Reflection for Sunday 23rd November 2025

Christ the King

Jeremiah 23.1-6, Colossians 1.11-20, Luke 23.33-43

Christ the King Sunday closes the church year with a reminder of who truly holds all things together. Jeremiah speaks of failed shepherds—leaders who scatter rather than gather. Into this disappointment, God promises a shepherd who reigns with justice and restores what others have damaged.

Paul gives us one of the most breathtaking descriptions of Christ: the image of the invisible God, the one through whom all things were made, the one in whom all things hold together. This is no distant ruler but a king who reconciles the world through the cross.

In the Gospel, Jesus is enthroned on a cross. A crown of thorns. Mockery, not majesty. Yet here is the king who saves—not by force, but by love. The criminal beside him sees what the others miss: that Jesus’ kingdom begins right there, in suffering transformed by mercy.

To follow such a king is to trust that nothing—no darkness or discouragement—can undo his hold on us.

‘Christ reigns not from a throne of gold, but from a cross of mercy.’

Blessings and prayers,

Emma