A King Who Has Power to Save

 The soldiers, who did not believe in Jesus, said to Him in mockery: “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” (Luke 23.35-43). For them, salvation meant worldly welfare, bodily health. A true king, for them, must have a good life himself and be able to provide a good life to his subjects.

The not-so-good thief, for his part, did have faith. He knew perhaps that there was another life, but he was interested in this life only “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” As if he were saying, “what’s the point of having power if you do not use it to avoid suffering? Is there any meaning in this suffering?”

Jesus is a King who can save from the spiritual death of sin and from the eternal death of hell; Jesus can destroy also corporeal death and give Eternal Life in Heaven to our bodies also. But in order to overcome his enemies, sin and death, this King needed to fight. He needed to rescue His subjects from sin, and the only way to do it was by taking upon Himself the sacrifice of reconciliation. “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” (Colossians 1.12-20). Because of our sins, we were not pure enough to offer this sacrifice: this is why He became man, to offer Himself as a peace offering through His blood.

1. Jesus did not become a King to save Himself, but to save us. He showed His power to save from sin by His miracles. When He said to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” He was questioned, “Who can forgive sins except God Himself?” and so He said, “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.” Jesus proved by His miracles His divine power to forgive sins.

By his miracles, He also showed that He had power to give eternal life: this is why in the Gospel we see Jesus raising three people from the dead, and then He Himself arises from the tomb. Our King can save us not only from sickness but also from death itself.

Most importantly, Jesus not only can save, but wants to save. He showed His willingness to give us everything by His death on a cross. God wanted to save us from sin and death so that we may love Him forever, but in order to convince us to love Him, He decided to love us first, to the point of death. From the cross, He cries out, “This is what I did to obtain the forgiveness of your sins. The cross was a sacrifice of Reconciliation. You could not do it, because of your sins. I could not do it, because, as God, I cannot suffer. So, remaining what I was, I became man as well, so that I could offer in my flesh the sacrifice you yourself could not offer. Now, if you are sorry for your sins, there is a sacrifice you can offer.”

2. However, we cannot be saved without our own suffering. The suffering of Jesus was not meant to replace our suffering, but to enable our own suffering to be meaningful and redemptive. “In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). Departing from sin is difficult and painful. Becoming good, holy people, does not happen without facing temptation, challenges and even persecution. There is no crown without victory, and no victory without fight. But thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we have now hope to succeed in the fight. He made us members of His own Body in Baptism; He gave us forgiveness, instruction, example, encouragement and the strength needed to overcome all of our sins and to be good, good like Him, because we are one with Him.

3. Jesus is the only King that can make you good and, therefore, happy. Earthly kings may give you money (if they can and when they want), but money does not make you good. Money may give you the approval of human beings, for a while, but it cannot give you God’s approval. Earthly kings may allow you to indulge in pleasures: “do what you want with yourself, as long as you don’t bother the rest of us too much!” But pleasures do not make you good, because they do not last; whoever looks for happiness in pleasure (I am not talking about those trapped in an addiction, but about those who truly think that life is about pleasure, or having fun, and does not make any sense without it), becomes a slave of pleasure, because that person is obliged to keep looking for new pleasures every day, in order to not face the painful truth that he is not happy, that he is not good: he needs pleasure to at least feel good about himself, he needs pleasure now to escape for a moment the dreadful truth that he will die and pleasure will end. This is not happiness.

4. Jesus, the true and only King, can promise true happiness, true fulfilment, true joy, because He can forgive our sins and make us good. Whoever is touched by God in this way, cannot be touched by the flames of hell, and passes unharmed through all the evils of this world. The Christian will suffer, surely, as everyone does; but he will never be alone, he will always be loved and approved by God, Who will look at him everyday and say, “this is my good boy, in whom I am well pleased.” In this sense, Jesus is the only one who can give what everybody wants: true affirmation. This affirmation is true because it is based on the unconditional love of God. Unconditional, not because it can be received without repentance, but because, if you are willing to repent, there is no sin that God cannot forgive. God’s love is unconditional, but it is still love: love cannot be received against one’s own will.

Jesus is a King who, by means of a temporary suffering, delivers us from eternal suffering. Suffering is necessary for the purification of our souls but, precisely because of that, it becomes the means to be truly happy, truly good. Jesus is a King who makes us truly good on earth, in our spirit, and will make us perfectly good and happy in Heaven, in both body and spirit. Jesus is the only King who deserves our vote. May we serve Him alone.