Christ the King: “Alpha and Omega”

26 Nov.2006

Revelation 1.4b-8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God. This title for God, taken from the Book of Revelation, is one of the deepest and most profound ways the Bible has of describing God, and explaining just who the Lord Jesus Christ really is. On this last Sunday of the church year, the Festival of Christ the King, and a day when several of our young people will affirm their baptismal vows in the rite of confirmation, let us take a few moments to reflect on that phrase, “Alpha and Omega,” and see what it might teach us Christ our King.

We should begin by saying that the phrase “alpha and omega” is used three times in the Bible, all three of them in the Book of Revelation. Two of those times, the author is clearly talking about the Lord God, whom we would call “God the Father”; the third time he is equally clearly talking about Jesus Christ. So one reason he has for using the phrase is to emphasize that Jesus Christ is truly God. We call Christ our King on this day, but it is not an earthly, human king that we have in mind; it is the Lord himself, the king of heaven and earth. In this morning's gospel lesson we hear that wonderful incident with Jesus before Pilate; Pilate cannot comprehend how this lowly Nazarene carpenter can be the king of anything. But what Christians mean when we call Christ our King is that he is in fact God, the Lord. He is not just a wise teacher, not just a prophet, not just the founder of our religion, but he is Alpha and Omega, the Lord God Almighty.

Now the phrase “Alpha and Omega” has three different meanings. The words themselves, of course, are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, equivalent in our language to “A and Z.” So the most basic meaning of God as “Alpha and Omega” is that he is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. When we say that he is the beginning, we mean very simply that before anything existed, before the earth was formed, before the sun shone or the stars sparkled, there was God. He had no beginning, because he was always there—always! Nothing came into existence without him. He is before everything that exists.

And when we say that God is the end, we mean that he will always be there, even if the world should come to an end. He will never go out of existence. He will outlast everything! Our lives are transitory. We begin at a point in time, we last for a certain number of years, and then we die. But that is not the case with God. He was, and is, and is to come.

We said a moment ago that when we use the terms “Alpha and Omega,” we mean not just God the Father, but Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end. That is a very important thing for us to know. Jesus was not just a flash in the pan, a moment of history that occurred long ago and to which we look back with fondness and inspiration. Jesus Christ was there in the beginning, before the creation of the world. And he will be there at the end. We know that in Jesus, we are seeing God, so to speak, on our level. In Jesus, God became one of us in order to draw us to Himself. But that same Jesus who is so dear to us is the very one who is the beginning and the end! No matter what happens to us, no matter what may happen to us, he is constant, he is there. He will be there if this old world should finally blow itself up. He will be there if tragedy strikes you or me. He will be there if we are lost or lonely. No matter what may happen in our lives, Christ is there, and he will never leave us; because he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, not just of the world, but of our own life.

There is a second meaning of “Alpha and Omega.” For the Greeks, the term implied not just the beginning and the end, but everything in between. It’s like when we say, “That store has everything from A to Z.” It means that the store has everything you can possibly imagine, from the first to the last and everything in between. In the same way, saying that Christ is Alpha and Omega means that Christ is everything that we need. There is nothing we can possibly require that Christ does not provide. There is no wisdom necessary beyond what Christ offers. There is no power or authority beyond what Christ has. When we feel weak and in trouble, there is no strength we need beyond what Christ gives. He is our joy, our strength, our mercy; he is our love, our life, our salvation. He is “all in all” for us.

There is yet a third meaning in the phrase “Alpha and Omega.” In the other passages in Revelation where the phrase is used, it is followed immediately by the terms “the first and the last.” The Greek words for those ideas are significant. The term for “first” is arch; it is the word from which our English word “architect” comes. It means more than just “first,” it means “source.” God is the source of all things. A building takes shape in the mind of the architect, before a board is cut or a site is cleared. And that is the way it is with all our lives! There is a purpose, a plan, a design that God has in mind for us. He is the source of all things, and that means that all the universe comes from him and by his intention.

You know, we are quick to grasp the idea that God has a purpose for the universe, but sometimes it is not so easy to realize that he has a purpose for us. The Psalmist puts it this way: “In thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were made for me when as yet there were none of them.” Yes, God is the source of our life, and as the source, he is the architect, the planner, the designer. All life comes from him—our life comes from him, is known by him, planned by him.

And then the Greek word for “last” is teloV, and it really means more than just the final thing. It means the fulfillment. You might think about it this way: for the Greeks, the teloV of the acorn is the oak tree. The acorn, if it fulfills its purpose and intention, is to be an oak tree. Everything in its life, if we may say an acorn has a life, is moving toward that goal, that destiny. To say that God is Omega, the last, means that this universe he has created is moving in a certain direction, and it is toward him. The purpose that he has for it and for us will be fulfilled, and the purpose is to glorify him. This is a powerful reminder that however senseless things may sometimes seem to us, they do in fact have a purpose, a direction. There is meaning in all of this, even if we cannot always see it from where we sit.

This special day called “Christ the King” is one of the newest days on the church's calendar. It dates back only to 1925, when Pope Pius XI introduced it in the Roman Catholic Church, and Protestants fairly soon followed suit. The date is interesting. In 1925, the world had just gone through a great World War. Everything was in shambles. In the century preceding that war, many Christians had a very optimistic view of human nature and history. The world was making progress and everything looked great. World War I pulled the rug out from under the theologians. All of a sudden the world didn't look so rosy, and humankind didn't look so benevolent, and it wasn't at all clear that human beings were really making any progress at all. Among many Christian theologians, it was an era of disappointment and fundamental rethinking of things.

In that kind of crisis, the focusing of attention on Christ as King at the end of the church year was a remarkable and salutary thing. It said that even in tragedy and disaster, even in the midst of human evil and suffering, even in times of doubt and confusion, Christ is King. Christ is the meaning, the purpose of life. Christ is the direction of the universe. And so today this festival stands at the end of the Christian year as a strong symbol that this year—and every year!—comes to completion and fulfillment with us falling down before the throne of Christ and acknowledging him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. For our Lord Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega: He is the beginning and the end; he is everything that we might need or desire; he is the source and fulfillment of all that we are. Christ is the King! Amen.