Today on the last Sunday of our liturgical year, we celebrate one of the feasts that embodies the great irony of our faith – the feast of Christ the King. Jesus is acclaimed as the king of the universe…but what a strange sort of King He is. HE was born in the poverty of a stable and died on the cross between two criminals. In today’s Gospel he tells Pilate that the reason he was born and the reason he came into this world was to be a king who testified to the truth. And those who belong to truth hear His voice.
Jewish people of that time expected the savior to arrive as a king…but as a political King who would conquer the oppression of the roman government and would lead the Israelites to power over the world. For this reason, many of the Jewish people and their leaders failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah…the king of the universe. They even assisted in condemning him to death.
Ironically it was three strangers from the east, the Magi, who first recognized the newborn king. In those humble circumstances, they fell down before Him and offered homage and praise not because he had the trappings of royalty but because they saw beyond the externals and in faith saw the gift God had given to the world.
We too have our expectations of who God is and how God should be in our world. But like the Jewish people of old, those expectations can get in the way of our recognizing the gift God is for us each day.
As we approach the coming season of Advent, may we too put aside our preconceived ideas of who God is and await His unexpected appearances in our live.