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Greetings, SBT Readers!
Recently, a friend reminded me of the 1985 movie, The Fourth Wiseman, starring Martin Sheen as Artaban. Based on Henry van Dyke's classic, The Story of the Other Wiseman (1985), this movie tells the fictitious story of the Magus who goes in search of the newborn King of the Jews but who never reaches the stable in Bethlehem. While his fellow Magi follow the star bearing rich gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, Artaban falls behind while tending to a dying man. Having missed the caravan, he spends the next decades helping the poor and destitute he encounters along the way. Some thirty-three years later, he ends up in Jerusalem, just before Jesus is crucified, bearing the one pearl left of the treasure originally intended for the Christ Child. Could this magnificent pearl be used to purchase the release of the King for whom he had searched so many years before? Once again, he misses the moment. Heading to Golgotha, he ends up using the pearl to secure the freedom of a young girl who is being sold into slavery. Distraught at his seeming failure to present his gifts to the King, Artaban, close to death, is overcome with grief and sickness; then, a gentle voice breaks through his consciousness: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me"
(Matt 25:40).
A contemporary audience would most likely find this story "dated" and sentimental. Nevertheless, the bare bones of the plot remain theologically strong: The King of Kings is not to be found in some remote palace but in the messiness of human life, wherever there is heartache, disappointment, injustice, and suffering of any kind. It is not gold, frankincense, and myrrh that this King requires of us, but one thing only:
"To do what is right, to love goodness, and to walk humbly with
your God" (Mic 8:8).
Many Blessings-- and Happy Thanksgiving!
Elizabeth
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
Link to the Sunday Readings
The rulers jeered at Jesus, saying,
"He saved others, let him save himself
if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God."
Even the soldiers mocked him.
As they approached to offer him wine vinegar, they called out,
"If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."
An inscription above him read, "This is the King of the Jews."
Now one of the criminals hanging there hurled insults at Jesus, saying,
"Aren't you the Christ?
Save yourself and us."
The other, however, rebuking him, said,
"Have you no fear of God,
for you are subject to the same sentence?
And indeed, we have been condemned justly,
for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,
but this man has done nothing wrong."
Then he said,
"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Jesus replied,
"Amen, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise."
Lk 23:35-43
Episode 4, Season 5 of Netflix's The Crown, highlights Queen Elizabeth's reflections on the 40th anniversary of her accession to the throne. Departing from tradition, the queen, speaking at Guildhall (London, 24 November 1992), is remarkably open about her assessment of the previous year, referring to it as an Annus Horribilis. Not only has Windsor Castle just endured a terrible fire, but the royal family is "burning" from marital indiscretions as well as from accompanying slander and gossip. As reflected in other episodes, royalty, apparently, is not above failure, tragedy, or critique. Nor, as we have learned from history, is it above colonizing other countries, and appropriating their land, resources, and cultural treasures. We -- the general public-- tend to be impressed by the pomp, pageantry, and traditions associated with monarchies, often ignoring their checkered history, especially when it comes to social justice...
Mocked by the religious and secular powers, Jesus is hailed as "King." This, however, is not a title he claims for himself. He is clear about this when he runs from the crowds that try to crown him (Jn 6:15) and when he tells Pilate, "My kingdom does not belong to this world" (Jn 18:36). His purpose, in fact, is to testify to the Truth (Jn 18:37), not to acquire earthly power, lands, wealth and armies. Even before beginning his public ministry, he rejects the temptation of worldly domination (Matt 4:8-10), emerging from the desert firm in his desire to serve God and not his ego.
In many ways, then, Jesus is an "un-King," one whose dominion is over the human heart, not over territories. His only weapon is Love while his manifesto --The Beatitudes-- turns upside down notions of worldly ambition and measures of success. Ironically, while the institutional church has built magnificent cathedrals and basilicas in his honor, all Jesus desires is to be enthroned in the hearts of his followers. And while some of his representatives, often vested in magnificent robes, are hailed as "Princes of the Church," the Crucified Jesus stretches out his arms in the glory of wounded nakedness, reaching out to embrace suffering humanity.
Glamor and glitter have nothing to do with Christ the King. Though I love religious art, architecture, and sacred music, I suspect that our amazing ecclesial artistic heritage has little to do with him, either. The arts express how we feel and respond, but they do not capture the essence of who Jesus is and what he
desires from his followers. In fact, caught up in the rapture of an exquisite choral piece, we may feel uplifted and inspired, but these feelings are no substitute for worshipping in Truth any more than is our experience of awe when we gaze up at the vaulted ceiling of a Gothic cathedral. True worship, as Jesus points out to the Samaritan woman, does not depend upon sacred spaces, but on the disposition of the human heart (Jn 4:21-24). The only gift that God desires is the gift of authentic Love.
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