"King Without a Crown" | The Rev. Heidi Thorsen | October 26, 2025
Sermon Preached: Sunday, October 26, 2025 at Trinity on the Green
Year C, Proper 25: Sirach 35:12-17 or Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22 | Psalm 84:1-6 | 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 | Luke 18:9-14
May I speak in the name of God, who is to us Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
When I was a child, my family had a cabinet full of board games. One of many options that we could play was the game, Pretty Pretty Princess. I don’t remember the mechanism of the game, so much as I remember the materials that went along with it. Each player had a set of jewelry in a color of their choice: pink, yellow, blue, or green. As the game progressed, the players would earn more and more of those items– a ring, a bracelet, a necklace– until at last the winner of the game sealed her (or his) victory with an ornate plastic crown. More often than not, this game devolved into a simpler game of dress-up. But I still remember that plastic crown, and the unmistakable allure that it held.
What is it about human beings and crowns?
Crowns are a man-made thing– a human-made device that we have used for millennia to signify power, status, and authority. The concept of crowns and kingship was widely known in the thousand years of history covered in the Old Testament– from roughly 1400 to 400 before the time of Christ. In fact the arc of the Old Testament is more or less a story of failed kingship, as God’s chosen people consolidated their identity in a monarchy that eventually fell apart. The kingdom of Israel fractured in two, and the kings of Israel increasingly did acts that were “evil in the sight of the Lord,” as the phrase goes in the books of 1 and 2 Kings.
But the story of crowns in the Bible does not end there. Before long, it wasn’t the Israelite kings who were wearing the crowns, but rather those who held power over the Israelites: the kings of Assyria and Babylon. By the time we get to the story of Jesus, the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed completely, and the southern kingdom of Judea had become a province of the Roman Empire.
Now the Roman Emperors were people who understood the value of crowns. They understood that the principle value of crowns wasn’t in gold or silver, but in what they represented: absolute power over others. After the fall of the Roman Republic the earliest emperors, starting with Augustus in 27 BC, were at first hesitant to use the symbol of a crown. People might catch on to their project of centralizing power. Gradually, the imagery of crowns crept in– initially as a wreath, and later as an elaborately crafted crown of jewels.
The writers of the New Testament knew about crowns. They would have recognized the crown of the emperor on coins like the denarius, and on statues that advertised Roman military might. And they also knew about the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus’ head at his crucifixion, as a mockery of “Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews.”
In today’s reading from 2 Timothy, the apostle Paul (the great apologist of Christianity) talks about a different type of crown. Paul writes, “I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
What does Paul mean when he writes about this crown of righteousness? And how is this crown different from the crown of monarchy, and the crown of empire?
I did a quick Google search about crowns in the Bible, and was quickly horrified by the kinds of interpretations that people have placed on this text. Evangelical theologians in particular have used this verse, along with other appearances of the word “crown” in the New Testament, to develop a theology of five crowns that believers are rewarded with when they go to heaven:
The Victor’s Crown (1 Cor 9:25-27)
The Crown of Rejoicing (1 Thess 2:19)
The Crown of Righteousness (2 Tim 4:8) - that’s the one we read about today
The Crown of Life (James 1:12; Rev 2:10)
The Crown of Glory (1 Peter 5:4)
Each of these crowns does have a scriptural reference in the New Testament– I’m not contesting that these are Biblical ideas. What is disturbing to me is how Christians have interpreted these verses literally, instead of seeing every crown for what it truly was: a ironic critique of Roman imperial authority. Instead, this theology of the five crowns reads the Bible as if it were some kind of prize catalogue for heaven, outlining the various kinds of heavenly crowns that people can attain for good deeds done on earth. This theology puts far too much emphasis on the afterlife, as if salvation only relates to what happens when we die. And this theology also runs the risk of turning religious practice into a game, as if we could earn our own salvation. This is the game that the Pharisee chooses to play in today’s Gospel passage, when he boasts about his own righteousness.
But here’s the thing: Christianity isn’t a game. We aren’t competing to earn the crown of righteousness, or the crown of glory. This isn’t Pretty Pretty Princess. Instead, Christianity is a way. It is a pathway charted first by Jesus Christ, the author and perfector of our salvation. The way that Jesus lived was antithetical to the way of kings, and the way of empire. While the Roman Empire promised economic flourishing for a few, Jesus broke bread and shared fish with strangers, making sure there was enough for everyone. While the Roman Empire secured its authority through violence, Jesus proclaimed blessing to the peacemakers.
Jesus was a king without a crown. He never asked for a crown; he never wanted a crown– whether it was made of thorns, or a laurel wreath, or gold and silver and jewels. And why would Jesus want a crown, anyways? The crown of the Roman Empire symbolized inequality and oppression. Crowns represent the opposite of Jesus’ Gospel– a Gospel that speaks of a kingdom where monarchy is flipped on its head; where everyone is invited to have a seat at the table of grace; where power is found not in pride but in humility.
How far we have strayed from the Christianity of Jesus’ time. How sad that the empires of today are often Christian ones– a fact that doesn’t make them any more holy, but only reveals how far we have wandered from the way of Jesus. That, my friends, is the sin of Christian nationalism: that Christianity has become the very system of oppression that put Jesus on the cross.
It is oh-so-tempting to point a finger at that sin, and leave it at that. But that is not the only lesson that we can take away from today’s scripture readings. Take a look again at our Gospel passage for today. The Pharisee is an example of what not to be. He stands alone by himself, proclaiming his own righteousness while pointing a finger at the sins of others. And then there is the tax collector– the example, in this story, of a better way. Rather than pointing his finger at other people’s sins, the tax collector reflects on his own actions and his own responsibility, praying out loud: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
We are all sinners. We have all sought false crowns of some sort or another. The crown of popularity, the crown of power, the crown of enlightened ideology, the crown of ignorance. Take your crowns, and cast them at the feet of Jesus, the king without a crown. Turn away from all kinds of superiority, those engrained in our society, and those that have grown up like weeds in human hearts.
The way of Jesus is not compatible with the way of kings. Choose the way of Jesus. Walk with your feet in the dirt as Jesus did, remembering we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Don’t simply seek to make yourself look good, but do good– weighing the needs of others alongside your own. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might, and love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t ask yourself what crowns you will earn in heaven. Instead, ask yourself what would Jesus do? Live not for yourself alone, but for Christ Jesus– who chose the crown of humanity over the crown of kingship, and showed us a better way. This is the path of salvation– for you, for your neighbor, for your enemy, for all of creation. Amen.
Works Referenced:
Borg, Marcus J. “Christians in an Age of Empire, Then and Now.” 17 May 2008. Accessed 23 Oct 2025. marcusjborg.org/videos/christians-in-an-age-of-empire-then-and-now/.
Jeremiah, David. “Royal Rewards: 5 Crowns for Believers.” Accessed 23 Oct 2025. www.davidjeremiah.org/age-of-signs/royal-rewards-5-crowns-for-believers?id=4&srsltid=AfmBOopLMrlD8wDIFN_2bVnXxpVvVTL6WSfT5sDWmhzSZgK3vlHcrIDB.
Smith, Claire. “Adorned in Divinity.” Memphis, TN: Rhodes College. Accessed 23 Oct 2025. sites.rhodes.edu/coins/adorned-divinity.