The hymn for today, the Feast of St. Thomas, according to the Treasury of Daily Prayer, is The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns:

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light triumphant breaks,
When beauty gilds the eastern hills
And life to joy awakes.

Not as of old a little child,
To bear and fight and die,
But crowned with glory like the sun
That lights the morning sky.

Oh, brighter than the rising morn
When Christ, victorious, rose
And left the lonesome place of death
Despite the rage of foes.

Oh, brighter than the glorious morn
Shall dawn upon our race
The day when Christ in splendor comes
And we shall see His face.

The King shall come when morning dawns
And light and beauty brings
Hail, Christ the Lord! Your people pray: Come quickly, King of kings!
~ John Brownlie (1859-1925), LSB 348

This is an Advent hymn that not only acknowledges and confesses the Incarnation, but looks forward to our Lord’s majestic return in glory. His birth as King of kings is beautifully interwoven with the eschatological vision of His return in glory and eternal reign.

This Christus Rex theme runs throughout our hymnody, as Jesus is referred to as “King” more than 170 times in the hymns included in LSB.

In our contemporary American setting, we not only have a “War on Christmas,” we have a “War on the Kingship of Jesus.” It has become controversial in some cultural settings to confess Jesus as King - even though this is a continual and unbroken theme in centuries of our Christmas hymns and carols: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, Angels from the Realms of Glory, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard on High, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Joy to the World - and these are just the well-known, traditional Christmas hymns in LSB.

And this is not including the use of the title “Lord” - which is, of course, both a divine and regal epithet.

The world will tolerate a safe and unthreatening Jesus, a Christ character that is nice, inclusive, and politically correct. The world will even begrudgingly accept a Jesus that is a teacher, so long as He is indeed nice, inclusive, and politically correct - especially concerning sexuality. But the world bristles at the suggestion that Jesus is King - let alone King of the Universe and Lord of all. In fact, saying so, we are now told, is, as the kids say: “Not OK!” Confessing Jesus as King is not nice, inclusive, and politically correct. According to the offended, it is anti-Semitic, Christocentric, and probably also a manifestation of white supremacy, Christian Nationalism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and (why not?) menu anxiety.

The targeting of the confession of Christ as King as offensive is not a new phenomenon. The fear and loathing of it is recorded in Scripture.

And yet, Christianity itself is impossible without this confession that Jesus is King, for He has called us into His kingdom. And, of course, this confession is going to be offensive to those who do not recognize His kingdom and His Kingship. Far be it from Christians to shy away from confessing the kingdom and our King. Blessed are those who are not offended by Him!

This denial of King Jesus by the world is also the origin of the terms BCE and CE as replacements for BC and AD. For the Anno Domini (the Year of our Lord) system of the calendar year is a recognition of King Jesus. We no longer order our days by Caesars and tribunes, by princes and kings, nor even by presidents and congresses and the years of the independence of these United States - but rather by the Kingship of Jesus. Obviously, not everyone submits to His rule. At least not yet. And while those who deny His rule - those who deny the reality of nature, those who deny the right to life - fear even the theoretical possibility of a Christian nation. But this is the least of their fears. For Jesus has come to rule the entire universe. And nobody can stop this from happening. Changing the label attached to the universal numerical reckoning of the year from AD to CE, is not only silly, but it is a pathetic attempt to slur the King as “common” (a theological term that is the opposite of “holy”). Satan is such a pathetic and shrunken creature!

Christmas is not about red-nosed reindeer, talking snowmen, or the Grinch. It is all about our King: His Incarnation, His birth, His life, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His return. It is about His redemption of creation as the Creator and the Redeemer. It is about His victory, His reign, His rule: “Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!” Jesus Christ is David’s Son: the King of Israel. He is David’s Lord: the God of Israel.

The last mention of the word “King” in Holy Scripture refers to Him:

And as we sing in the opening stanza of the very first hymn in LSB:

The advent of our King
Our prayers must now employ,
And we must hymns of welcome sing
In strains of holy joy.
~ Charles Coffin (1676-1749), LSB 331

Christ is King!