When the Hebrew people were captive in Egypt, GOD sent Moses to lead the people to liberation. When they had trouble listening to what GOD was telling them to do, the people were given laws on how to create a just society. When the people had trouble maintaining their society, GOD sent judges to lead them and keep the society just. Then the people demanded a king: the neighboring tribes had kings, so they wanted one too. So GOD called David to be their king.

The scope of our early history is a persistent problem with leadership. We had trouble living into the world GOD intended for us and so GOD kept trying to give us what we needed. The story after we get a king is more like a testament to “be careful what you ask for: you just might get it.” Our history was not served well be the kings. A lesson that was made worse by each succeeding generation.

There is an old tradition to seeing Jesus as descending from David; as being the true heir to divine kingship. But what are actually saying? When we call Jesus our king, I fear that we are expecting the wrong thing from Him. That, like Peter calling Jesus “Messiah” and expecting a military leader, do we call Jesus “King!” and see a patriarch? Is he ruler? Does He command us to jump and we say “how high?” Is his authority so dependent on intimidation and centralized economic power?

Or is Jesus a king in the same way He triumphantly entered Jerusalem on a colt? A ruler who doesn’t actually rule; a leader who follows.

This Sunday is called the Feast of Christ the King, a relatively new feast day in the church, dating to the early 20th Century. It is the day we acknowledge the supremacy of Christ as head of the Kingdom of GOD. I worry that we lose sight of what kind of king we are talking about. A king that serves, that sacrifices, and that loves radically. A king that looks the complete opposite of virtually any king any of us has ever read about. It is an image that is too hard for us to understand and far too easy to misuse.

That is why I say we don’t need a king today. We don’t need a leader or conqueror or a hero. We need Jesus. Just Jesus, Son of Humanity, whose example is humble, not glorified; generous, not treacherous; hospitable, not exclusionary.

The one who came to save us from ourselves. Like our Hebrew ancestors, we don’t need a king. We just need The Way.