Who is Your King?

Have you ever heard some of the Jesus and Elvis comparisons?

Jesus said: “Love thy neighbor.” (Matthew 22:39) Elvis said: “Don’t be cruel.” (RCA, 1956)

Jesus is the good shepherd. Elvis dated Cybill Shepherd.

Jesus is part of the Trinity.      Elvis’ first band was a trio.

Jesus walked on water. (Matthew 14:25) Elvis surfed on water. (Blue Hawaii, Paramount, 1961)

Jesus’ entourage, the Apostles, had 12 members. Elvis’ entourage, the Memphis Mafia, had 12 members.

Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” (John 7:37)  Elvis said, “Drinks on me!” (Jailhouse Rock, MGM, 1957)

Jesus is a Capricorn. (December 25) Elvis is a Capricorn. (January 8)

Some folks say Elvis died back in 1977. Elvis fans don’t care.  Without any proof, they believe he lives!  Elvis lives, baby.  The King lives. And because they believe he lives, Elvis fans go out into in the world and share his message.  They play Elvis’ music; they dress up as Elvis impersonators; they decorate their homes with Elvis memorabilia.

If you go to the gift shop at Graceland, you can pick up an Elvis sprinkler.  It’s a foot-high plastic Elvis in a sequined jumpsuit, and as he waters your yard, he swivels his hips.  So whether through word or music, impersonators or sprinklers, Elvis fans proudly proclaim the message of the King.

Speaking of kings, today is the feast of Christ the King.

Who is the king of your life? Everybody worships something or somebody. One of the twentieth century’s most perceptive theologians, Paul Tillich, once said that whatever is our ultimate concern in life, that is our God. It might be our appearance or our bank account; it might be some popular media personality (like Elvis), it might be our allegiance to our country, or the quest for scientific truth, or a host of important concerns.

Everybody worships something or somebody. It might be something as benign as the esteem of your peers. There are some people who are obsessed with what significant people in their lives think about them. This obsession might not even be a conscious thing, but still it rates a higher priority than their family life or even their relationship with God. If standing up for Jesus would embarrass them in front of their peers, they will remain seated, thank you very much.

What is it in life that you value most – that you would not only die for, but also live for?  Some of you will say your family. And that is good. However, do you value your family more than you value God? Tough call, isn’t it? Some missionaries have had to make that decision. It’s one thing to put themselves at risk serving Christ in a dangerous situation, but how about their spouse or their children?

Researcher and author George Barna says that studies show that far more people in this country are willing to die for their country than they are their faith. That is very revealing. Who is your king? Who or what do you worship?

Biblical faith insists that God alone is worthy of our worship.

Michael Maudlin in an article in Christianity Today magazine once told about a person who was willing to make Christ the king of his life. Millard Fuller was a successful businessman who one day followed his estranged wife Linda to New York to try to convince her to come back to him. She was not easily convinced that he could turn back from his headlong rush for material wealth.

Millard recalls: “We were in a taxi right after Linda and I had a very tearful session. We’d gone to Radio City Music Hall and they showed the movie Never Too Late. It was about a woman getting pregnant after she thought it was too late. The message was that it’s never too late to change anything. I had a sensation of light in that taxi. It was not anything spooky. All I can say is it just came into my head: Give your money away, make yourself poor again and throw yourself on God’s mercy. I turned to Linda and said, ‘I believe that God just gave me the idea to give all our money away; give everything away.’

“She said, ‘I agree. Let’s do it.’”

Friends, family, even pastors tried to talk them out of it. But Millard Fuller believed that God was calling them to live a radical new life, and they ended up creating Habitat for Humanity.  Millard Fuller and his wife gave everything away. Not everyone is called to make a sacrifice like that, but would you be willing to if Jesus asked you to?

Bishop William Willimon says that he is still haunted by a long conversation he had with a man who was a member of one of his early congregations. This fellow told Willimon that one evening, returning from a night of poker with some of his pals, he had a stunning vision of the presence of the risen Christ. Christ appeared to him undeniably, vividly, he said.

Yet though this event shook him and stirred him deeply, in ten years he had never told anyone about it before he told Willimon, his pastor. Willimon pressed him on his silence. Was he embarrassed? Was he fearful that others would mock him or fail to believe that this had happened to him?

“No,” the man explained, “the reason why I told no one was I was too afraid that it was true. And if it’s true that Jesus was really real, that he had come personally to me, what then? I’d have to change my whole life. I’d have to become some kind of radical or something. And I love my wife and family and was scared I’d have to change, to be somebody else, and destroy my family, if the vision was real.”

That’s a powerful thought, wouldn’t you agree? If Jesus is real and if we should encounter him, what are the implications of that experience? I guess under such circumstances we would discover who really is the king of our life.

Martin Luther King, Jr. faced that question. Preaching in front of the Ebenezer Baptist congregation in Atlanta, Dr. King told them – just two months before his untimely death – how he would like to be remembered, and in doing so, he zeroed in on that ultimate question: If Christ is King, what does that mean? “If Christ is ruler over our lives,” Dr. King told them, “then my Nobel Peace Prize is less important than my trying to feed the hungry. If Christ is King, then my invitations to the White House are less important than that I visited those in prison. If Christ is Lord, then my being Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’ is less important than that I tried to love extravagantly, dangerously, with all my being.”

Dr. King was right, wasn’t he? If Christ is real . . . if he is King . . . then nothing else matters quite as much as that one fact. Why? Because we know we can trust him . . . with our families . . . with our personal destinies . . . with everything that is important to us. We can face the future confidently . . . triumphantly . . . if Christ is King.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. President Nixon acclaimed it as the greatest event since the Creation. Armstrong himself, as he took the last step from the ladder of his lunar module onto the moon’s surface, said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

A devout Christian, Armstrong later visited the Old City of Jerusalem. At the Hulda Gate, which leads to the Temple Mount, Armstrong wanted to know if Jesus had walked on those very steps. Assured that he did, Armstrong said, “I have to tell you, I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.” Why was he so excited? Because Christ is King of all creation . . . the earth, the moon and the stars.

Is Christ the King of your life? If he is, does it show?