Homily for Christ the King, Sunday 20th November 2022

Homily for Christ the King

Sunday 20th November 2022

Homily by Rev George Kingsnorth (Deacon)

In today’s Gospel, the crowd hovered around watching to see what was going on. The Roman soldiers taunted Jesus while the religious leaders jeered at him for not saving himself. No one was prepared to side with Jesus like they had done only a week before when he entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Now, the people stayed at a distance. Even Peter had denied him three times the night before.

An inscription was placed above his head saying, This is the King of the Jews. Even one of the criminals, nailed to a cross beside Jesus, verbally abused him, echoing those of the crowd below. The only person to defend Jesus was the other criminal aware of his own crimes deserving the punishment he received but knew the man beside him was innocent. All he asked of Jesus was to remember him when came into his kingdom. He wanted nothing more.

In early 1960, before carrying out his research on Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram conducted a survey with Yale University psychology students, indicating that less than 3% of people would harm another using a high voltage shock. A year later, after his experiment he recorded that more than 50% of the subjects recruited for the study did as instructed to administer 450 volts of electricity to a volunteer in another room they could not see. Before each experiment, the subject received a sample shock of 45 volts, which they then believed would be given to the volunteer, a 45-year male teacher with a slight heart condition. In reality, the volunteer was an actor, who left the room, and an audio recording was played back each time a shock was given. However, the subject, being instructed by someone in a laboratory jacket was told they had been paid and they had to do as instructed.

When Milgram presented his finding to an audience of 110 well-educated delegates, he initially asked them if they would give the full voltage. Everyone argued they would disobey the authority figure and stop the experiment. When they were told the result they refuse to believe them. All finding it difficult people do not rebel against authority believing instead everyone is decent and not capable of intentionally harming another.

What motivated Milgram, who was Jewish, was why did a nation of people in Germany obey the authoritarian regime of the Nazis and allowed 6 million people to be exterminated in the concentration camps? He also wondered if Americans would follow the authorities to the same extent.

For even suggesting such a possibility, Milgram was criticised in the American Psychologist magazine for being cruel to those involved in the experiment. Yet, what Milgram’s experiments, in controlled conditions, showed was ordinary people will follow orders, even committing evil acts, especially if they believe the person in authority takes the blame.

We may think that some 62 years later that we also would not carry out such actions if ordered. It is only a small number that will. In one of Milgram’s experiments, it was a German nurse and a Polish electrician refused to obey.

The Romans in their time were also cruel masters. Most of the people only stayed to watch Jesus dying on the cross. Those in authority jeered or taunted him. No one tried to challenge the cruelty, not even Pilot who wash his hands of the injustice.

Jesus knew what he was doing. He had the authority given to him by his Father but chose to obediently follow what was asked of him. He was to be the sacrificial lamb taking all our sins onto himself so we could be forgiven. Through him, all things in heaven and on earth were created. No Throne, Dominion, Sovereignty or Power on earth could stand against him. Jesus is not just the shepherd of the people of Israel but of all humans.

Out of the many people who stood around the three crucified men, it was the sinner who recognised his crimes and was promised ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’ We are not to lose hope. Just be aware that we are not the heroes we often see depicted in movies, but we are ordinary people who have the capability of getting things wrong if we do not question them. God knows us for who we are and calls us to follow him, admit our fallings and place our trust in him, as our Lord and Saviour. If we place our trust in his authority, then our fear is not in what humans can do to us but it is our awe, respect and reverence of God that will help us find peace, and life with him in paradise.

• Likes
• Download
• Share