Jesus Christ is the king of all the earth
May 19, 2023 - Friday, Sixth Week of Easter
Psalm 47:2-7
To hear the proclamation of the Psalmist that God is king over all the earth in the twenty-first century can be a challenge for many. As our science and technology develop, our belief in the awesome and all-powerful God seems to be diminishing. The statistics claim that between 7 to 10 percent of the world's population does not believe in the existence of God or has doubts about God’s existence. This percentage grows much higher regarding God’s lordship over the whole world. Most of us think that we are in charge of this world and, as Saint John Paul II said it few times, we live as if God did not exist. Thus to proclaim that God is king over all the earth and to rejoice that he is in charge goes against our contemporary culture that tries to remove reference to God from the constitutions of individual nations, educational institutions, and public discussion.
The history of Israel was marked by centuries of oppression. At the beginning of their nationhood, they were oppressed by Egyptian Empire and it was God who set them free. But then, after a relatively short time of independence, other empires came to plunder, destroy, and control them - the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally, the Romans. And so, if the human empires are acting like wild beasts, one dreams about a kingdom that is run directly by the Lord whose steadfast love is everlasting. Moreover, this lordship of Israel’s God extends to all aspects of human life. As one biblical scholar put it, it is the Lord who dictates how our personal, economic, and social life should be ordained around the principle of loving one’s neighbours as we love ourselves (Lev 19:18).
The Gospel narrates what happens when the Lord comes to reign. “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Luke 7:22). Those incredible tokens of God’s reign in the lives of individual people make us long for more. Like Daniel, we would like to see the kingdom of the Son of Man (see Daniel 7:13-14) and like Saint John, we dream about a new heaven and a new earth free from suffering, injustice, and death (see Rev 21:1-4) and so we pray every day: “Let your kingdom come” (Matt 6:10).
We celebrate the enthronement of Jesus, as Pantocrator, the Ruler of all, on the solemnity of Christ’s ascension at the right hand of the Father and on the feast of Christ’s the King that ends our liturgical year. During both feasts, the Church enacts in liturgy what one day will become evident to all, that Christ has ascended far above all heavens (Eph 4:10) and his kingship is universal kingship of peace, justice, and love. Christ is the king over all the earth and not the powerful of this world. This truth of our faith fills us with exuberant joy.