By now I’m sure you’ve have heard “Christ is King” has been trending on X and naturally stirring up controversy, on Holy Week of all weeks! Some are saying it is anti-Semitic. From what I understand, the trend began after Candace Owens’ departure from Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire. I find there is far too much content being put out on a daily basis to keep up with it all, but I did happen to catch some of Candace Owens’ interview with Rabbi Barclay when it dropped. It takes courage to host a person who has written hit pieces about you. And to be fair to Barclay, courage to show up after writing hit pieces. It quickly became clear who had the courage of a lion and who had the courage of an idiot. At times I found myself wondering, why is Candace giving this slippery fool the time of day? Ultimately, I found it had some utility in showing how utterly slimy Rabbi Barclay is. He’s a poor thinker, evasive, given to hyperbole and distortion, unable to define simple terms and clearly thinks his Jewishness makes him superior. Take his dismissal of the Palestinian genocide as an example. I didn’t finish the interview because it was so tedious and I had heard enough. I also think it unnecessary for Candace to have agreed to watch whatever horrific footage the Rabbi is wanting to show her of what Hamas has done to Jews. I don’t doubt it’s horrible. Is Rabbi Barclay willing to watch the same footage of what his people are doing to Palestinians? Oh that’s right, non-Jews are less than in his eyes so it wouldn’t make any difference. I can’t help thinking of what Gabor Mate and Norman Finkelstein have said on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It should give anyone pause when they hear a holocaust survivor say “Take the worst thing you can say about Hamas, multiply it by 1,000 times and it still will not meet the Israeli repression and killing and dispossessions of Palestinians.” Gabor Mate’s full interview by Russell Brand can be heard here:
Professor Norman Finkelstein, a child of holocaust survivors and a decades long expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is another Jew speaking out against the Jewish warcrimes in Gaza. Interviews and videos of both individuals abound and I can only say I’ve seen a few. If documentaries are more your thing, check out Born in Gaza from 2014, following the lives of 10 Palestinian children. I don’t know what more information is needed than what can be found in these resources to see that what Israel is doing is supremely evil, and to stand with Israel is to be complicit in their Nazi-level evils. Yes, I said it, on par with the Holocaust. Does saying this make me an anti-Semite? I’ll let you decide. I’ve just cited two Jews, a documentary from 10 years ago and I’ll finish by directing your attention to this excellent article by another Jew when it comes to the specific accusation of anti-Semitism: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387587
Christ is King is what I really want to be talking about. What is meant by Christ is King is, of course, that Jesus Christ is King. If it were to be shortened though I would prefer saying Jesus is King. Christ is King is a basic tautology—it says nothing but restates what it means to be Christ. The Jews were awaiting their Christ, from the Greek word christos, or Messiah, from the Hebrew word mashiach. These words mean “Anointed One.” The Jews understood this to mean the one who was to be anointed as their King, establishing their nation Israel and freeing them from political oppression and at long last giving them the status they always felt entitled to as God’s Chosen People. 2,000 years later many Jews are still chasing after this earthly kingdom, with or without a Messiah, oftentimes without even a belief in God and definitely without the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. As Jesus himself said, “To deny me is to deny the Father.”
When the wise Zoroastrian Priests came from Persia to pay homage to this newborn king, Herod gathered the Jewish chief priests and scribes asking, “where is this king of yours to be born?” The Jews at the time knew that their Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea as Micah 5:2 states. It is curious that what was known by Jews then seems to have been completely forgotten by them now.
Jesus is King is broad and universal. It’s true, just as the Wise Men, the Magi, the Persian priests knew. However, we need to start with the particulars, the local, before we jump to the universals. I always found it striking that it wasn’t Jewish High Priests who came to worship Jesus, it was foreigners from the East. Zoroastrians were well ahead of their time. Following the teachings of Zarathustra, whose life we know very little of, Zoroastrians had the keenness to acknowledge that our starting place, our given is illusion and lies, and that it is only through turning our attention towards the Light of Ahura Mazda, Holy Wisdom or Creator God who by the power of his word created all except that which is evil, that we can become co-creators in asha/reality and break away from the shackles of lies and illusion. It would seem that the Jews got too bogged down with quibbling and reacting to culture around them to see that their King had been born. The Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes were the largest Jewish groups of Jesus’ day who emerged during the interim period prior to Jesus. Jews were undergoing an identity crises after Hebraic Judaism had gotten eclipsed by the Hellenized world. The Pharisees’ response was to define themselves as being anti-Greek. I liken them to the political right of our day. As an anti-Leftist myself this gives me pause as Jesus did not have great things to say about the Pharisees. We are to be against the spirit of this world, but first we must be for the world, just as Jesus is. The Sadducees were more conciliatory and denied the after-life which is of course why they were sad, you see?
When Jesus asked his disciples, “whom do you say that I am?” Peter responded, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus’ first word of response to this was makarios, blessed or happy are you! After proclaiming Peter to be blessed, Jesus had a threefold response to Peter’s answer. First, he told Peter that he did not come to this knowledge by man but by God the Father revealing it to him. Second, Jesus said that it is upon this foundational truth and rock that He would build His church, the new Israel. Last, Jesus told His disciples not to tell anyone that He is the Messiah, the King. The disciples had restrictions and limitations at the time prior to Jesus’ work on the Cross and His subsequent resurrection and ascension paving the way for the Holy Spirit to come at Pentecost.
Now this was before Palm Sunday, when Jesus was hailed as King of the Jews, which was just days before Jesus was mocked and crucified for the blasphemy of such a claim without executing this role in the way that was anticipated and wanted by the Jews— Pharisees and Sadducees included. The Jews were wanting a liberator. They wanted their Christ to be their liberator King, crowned and sitting on a throne. Instead, as we all know, He was nailed naked on a Cross with a crown of thorns placed upon His head. Pilate found no fault in Jesus, so he got a bowl of water and washed his hands before the Jews who were shouting “crucify him.” Contrary to what the crude, lewd, vile and nasty Rabbi Shmuley claims, the Jews were not divided in their vitriol against Jesus. Shmuley claims it was the Romans who killed Jesus not the Jews, and if we were to say the Jews had a part in it then it was just the Sadducees not the Pharisees. Poppycock! All were complicit! It was the Jewish people, with Pharisees being in the majority who cried, “let his blood be upon us and on our children.” While we encounter the Pharisee Gamaliel’s principle afterwards in Acts 5 during Peter and John’s trial before the Sanhedrin, wherein he states “In the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God,” we find no mention him or reference to this principle when Jesus stood in the same place. As this is the first mention of Gamaliel, one can only speculate that he was in process of a change of heart after the crucifixion of Jesus, when the sky turned black and the curtain of the Temple tore in two. How could any persist in illusion and lies in the light of such blinding truth and reality? Where was this Rabbi Gamaliel, who was described as honored by all the people, when Jesus was being tried? He would have been among those crying “Crucify him!” We know his pupil Saul later to be named Paul persecuted Christians and held the cloaks of those who stoned Christians to death. Paul surely left Gamaliel’s tutelage prior to Gamaliel coming to his principle. Undoubtedly, it was the Jews collectively who brought Jesus to be tried for the blasphemy of claiming to be the Messiah. This was not a punishable crime for the Romans, which is why Pilate said “I find no fault with this man.” Being weak, being an appeaser, being whatever he was, Pilate sought to exonerate himself by washing his hands of the blood, blood which the Jews asked to be put upon them and their children. And how does Jesus, the Messiah, respond? “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The stone which the builders have rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Jesus, the rock, rejected by his Jewish people, betrayed by his very own disciple, and denied by another, allowed himself to be nailed upon a cross, spat upon and mocked and yet, even so, his response was, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus revealed himself to a chief of sinners, Paul on his way to Damascus to gather up Christians with murderous intent to bring them back bound to Jerusalem. Curiously, Jesus didn’t map out the Roman’s road of salvation for Paul. Instead he blinded him on the Damascus road and asked him a question, “Why are you persecuting me?” And in typical Jewish response to a question, Paul answers by asking a question of his own, “Who are you, Lord?” to which Jesus responds, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” This is all it took to bring about Paul’s repentance resulting in an about face and being on the receiving end rather than the spearheading end of Jewish hostility to Jesus Christ.
Knowledge of this foundational truth, the chief cornerstone—the stone which the builders/workers/Jews rejected is not just about uttering a statement of who Jesus is, it is a statement that when properly known brings with it the blessing of joy. Joy is available to any who profess with their lips and confess in their hearts that Jesus is Lord. This is the Good News. It’s not condemning and oppressive. No one is excluded. Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Joy to the World, the Lord is come. Let Earth receive her King. In John 16: 7&8 Jesus told His disciples, “it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world [not just the Jews] to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
It was not the Jews that held Jesus to the Cross, it was my sin that held Him there. Despite all the evil in the world, we are living in privileged times. Whereas the disciples struggled to understand and were awaiting the New Israel, we have the Advocate always ready to welcome us and dwell within us. God’s Kingdom has come onto the earth. The Church is the New Israel founded on the solid rock of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God and this is more widely known now than ever. God the Father reveals this through the work of His Son and through the work of Christ’s Bride, the Church, whom Jesus loves dearly and to whom all are welcome to join, but as Paul wrote “to the Jews first and also to the Greek.” I direct your attention to this helpful article by John Piper on that puzzling matter: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/to-the-jew-first-and-also-to-the-greek
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Unlike Jesus’ disciples prior to His work on the Cross, we get to pronounce it and we get to live it. What joy divine!