The King Is Coming

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.