There is only one real King and our Queen knew it, all along

The end of the financial year ruins many an accountant's Easter; the school year ends in July; the Calendar Year ends with New Year's Eve but the Church calendar ends this week with The Feast of Christ the King.   

Next week, the altar in our local church changes from red to purple for Advent, the 'festival of coming'.   Incidentally, the Romans created Advent in the 6th century out of an earlier season of preparation and fasting for mass baptisms in January.  

The Feast of Christ the King links into the first two weeks of Advent which are not about the Nativity but about The Second Coming - The Son of Man coming on the clouds in glory.  It is only the last two weeks of Advent to December 24th that celebrate the Incarnation (Christ, the 'Baby King').  Until mid December, we focus on

a) Pantocritor, The Risen Christ, Ruler of the Universe; and
b) the way He interpreted kingship during his earthly ministry.  

2022 was all tied up with monarchy - a celebration, a death and an accession. It was a year which vastly expanded our idea of what a King (and Queen) is (for).   We found that our constitution is based on a hitherto unseen act : the Imperial State Crown being removed from a monarch's coffin and placed on an altar in readiness for the next 'recipient', a word the late Queen mysteriously once used in a BBC programme about the Crown jewels which only now makes complete sense.   

We were all astonished, if not dismayed, that after 70 years of one familiar feminine head being on all our stamps, our unchanging monarch could be replaced by another one. We suddenly realised that the previous 'recipient' goes to glory both uncrowned and unsceptred.


The Imperial State Crown Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64712804

We understand the concept of kingship from such acts, but Queen Elizabeth and King Charles had or have no real power.  The subtle difference is that Christ had power to rule the world as the true 'World King' but He did not seek it.  He rejected Satan's offer of ruling over world kingdoms, slipped away from an enforced coronation, never stood on ceremony, nor His innate titles, being satisfied with a simple "Lord!" or "Rabbi".  Yet even the Servant King who washed feet (as British monarchs once did, in imitation), showed glimpses of power, mostly when least expected. He drew on His power over storms and the sea, over diseases and disfigurements, over water and bread.  His power was  unleashed only when it was meaningful, because the focus of  His mission was to fully identify with those who had no power -  to draw them to His sacrificial and atoning Cross.

The Risen Christ is the same, yet different.  He wore a crown, but only a crown of thorns.  After death, He inherited real imperial power - the keys to hell and death and the seat from which He will judge Mankind.  His name was not etched on a black marble slab.   He has no tomb because He still reigns, both in heaven and on earth. As Bernard Levin once wrote "He still looms over the world"  - bookending us with both His royal servanthood and His majestic Kingship.  

Those who aspire to become 'World Kings' are fleshly imposters.  Their ephemeral empires will crumble as the Soviet Union's did through bankruptcy or through overreaching, war, Russian winters or madness.

There is only one real King, a fact that our much lamented late Queen always seemed to know. The time to think about it, in the Church calendar, is now.