The King of the Universe

He is Christ. He is Lord. He is King. Every king rules a kingdom. Every kingdom has its subjects. Kingdoms are defined by their geo-location, with specific boundaries. But there is a kingdom that cuts across all boundaries. There is a Kingdom that is transcendental, universal and cosmic. It is the Eternal Kingdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is not such as the kingdoms of this world. 

“He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be” (John 1:2-3). Everything, both in heaven and on earth, was made through him, with him, in him, and for him. All things are subject to him. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

The kings, emperors, monarchs, presidents of this world, howsoever they are called, are subject to him. They derive their powers and authorities from Him alone. They must honour and worship Him. He is the King of kings, and the Lord of Lords. His Lordship derives from his divinity as the Second Person in the Godhead, of the Holy Trinity.

He is the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep. “I am the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” he declares. “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me” (John 10:11,14).

The connection between shepherding sheep and ruling as a king is rather unique to Scripture. In the Old Testament it is King David, dramatically raised from lowly shepherd boy to the throne of Israel (1 Sam 16:1-13; 2 Sam 5:1-4), who personified most vividly this connection between shepherd and king. As the Psalmist puts it, “[God] chose David his servant, took him from the sheepfolds. From tending ewes God brought him, to shepherd Jacob, his people, Israel, his heritage. He shepherded them with a pure heart; with skilled hands he guided them” (Psalm 78: 70-72).

God is described in the Old Testament as being perfect king and righteous shepherd. He is named in the Psalms as “the great king over all the earth” who reigns over the nations and “sits on his holy throne” (Ps 47:3, 8-9). When the elders of Israel demanded prophet Samuel to appoint them a king, it was understood to mean a renunciation of God’s kingship. 

“They are rejecting me as their king”, God said to Samuel, “…deserting me to serve other gods” (1 Sam 8:4-9). God granted the selfish demand for a human king, but warned that mere mortal men would ultimately fail and disappoint as rulers, turning their subjects into slaves and separating them from a right relationship with God (1 Sam 8:10-18). Are we not living witnesses to fulfillment of this prophecy?

So even David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14; 16:7), failed miserably in many ways, most notably by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging for the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam 11). “Against you, you alone have I sinned”, wrote David after being confronted by Nathan the prophet, “I have done what is evil in your eyes; So that you are just in your word, and without reproach in your judgment” (Psa 51:6). God, the true and perfect king, will render just judgment on all men.

David’s most famous psalm is probably the one quoted in today’s responsorial: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want…” (Psa 23:1). It is a short but beautiful depiction of God’s care for his people, drawing upon the image of God as Shepherd, early quoted in Gen 49:24. The same theme is found in abundance in the reading from the prophet Ezekiel: the Lord God will tend his sheep, as well as rescue them, pasture them, give them rest, seek out those who are lost, bind up the injured, and heal the sick. There will, however, also be judgment, “I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats”. Mercy and justice exist perfectly in God, who knows every heart and intention.

Just three chapters later is this passage: “David my servant shall be king over them; they shall all have one shepherd” (Ez 37:24). This servant is the Son of Man and the Son of David, Jesus Christ, described by the Apostle Paul as the new Adam who brings life to those who belong to him and destruction to those who oppose him.

The stark contrast is just as obvious in the parable of the sheep and the goats. There is no third animal; there are only two possibilities: to inherit the kingdom prepared “from the foundation of the world” or to be sent “off to eternal punishment”. In the Old Testament, of course, it is God who judges and separates the rams from the goats. The Son of Man can only judge the sheep and the goats because he shares intimately in the work of God—that is, because he is God Incarnate.

He is “the true Christ, the divine and heavenly Logos”, wrote Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History, “the only high priest of the world, the only King of all creation…” God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, that at the mention of the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).

All hail, the King of the Universe, Jesus Christ!