Gospel tells us that the board hung over Jesus’ head on the cross read: “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews,” (Lk 23:36; see also, Mt 27:37; Mk 15:26; Jn 19:19-20), and that, to the request of the repentant thief on the cross, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” Jesus promised “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Lk 23:39-43). f) Before his Ascension into Heaven, Jesus declared: (Mt 28:18): “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.” g) Finally (Mt 25:31) , we read that Christ the King will come in glory to judge us on the day of the Last Judgment.
Life Messages:
1) We need to accept Christ the King as our Lord, King, and Savior and surrender our lives to him. We surrender our lives to Jesus every day when we give priority to his teaching in our daily choices, especially in moral decisions. We should not exclude Christ our King from any area of our personal or family lives. In other words, Christ must be in full charge of our lives, and we must give him sovereign power over our bodies, our thoughts, our heart and our will.
2) We need to be serving disciples of a serving King. Jesus declared that he came not to be served but to serve and showed us the spirit of service by washing of the feet of his disciples. We become Jesus’ followers when we recognize his presence in everyone, especially the poor, the sick, the outcast, and the marginalized in the society and render humble and loving service to Jesus in each of them.
3) We need to accept Jesus Christ as the King of love. Jesus came to proclaim to all of us the Good News of God’s love and salvation, gave us his new commandment of love: “Love one another as I have loved you,” (Jn 13:34), and demonstrated that love by dying for us sinners. We accept Jesus as our King of love when we love others as Jesus loved, unconditionally, sacrificially, and with agape love.