November 23, 2025
Revised Common Lectionary
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Luke 1:68-79 or Psalm 46
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
Lectionary for Mass (RC)
1 Samuel 5:1-3
Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 (see 1)
Colossians 1:12-20
Luke 23:35-43
How do words like “king” and “royalty” sit with you? Canadians and Americans may be fascinated by the British royal family and gobble up news of their family dramas—yet we generally have a dim view of the power and privilege that have historically been associated with kings, queens, and other royal figures.
As we celebrate the Reign of Christ on this last Sunday of the church year, we are invited to reflect on kingship of a completely different nature—based not on conquest but compassion, and expressed not through formality and pomp but through suffering love. The Gospel reading presents the paradox of this feast in its starkest form: Jesus crucified between two criminals, mocked by an inscription that speaks more truth than its authors intended.
Today’s Gospel concludes our year-long journey through Luke. Right from the opening of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is found among the lowly, the forgotten, and the marginalized. He is born into a poor family in an occupied country. His birth is revealed not to religious elites at prayer, but to grimy shepherds in the fields. Yet an angel announced to Mary not only that she would become the mother of Jesus, but that her son “will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:33).
Today’s Scripture readings point to the paradox of Christ’s reign. Just as Jesus was associated with people at the margins throughout his entire life and ministry, we hear today how he was crucified between two criminals—subjected to a cruel and humiliating form of execution reserved for insurrectionists and common criminals of the lower class.
The Roman executioners mock Jesus, challenging him to save himself if he is really a king. The inscription they place over his head drips with irony and sends a chilling warning to anyone who would challenge imperial authority: “This is the king of the Jews” (Lk 23:38).
Yet Jesus extended the compassion of God even to those who put him to death. His first words from the cross are a prayer for his persecutors: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34).
One of the criminals hanging beside Jesus presents a dying request with an astonishing declaration of faith: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). Jesus responds with the same compassion he showed for the sinners, the tax collectors, and the poor with whom he identified throughout his life. Jesus declares that for this condemned man—and by extension, for all those on the margins—the kingdom is present even now: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43).
Today’s reading from the Letter to the Colossians tells us that this same Christ who lived and died among the poor and lowly of this world is himself “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15). He existed even before creation; “in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible” (Col 1:16).
Just as Jesus welcomed into his kingdom the criminal crucified beside him, so has God “transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). The same compassion that Jesus extended to others during his lifetime and even in his dying moments has also been extended to the entire universe. The author of Colossians writes that “through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (1:20). In the reign of Christ there is forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God.
Today’s celebration of the Reign of Christ reminds us that the One who “is before all things, and in [whom] all things hold together” (Col 1:17) came among us in the flesh to bring God’s mercy and love, especially to those most in need. His kingship is both universal and immediate, making him entirely different from any human monarch. To live as citizens of Christ’s realm, we are called to acknowledge his sovereignty, to reorient our lives according to the example he has set, and to proclaim his reign by lives of compassion and service.
A Hymn for Today: “O Christ, what can it mean for us”
In this text, Benedictine sister and hymn writer Delores Dufner, OSB, FHS, reflects on the paradoxical nature of Christ’s kingship. He is, she writes, “a different kind of king.” Click here to hear organist David Cherwien leading the congregation of Mount Olive Lutheran Church (Minneapolis) in singing this powerful text to the tune ALL SAINTS NEW.
O Christ, what can it mean for us
To claim you as our king?
What royal face have you revealed
Whose praise the Church would sing?
Aspiring not to glory’s height,
To power, wealth, and fame,
You walked a diff’rent, lowly way,
Another’s will your aim.
You came, the image of our God,
To heal and to forgive,
To shed your blood for sinners’ sake
That we might rise and live.
To break the law of death you came,
The law of love to bring:
A diff’rent rule of righteousness,
A diff’rent kind of king.
Though some would make their greatness felt
And lord it over all,
You said the first must be the last
And service be our call.
O Christ, in workplace, church, and home
Let none to power cling;
For still, through us, you come to serve,
A diff’rent kind of king.
You chose a humble human form
And shunned the world’s renown;
You died for us upon a cross
With thorns your only crown.
But still, beyond the span of years,
Our glad hosannas ring,
For now at God’s right hand you reign,
A diff’rent kind of king.
Text: Delores Dufner, OSB, b. 1939, © 2001, 2003, GIA Publications, Inc. Used by permission under OneLicense #A-729857
Tunes: KINGSFOLD, IN NOMINE, ALL SAINTS NEW
Image Credit: Christ on the Cross Between Two Thieves, Lucas Cranach, 1472-1553, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
To receive these weekly reflections by email, please send a message to office@thehymnsociety.org and type “Lectionary” in the subject line.