34th Sunday of Year C
November 21, 2004
Lk 23:35-43

It appears challenging at first to find a passage in Luke's gospel that focuses on "Christ the King." Not that this topic was absent from Luke's message, but it was just handled discretely and rarely made explicit.

Of course from the annunciation we know that Jesus was going to reign and "his kingdom will have no end."(1:33). But in Jesus' preaching what we hear and read about is always "the kingdom of God" which he announces and affirms meekly and in a self-effacing manner. That is the role of Jesus while living in the mortal and humble conditions of earthly life. However, at the last supper, the tone changes. He shares with the disciples the last "mystery of the kingdom" as he distributes to them his body and blood not only as food and drink but also as the promotion to a ministry of witnessing -- preaching and martyrdom -- in which they become dispensers and distributors of a kingdom which they receive from him:

"You are those who have persevered with me in my trials;

and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom,

that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,

and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (22:29-31).

This kingdom of Jesus comes to fullness at the heavenly banquet, but is already enacted at its eucharistic anticipation. With this in mind Jesus enters the drama of his agony, trial and crucifixion. As that drama reaches its peak, hanging between two criminals, taunted, mocked and humiliated by both the leaders of his people and the pagan oppressors, the issue of his kingship re-emerges in a new way. The official inscription giving the reason for his execution claims that he was a pretender to the throne; the mockers claim that as a "Messiah king" he should be a "savior." But only by saving himself can he be a credible savior of his people.

In this context a convicted criminal throws light into the darkness. In his last minute before dying he realizes the great meaning of Jesus’ death: Jesus is "forsaken among the dead" (Ps 87:5), but at the same time, as the church fathers understood this verse liber inter mortuos “free among the dead,” entering the realm of death, whence he is delivered into the hands of the Father. He accepts a condition he did not deserve. "We -- the rest of us -- are receiving the due reward of our deeds," but he is the only one who enters death without having committed wrong. The vicious cycle of … sin - death - sin - death… is broken as the only person in full and divine righteousness accepts the fullness of the human condition: he accepts dying and completes the journey of the incarnation.

At that moment the redemptive power of Jesus’ death begins to explode its saving force. "Today" -- right now, at the moment of your dying with me -- you will enter paradise! The word "paradise" referring to the Garden of Eden, recurring nowhere else in the New Testament, has a special importance: the drama of man's fall and rise is completed. Man was lost and is now found; he has perished and is now saved.

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