Christ the King is not compatible with Nationalism

An image of Christ above the choir stalls at Toledo Cathedral in Spain. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

Did you know? The feast of Christ the King was added to liturgical calendars as a response to the rise in fascism in 1925.

Pope Pius XI was frustrated over the popularity of Benito Mussolini and his movement in Italy, so he declared that the last Sunday of the liturgical year would be a reminder that Christ is king—and no Christian Nationalist power can usurp His kingdom.

By its very nature, by the bishop of Rome’s reasoning, the establishment of this special day on Catholic—and later in mainline Protestant—liturgical calendars is not compatible with Christian Nationalism.

You cannot be a Christian Nationalist and ascribe to a theology of Christ as king.

The kingship of Christ does not call for an imperialism of the religion.

In fact, we in the Reformed faith know all too well how we’ve tried to scale back from the excesses of church imperialism.

Christ is king, yes.

But which crown does He wear?

Certainly, He doesn’t wear a bejeweled gold imperial crown!

So why do we impress upon Him such a crown in our artwork? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the depiction. Artists meant well.

His is the crown with which He died.

It was fashioned by his jailers of twisted dried branches with thorns.

It was a crown forcing him into humility.

Humbled, yet, He reigns.

Christ’s kingdom is not a temporal kingdom dressed up in material things.

It is an eternal kingdom bound up in the Holy Spirit not patriot spirit—where service to each other, most especially service to those who have least, is the oath in this kingdom.

Our king wears a crown of humility and we follow Him with a cloth upon our shoulders to wipe away tears and sweat—even blood if it’s there—from each others’ brows.

In His kingdom, there are no patriot uniforms, black shirts or brown shirts, gold or stainless steel cross lapel pins and pendants, and certainly not a silly red baseball cap. Talk about things temporal!

In His kingdom, the cloth is the stole that my pastor and your pastor wears, the long black tippet that I wear when I preach, the hems of the shirts you put on when you’re ready to work for the Greater Glory of God.

Our king is different from those kings, presidents, and prime ministers—and misguided prophets doing their bidding.

The nation of God those Christian Nationalists call for is nothing like the kingdom of God established for us by Christ.