for himself was Son of Man. Jesus grew up steeped in the scriptures - he knew Daniel 7 - for Jesus Son of Man wasn’t just a way of saying “I’m just ordinary folks”. Jesus was identifying as that representative figure, an ideal human taking up his royal vocation. Jesus announced God’s reign had arrived. And Jesus lived his life as a true royal - a caregiver bringing justice and wholeness to the world, giving his life in service and suffering for those over whom he had dominion, he was trampled by the monstrous beasts of oppression in his day and his life ended. In our gospel reading Jesus answers Pilate’s question about his kingly identity by saying “my kingdom is not of this world” - not meaning it’s up in the sky but rather - my kingdom is something you don’t even come close to recognising, Pilate because you do not understand what a true king is, you do not understand your own vocation and calling.
The death of King Jesus was not the end of the story, Jesus was raised to new life and the kingdom goes on. What does it mean for Christ to be King? Christ was the Son of Man - the ideal person, the ideal king and calls us each to take up our vocation - not to wield power but to care for God’s creation, as it says in Revelation to be royal priests in this new creation - to bring hope, justice, mercy and love to this world, bringing God’s kingdom here on earth as we pray regularly in the Lord’s prayer - “may your kingdom come, your will be done on earth …”
Jesus you are truly king & kaitiaki and you call us to our vocation to join with you in being responsible for your world, caring for and bring blessing to all your creation including each other. Help us to hear and respond to that call as we daily pray for your kingdom on earth. Amen.
Kaitiakitanga image is from
https://greengrubsgardenclub.com/product/kaitiaki-and-conservation-mini-posters/
Comments
Post a Comment