Upside-Down: Jesus’ Metaphor of ‘King’

Last updated on: November 25, 2024 at 8:13 am by Tricia Gates Brown

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Upside-Down: Jesus’ Metaphor of ‘King’ 2024-11-25T08:13:49-08:00 Tricia Gates Brown

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Jesus' metaphor of king

{Photo by Gavin Wegener for Scopio; Jesus’ metaphor of king}

Jesus’ metaphor of ‘king’ is a focus this Sunday in my own tradition (Episcopal). And I admit that this is not my favorite metaphor used by Jesus, in part because it is confusing. I don’t like what kings, emperors, rulers, presidents, have done to the weak throughout history. The things they have done and are doing are generally the opposite of what Jesus did and taught. But Jesus used the metaphor of ‘king’ frequently; in fact, ‘the kingdom of God’ was central to his teaching and stories. So we are forced to wrestle with these metaphors.

Really, metaphors are all we have to talk about God, and “the kingdom of God” is just one metaphor. God is too big for us to understand apart from analogy. What I like to ask on this Sunday each year, is what the metaphor of Christ as king tells us. How is Christ like a king? {For more on the meaning of the word “Christ”, see this essay. The concept of the Universal Christ goes well beyond Jesus.}

When Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, he was clearly redefining, or flipping upside down, the whole concept of king and kingdom. God’s realm, or God’s kingdom, is characterized by the upside-down: God honors the weak not the strong; God wants us to give power to others, not to use power over them; God wants us to abandon the dominant and the strong to seek out the vulnerable. These actions are the opposite of what kings do in this world.

Why did Jesus use the language of king and kingdom anyway? Well, he seems to be saying throughout the gospels that his disciples are to follow The Way of Love as he taught, not the rulers who were trying to dominate them: the Romans, local elites, rulers like Herod who were clients of Rome. And the allegiance of those following Jesus should be to God’s realm, not to political kingdoms. When it comes to authority, The Way of Love is ultimate.

Jesus' metaphor of king

{Photo by Aditya Sharma for Scopio; Jesus’ metaphor of king}

Subverting the Idea of ‘King’

Additionally, calling Christ ‘king’ is a way of subverting the whole idea of authority because Jesus’ authority is incarnational (and we should remember that Jesus did not call himself Christ). Jesus is portrayed as a representative of God’s realm, and his authority comes from God, from calling people to be faithful to the values of God’s kingdom as articulated again and again in Jesus’ teachings. Whereas human kingdoms are about chaos and greed and power; God’s kingdom is about setting things right and elevating those who are on the bottom.

As people in my tradition and beyond think of the Universal Christ as king in our lives and hearts and communities, I suggest we ponder what it means to have a king born as a baby among farm animals, who was raised in a poor village. What does it mean to let this kind of king reign in our lives as a guide? What does it mean to have our decisions ordered by this model of power rebalance and nonviolence? What does it mean to surrender our complicated lives to a king who says “come to me all of you who are weary and I will give you rest”?

If Christ metaphorically is king, Christ is a king very different from human kings, rulers, or presidents, who use power for their own gain. Jesus—as an example to us of the incarnation of the Universal Christ—modeled the giving up of earthly power and the use of spiritual power to draw attention to the truth. To follow this kind of king means to prioritize spiritual power and to lift up values of justice, fairness, and restoration.

If you liked this article please leave me a comment below, I am interested in your perspective.

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Winner of the 2022 Independent Publisher Awards Bronze Medal for Regional Fiction; Finalist for the 2022 National Indie Excellence Awards. (2021) Paperback publication of Wren , a novel. “Insightful novel tackles questions of parenthood, marriage, and friendship with finesse and empathy … with striking descriptions of Oregon topography.” —Kirkus Reviews (2018) Audiobook publication of Wren.

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