The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
The promises are over a thousand
years old, and all of the prophecies have led to this moment. But the words have been
misunderstood at best, and forgotten at worst. The world hustles busily and
noisily along, and the hardly anyone notices as it happens. A child is born in
a stable in a nowhere backward town that only Micah could have noted and no one could have
remembered. Behold the King.
The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
He heals the sick, he gives sight to the
blind, he makes the lame walk… and they ask: could it be him? He proclaims the
good news of a new kingdom that is already here, but not yet fully arrived, but he
speaks in parables and stories… and they ask: isn’t there something different
about the way this rabbi speaks? He preaches with authority, but lives in
humility; he fights sin, but lives in radical peace; he casts out demons, but
welcomes sinners; he comforts the afflicted, and he afflicts the comfortable… and
they ask: by what authority does he do these things? Behold the King.
The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
A handful of disciples spread their
coats on the ground before him, wave palm branches at him, and sing a song or
two of deliverance. But as he approaches the temple, it is empty. No welcoming
party, no glorious fulfillment, no pregnant expectation… just empty. He takes a
short look around, and then he leaves. Behold the King.
The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
But this time people are watching.
They watch as my Jesus is beaten and whipped. They watch as my Jesus carries
his cross through the streets. They watch as he is insulted, spit upon, and
reviled. They watch as he collapses under the weight of the cross. They watch
as he is led up the hill of Golgotha. They watch as he is nailed to the cross
and lifted up in shame and agony. They watch and they curse him as he blesses
and forgives them. They watch as the world chokes the life from the only one
who can save them from death. They watch as he is called a king, and they spit at the name. They watch as he dies. They watch as his side is pierced. They fear when the
earth shakes, the sun hides its face, and the curtain of the temple is torn in
two. Behold the King.
The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
They had run—scared for their lives
they scattered like sheep without a shepherd. They had hid—fearing that they
would meet the same fate as their master. They had given up—the one they had
followed was dead, the hope they had shared was nailed to a tree and thrown in
a tomb. They had watched God die. What else was there but despair? As Sabbath
ended, the women went to provide a proper burial for their master. But he was
not there. The stone was rolled away. Behold the King.
The King is coming… but the world
doesn’t even realize it.
The disciples watched as he returned
to his heavenly throne, and they spent their lives—every remaining year, month,
day, hour, second, breath—proclaiming his glory and salvation only to be executed and
exiled every one. They preached it in every town, they wrote it down for all to
read, and they passed down the stories as faithfully as they could. And yet, the
world is once again hustling busily and noisily along. And it will be a day
just like this one when it happens—because my Jesus is coming soon. Will you be ready to behold
the King?
Because the King is coming.
This meditation was given on Palm Sunday 2013 at the Rochester Church of Christ.
