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Feast of Christ the King
Luke 23: 35-43
This day you
shall be with me...
Jesus opened his eyes enough to see his robe being snatched up. The centurion folded it down tightly and stuffed it into his pack.
Jesus sank lower on the cross and the pain in his nailed arms exploded in ugly pulsing waves. Then he couldn’t breathe and began to gasp for air. It was no use, there was no more delaying it, he would have to push up with his legs to free the pressure on his chest, balancing on the pain long enough to gulp a lungful of air. Desperately he pushed down against his nailed feet and stood on the piercing nail. The shock was a blinding white pain that overwhelmed him. Only the dark plateau of semi-consciousness gave him a place to hide.
Jesus opened his eyes again and helplessly looked out on the scene below him. His mother Mary’s head was bowed. She was unable to stand any more of this horror and the sight of her there tore at Jesus’ heart.
One of the centurions said to the winner of the robe, “You have a king’s robe now.” They chuckled, glancing up at the sign above Jesus head. “Let’s give the king a little drink.” He soaked a small sponge with some sour wine and balanced the dripping sponge on the point of his spear. He walked up to the cross and thrust the sponge up at Jesus mouth. He admired the endurance of this criminal. “Here, have some wine,” he ordered. Jesus opened his eyes to see the sponge bobbing in front of him. “If you’re the King of the Jews save yourself.”
A man being crucified on the next cross heard the centurion’s words. Snatching at this shred of hope, he shouted across to Jesus, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
Another, called Dismas, on the other side of Jesus, called back. “We both deserve our sentences but Jesus has done nothing wrong.”
Painfully, Jesus rolled his head to his right to look at the man who had spoken. Their eyes met for a knowing instant. Suddenly, the man cried with an anguished voice: “Jesus, remember me when you enter upon your reign.”
“This day,” Jesus rasped, looking up into the darkening sky, “you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus looked over at the other criminal and then back to his mother. Mary glanced up and Jesus lips twitched in a brief smile.
Like a helpless animal in the jaws of the predator, Jesus waited for darkness.
Of course the Romans were wrong. Jesus was not the king of the Jews...he is king of all time, all places and all people. His triumph is that still today and for all tomorrows he can look over to us from his cross and because of it say, as he did to Dismas, “This day you shall be with me in paradise.”
