Episode Transcript  

One

Israel Rejects God as King

The word Christ is the Greek translation of Messiah — the Anointed One, the King. Jesus Christ literally means Jesus the King.

And by calling ourselves Christians, we label ourselves as followers of the King — people who recognize and belong to Jesus our King.

But to really understand this feast, we need to go back to the Old Testament. In 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites came to the prophet Samuel saying, “We want a king to govern us like all the other nations.” Samuel was upset because he knew God Himself was their King — the Law, the Covenant, the Ten Commandments — all of it was meant to let God personally rule His people. So, Samuel prayed, and the Lord said, “They haven’t rejected you, Samuel; they’ve rejected Me as their King.”

Then God said, “Fine. Give them what they want. But warn them what an earthly king will be like.”

And Samuel told them:

“He’ll take your sons for his army, your daughters for his service.

He’ll take your best land and your harvests.

You yourselves will become his slaves.”

And still the people said, “No! We want a king!”

This was not God’s will for them. But God respects our freedom — even when we make really stupid choices.

And this was one of the stupidest.

Two

The True King on the Cross

Fast forward to the Gospel for today.

We meet another man who’s made a lifetime of stupid choices — Dismas.

His choices have been so bad that he has been sentenced to death by crucifixion. And when we meet him at this moment, he is dying on a cross. This was the result of a long series of really bad choices. 

But as he hangs there, he turns to his left and sees another man crucified next to him. That man has an inscription over his head that reads: “This is the King of the Jews.” This is beyond imagination. The King of the Universe – God himself came all the way from heaven and descended right into Dismas’ dismal situation to be crucified with him. 

And the King of the Universe turns to his right and says to him, “Dismas, don’t be afraid, do not despair, I am with you, I can work this out for your best, just trust me.” And Dismas cries out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingly power.” “Today” Jesus replied, “you will be with me in paradise.”

That’s our King.

Three

The King Who Writes Straight with Crooked Lines

This is what Jesus does — always.

He descends into all the bad choices, the messes, the regrets, the things out of our control, even the things that aren’t our fault — And if we place our trust in Him, if we surrender everything, He turns all things to good for those who love Him. 

And I mean all things. No exceptions.

Pope Benedict said it perfectly:

“If we look closely, we shall discover that this is the usual form of the divine activity in relation to mankind.

“God does not have a fixed plan that He must carry out; on the contrary, He has many different ways of finding man and even of turning his wrong ways into right ways.

“This, then, is God’s kingship—a love that is impregnable and an inventiveness that finds man by ways that are always new.”

“The Feast of Christ the King is not, therefore, the feast of those who are under a yoke but of those who are grateful to find themselves in the hands of him who writes straight on crooked lines. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Co-Workers of the Truth

Four

Don’t Catastrophize

Both Dismas and the other guy who was crucified (tradition calls him “Gestas”) were in a pretty bad situation, one that looked hopeless.

They reacted in very different ways. 

Gestas lost his head, mocked Jesus and cursed at him in anger, frustration and despair. I don’t know what happened to him, but it doesn’t seem very good.

Dismas on the other hand didn’t catastrophize the situation. He did blow up, or curse at God. He didn’t blame someone else for his problems. And he didn’t give up hope.

Dismas kept his head, turned and saw Jesus and said basically “This is my fault, it’s totally out of control, and I can’t fix it. Jesus, I surrender to you, take care of everything!”

When it really couldn’t get worse, Dismas trusted in Divine Providence and surrendered to Jesus. And God worked it all out in his favor. 

This is why we can always be at peace, we can always be content. Because God in his Providence is watching over and guiding everything. 

Most importantly, God is guiding all things that happen so that through them He can bring us what we really need – Jesus. 

God brought Jesus to Dismas when it looked really bad.

No matter what you are going through – God will bring Jesus to you – just turn and surrender everything to him. 

Five

Reigning with Christ in Mercy

If Jesus is truly our King, then our lives should look like His. That means we write no one off. We keep trying to reach them again and again with the inventiveness of love.

Everyone had probably written off Dismas. But not our King. He went looking for him — and it was messy, and it cost Him dearly. And by the way, Dismas was partly responsible for the death of Jesus — just like we all are.

So ask yourself: Is there someone you’ve written off — a spouse, a child, a friend, a sibling — someone who’s hurt you or keeps making destructive choices? Have you stopped praying for them? Have you stopped hoping?

The Feast of Christ the King calls us to imitate His mercy — to forgive, to pray, to keep the door open, to seek them out again, even when it’s costly and uncomfortable. Because that’s what kingship looks like in the Kingdom of God. 

Jesus went in search of Dismas. He entered the mess, paid the price, and brought a lost soul home. How about you?

Resolution: Today, surrender your past, your present and your future to Jesus. Let His mercy write straight with the crooked lines of your life — and theirs. And then find a concrete way to show mercy to someone who needs your forgiveness, your prayer, your time. 

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