Contrast this with Christ the King. In fact if you need a strong image to emphasize the point imagine a beautiful icon of Christ which then has mud thrown all over it! Shocking? Scandalous? That is nothing compared with the passion and death of Christ on the cross and it is there that he is proclaimed 'The King of the Jews'. A very different image of kingship: one of involvement, emptying of power, empathy and self sacrifice. This is the kingship of the incarnation.

There is a true story of a mediaeval Scottish king who wanted to know what it was like to be a peasant in his kingdom and so against the advice of all around him he dressed as a peasant and went into the villages to experience life in his kingdom. This is what we celebrate in the kingship of Christ: God made man, walking amongst us to experience what it is like to be part of His creation. And that meant getting involved. That meant getting muddy! Muddy with love, healing and forgiveness through being prepared to be involved in peoples' lives. In contrast to the teenage TV character to be bothered!

And we are called to follow this example in the way that we live our own lives. Imagine that scene from the Monty Python film with someone walking past not covered in mud and one muddy peasant saying to another 'That must be a Christian because they are the only ones not covered in mud!' How wrong would that be? As followers of Christ we are called to get our hands dirty, to get involved through loving God and our neighbour rather than standing aloof.

When I was at school, football was never really my strong point and part of that was my reluctance to get involved. My football kit would always be very clean at the end of the game! In contrast my brother was always covered in mud, always getting involved in the action. In terms of our faith we are called to follow the example of Christ and get involved so that when the day comes when we must give account to our king we will be covered in mud but be happy!