22 Nov 2020, Christ the King
Matthew 28:16-20,
1 Maccabees 2:15-29
If you are following Strictly Come Dancing on TV this year, I think you will agree that it’s hotting up into quite a contest. As a keen tango dancer myself, I love following the ups and downs of the contestants and seeing them go from being really nervous and slightly wooden, to assuming a great posture and gliding across the floor. It’s always the ones with the greatest transformation or ‘journey’ that capture the hearts of the voting public and are assured of great support. I think Ranvir Singh is one of those this year, and Bill Bailey! What a surprise!
We tend to love the underdog, don’t we? We will always be rooting for the ones who seem least likely to win, but are making a real effort. Then they start to improve and in some instances even win the challenge or get the job. Of course we love the fairy tale ending too, but there’s something thrilling about the process of supporting a person who doesn’t seem like they ‘should’ win and see them come good in the end.
I think part of the reason is that we feel that they could be us. We see ourselves in their shoes, not confident of success, insecure but longing to achieve the goal we have set out to accomplish. They are standing in our place and in longing for them to win, we are also egging ourselves on to bigger and better things.
And as we come to this evening’s gospel, we are reminded of this too. The scene is on a mountain in Galilee. Throughout Matthew’s gospel, important things happen on mountains: Jesus being tempted, the Sermon on the Mount, the transfiguration and now this – the big finale of Matthew’s gospel. The disciples who gathered there, were not superheroes, but ordinary people. There’s a little reassuring word in there that tells us this: When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted, we read. Even after all their experiences of being with Jesus, seeing the miracles and the healings, there were some who doubted still. That little word ‘doubted’ is reassuring to me, because it gives me permission to follow Christ and to doubt at the same time. I don’t have to be a superhero.
This unassuming group of disciples seems like the ultimate in underdogs – the most unlikely people to be part of the story of bringing about the kingdom of God on earth. And yet, Jesus goes on to deliver his great commission to them, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you’, he says. Pretty clear. And pretty scary and challenging too. The juxtaposition of this group of rag bag fishermen and doubters, with the enormity of the charge is huge.
And he yet tops and tails those instructions with some very reassuring words: on the one hand, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, the one who commissions them, and on the other, that he will be with them always to the end of the age.
As the disciples will discover, his authority turns out to be not the worldly power that they might have been expecting – to win wars and bring about a kingdom by force – before long the temple in Jerusalem will have fallen and life as they know it will be gone. Instead this authority has the quality of a quiet confidence that everything is held together in Christ, and that therefore the disciples can rest in the knowledge that there is a greater being at work with them and through them.
This is reinforced by his closing promise that he will be with them to the end of the age. They discovered this to be true for themselves as they went on to face trials and tribulations of many kinds in their work to spread the good news. They were able to keep going because of Christ’s presence within them and alongside them.
And this is where the underdog analogy ends. These disciples have Christ in them. It is his enabling power and strength that gives them the ability to do what they do. While the commission might seem scary and beyond them, the fact that Christ promises to be with them makes it doable. And with hindsight, we know that they went on to spread the gospel far and wide throughout the world.
And this can be our experience too. We gain inspiration and courage from their example but more importantly, we can know that same enabling power and presence of Christ ourselves. We are all invited to take part in this great commission – the astonishing truth is that the bringing about the kingdom of God on earth is entrusted to us – a rag-bag group of people, who sometimes doubt – but Christ’s power and strength within us enables us to bring about that kingdom wherever we are.
Amen.