The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – November 26, 2023

Church of the Magdalen – Wichita, KS

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; Psalm 23:1-3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46

[Video coming soon]

The Rescue

Back in 2018 there was that very famous event of the rescue of those twelve boys and their coach from a cave in Thailand. Couple years ago, National Geographic released a documentary called “The Rescue”—which is incredibly done. Best documentary I’ve ever seen.

What happened, as you probably remember—the basics of it at least: there was this youth soccer team in Thailand, twelve boys, teenage boys, and their twenty-five year old coach. After practice one day they go to explore these caves. And it’s not like they’re doing dangerous things; they’re very well-known caves, it’s like a national park, people do this all the time—it’s what you do. 

But that day, when they’re about two and a half miles deep in this cave system … the monsoon season in Thailand decides to show up a few months early. And the caves flood. And these boys are trapped, two and a half miles deep in these caves. Luckily they’re able to find a place above the water level; they take shelter on a little shelf in the cave. So they’re above the water line, but they know it’s not going to be too pretty for too long.

So here’s the thing: they are fully aware—fully aware that they were stuck. They had the self-awareness and self-honesty to acknowledge: “We’re trapped.” There was no way they were going to get themselves out of this situation. They knew that they were in a helpless situation. And all they could do, all they could do was to hope and to pray, to hope against hope, that someone would come to rescue them.

Eventually, people on the outside figure out what is going on, figure out these boys are missing, trapped in these caves. And the Thai Navy Seals are called in. And they try to figure out a way to rescue them. But they quickly realize they are not equipped to do this. So they call in exactly who you would expect: an I.T. specialist and a retired fireman, both from “ol’ Blighty,” ol’ Great Britain—cave diving was just their hobby. Seriously. (Now, granted, these guys were regarded as some of the most accomplished cave divers in the world. But cave diving isn’t exactly a money maker, doesn’t exactly bring home the bacon. So it’s just a hobby.) And yet they’re the two most-revered cave divers in the world. And overnight, these two guys became the most important people in the entire world.

When they got to Thailand they assessed the situation, and after a few days they wove their way underwater through this maze of caves and found the boys. It wasn’t hard for them; they’re good at what they do. But finding them was the easy part.

Once they got there, they realized that the only way to get the boys out was going to be to dive them out; underwater, through two and a half miles through this maze of caves. They were going to have to dive these boys, underwater, two and a half miles, through some of the narrowest, most treacherous passages they had ever been in. They talked about drilling a hole through the mountain and pull them out, you know, Chilean Miners style. But that was a no-go. And so they knew: “The only we can get them out is to dive them out.”

The monsoons are coming, though. The caves would fill with water completely within a few days. So it was  decision time. They had to decide: are we going to try to get these boys out underwater through these caves, or are we just going to leave them there to die? Do we try to get them out underwater, in which case its very likely that they could die (it’s not a safe thing to do this)? Or do we let them sit there and die anyway?

The problem was this: if you’re going to try to get a bunch of fifteen year old boys to cave dive for the first time…it’s not going to go well. Just the anxiety from it! Just imagine (and maybe don’t if it’s going to give you an anxiety attack here today)—but imagine putting on all of this scuba gear and then trying to crawl through and swim through all of these very tight, very claustrophobic passages—underwater. They recognized—it takes experienced cave divers years to be able to pull things like this off! And they have two days with these boys. You’re not going to do it. They’re going to have an anxiety attack, they’re going to freak out, they’re going to pull their mask off, and they’re going to drown. So how are they going to get them, move them underwater through these caves?

And so they do what you would naturally do (I know you were already thinking of it). They called up their anesthesiologist friend in Great Britain (who is also a hobby cave diver). And they say, “Hey! We need you to come knock these boys out so we can dive them out.” And that’s exactly what they did! The anesthesiologist flies in, dives two and a half miles back to these boys. First he gives them a Xanax—of course, trying to calm them down, calm the anxiety. Then in one leg he gives them a shot of Atropine—which dries up your mouth, so they don’t drown in their own saliva while this is going on. And then a shot of Ketamine in the other leg to knock them out. Then what they do is put an airtight oxygen mask on them so they can breath, put them in an airtight body bag, and start swimming out with a boy in tow through the tunnels. And it worked!

The thing of it though is this (that’s the cool part, but this is the important part for us): there these boys were, sitting on a little shelf in these caves for almost ten days—just sitting in this cave. When all of a sudden two heads pop out of the water in front of them. And they don’t know these guys from Adam; no clue who these guys are. They couldn’t call someone and ask, “Hey, are these guys legit?” They can’t Google them. All they can do is say, “Well, here you are. You have been able to navigate the waters and the tunnels. Guess you’re the ones we can trust.” Again, it’s incredible how literally and so effortlessly they entrust their lives to them: “Let me get this straight: you want to knock us out, put us in a body bag, and drag us through the water? Ok, whatever you say. We’ll do it!” 

These boys literally entrust their entire lives to them, literally surrender their entire lives into their hands. Why? Because if they can get through these caves to get to us, you must be able to get us through them and get us out. This is one of the most powerful images I have ever experienced for what it is that Jesus has done for us, AND what he is asking from us. 

The American Dream vs. Loyal Subjects (Faith)

When we celebrate a solemnity like this (Jesus Christ, King of the Universe) it’s easy for us to get rubbed the wrong way: we don’t do the whole “king” thing very well. We live our lives in fierce pursuit of autonomy: “I am in charge of my own life, not some king!”

Can we be real for a second? Can we be honest with each other? How do most of us evaluate our situation in life? How do most of us see the world? Fill in the blank, “I know that things are good in my life when________ .” Many of us evaluate our life, our children’s lives, our family’s life through the lens of? The American Dream. Life is good if I have a good job, if I make X number of dollars. Life is good if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. Life is good if I get a good house, a nice car. Life is good if my retirement is looking good. And on the flip side: life is bad if I don’t make enough money, if the Chiefs lose, if I don’t have a good enough house or car. Do you see that? We have this narrative, this idea in our head that a “good life” is the American Dream.

But how’s that going for us? What is the fruit of this “tree”? If we look around, we see things falling apart, more and more and more. And not just “the county” or “the economy.” Very personally! We see communities falling apart, schools falling apart, families falling apart, marriages falling apart, kids lives falling apart. I don’t think I need to defend those statements—but I will. In 2018, the life expectancy in the United States dropped for the third straight year. Why? Because of what sociologists called the “deaths of despair”: drug-related fatalities, cirrhosis of the liver (so alcohol), and (the one that gets me) suicide. I doubt there is anyone here that hasn’t been affected by at least one of these. And it’s heartbreaking. I mean, among 10-14 year olds, the second leading cause of death…is suicide (it’s up 300% since 2000). Back in Lyons where I’m the pastor, the data from our high school says that over 50% of high schools kids have seriously contemplated suicide in the past year—25% have attempted it. I got a call last Saturday: one of my parishioners’ 12 year old granddaughter committed suicide. And if not that, people are just numbing out: binge-watching TV shows on Netflix, the infinite scroll on social media, the infinite rabbit hole on YouTube, twelve hours of football on Sunday. People are numbing out and giving up. So perhaps—perhaps something is off.

Maybe, if we had the eyes to see—we could see ourselves in a similar position as those boys in the caves of Thailand: stuck, helpless, in need of something, Someone to whom we can entrust our lives, who can rescue us. And that’s precisely what this solemnity is getting at! I mean, just the second reading alone: Jesus isn’t just a nice guy teaching us to be nice people! As Paul makes very clear: Jesus is the one who has passed through death, and come out the other side alive. Like those divers, he knows how to navigate that! Maybe he can handle our lives too. Maybe, he is the one that can help us navigate our lives. And not by us being nicer! But by us literally entrusting, surrendering our lives into his hands. That is who this king is! The one who rescues, the one who saves—saves us from this situation we find ourselves in.

Our Shepherd King

That’s who this King is! If you read our first reading and the psalm, you begin to see a portrait of this king being revealed. In that first reading from Ezekiel, these words are addressed to a whole class of rulers, the kings and the priests—failed rules. The people are dying, being taken into exile, the unity of God’s people is splintering. But into that nightmare, the Lord speaks these words: “Thus says the LORD: I myself will look after my sheep…I will rescue them…I will pasture my sheep; I will give them rest.” This king isn’t like the kings and leaders we know today. This king is a shepherd, looking after us, caring for us, rescuing us, giving us rest.

Everyone’s favorite Psalm is this Psalm we have today, right? Psalm 23! “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” But have you ever actually read it? If the Lord is “my shepherd,” that means that according to that metaphor you are a…sheep. Which always makes me chuckle, because I don’t know if you’ve ever met a sheep or know anything about sheep: sheep are dumb! This is not a compliment, not a flattering image!

Sheep are just very curious creatures. Sheep have no defense mechanisms: they have no claws, no fangs, they can’t run fast, they don’t have something to defend them like porcupines. Sheep are absolutely defenseless, helpless balls of fluff. The only defense mechanism that a sheep has is the shepherd! That’s it. And that’s why this is such a beautiful Psalm. Because as the Psalmist (as David) says, “The Lord”—God himself—“that’s my shepherd. And because He is…I’m alright. I’m not afraid. I don’t need to fear.”

But this is where we need to keep reading (even though it’s the one line we didn’t hear from it)! The Psalm goes on to say, “…there is nothing I shall want because God will protect me from the circumstances of life and nothing bad will ever happen to me.” That’s not the promise! What does he say? “Even though.” “EVEN THOUGH I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil.” NOT, “I shall not want because God will protect me from the dark valley.” No. But because “even when I’m in the dark valley, the darkness of the caves”—the death of a spouse, cancer, struggling with an addiction, losing my job, money, my children being ding-a-lings, whatever it is—“even though I pass through these dark valleys, I don’t fear it, I have no anxiety.” Why? Because my life, your life, our lives no longer have to be in the hands of all of these fake “kings”: a doctor’s diagnosis, or the economy, or the government, or ANY CIRCUMSTANCE we tend to think our lives are in the hands of. Our lives can be in HIS hands! The hands of our Shepherd. The hands of our king. 

Like those boys in the cave, helpless, defenseless—they had no fear, because passing through the dark caves, their lives were in the hands of good shepherds.

Friends, this is our challenge today. The challenge is simple, the decision clear. Will we abandon all of these projects for self-improvement and self-fulfillment and self-care? All of these projects for personal perfection—which are only driving us into darkness? And will we confidently entrust our lives to the Good Shepherd, to Christ our King?