2 Samuel 23.1-7; John 18.33-38
"Are we there yet?”
The proverbial question of a child on a long trip …
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| Huntington Gardens |
And it’s a long trip for us every year … from Advent, 2023, to this, the last Sunday of the year …
Yup, you heard me correctly … the last Sunday of the year, the church year!
It begins with Advent … and ends with Christ the King Sunday!
Kings play an important role in the Bible …
Before there were kings, there were judges … women and men called in the moment to lead God’s people.
You know some of their names … Samson … Jephthah …Gideon … Deborah … and Samuel …
The story of the judges ends abruptly … In those days, there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
The people go to Samuel and beg for a king, like all the other nations, they say!
We need a king - a strong man on the throne, someone to rule decisively, law and order, manage our affairs, protect the nation, expand the realm.
Samuel puts it to the people - Are you sure this is what you want?
Kings take, says Samuel, and never give … you will belong to the king, and the king will do with you as the king pleases - your property, your children, whatever the king wants. And on that day, you’ll cry out to God, and guess what, God won’t pay any attention to you …
The people say to Samuel, Baloney! We want a king …
Samuel goes to the LORD, and the LORD says to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and set a king over them.
And that’s exactly what Samuel does … about a thousand years before Jesus … the first King of Israel, King Saul … a good guy, but not suited for a throne.
Then comes David, a gifted leader, a shepherd and a poet, a warrior-king … 40 years on the throne … peace and power … though he has issues with Bathsheba … and the story goes downhill from there …
Upon David’s death, his son, Solomon, accedes to the throne.
Solomon, noted for his wisdom, his many wives, foreign entanglements, and cruelties … it’s Solomon who builds the temple, but at great cost to the people … after Solomon’s death, the nation falls apart … north and south, Samaria and Jerusalem … the north often called Israel, the south, called Judea …
The northern kingdom is destroyed by Assyria in the year 720, before Jesus … the southern kingdom holds on until 586, before Jesus, when Babylon destroys Jerusalem and hauls thousands into captivity …
That is pretty much the end of the affair … some 50 years later, after Persia conquers Babylon, the ruler allows many of the Judeans to return, to what was left of Jerusalem … the Temple is rebuilt, but it’s a shadow of its former glory.
In 332 before Jesus, Alexander the Great conquers Jerusalem … in the year 63 before Jesus, Rome captures Jerusalem … and installs puppet kings … at the time Jesus is born, we have Herod the Great - sitting on the throne, at Rome’s pleasure … Herod the Great and Caesar Augustus get along just fine … the Pax Romana prevails … prosperity abounds.
Herod rebuilds the Temple lavishly … not everyone likes the arrangement … some abandon Jerusalem to live in the wilderness, far away from the noise and politics of the city … these are the folks who write what we now call the Dead Sea Scrolls …
Lots of other people make their own arrangements with the powers that be … the Sadducees are satisfied, and make some money … the Pharisees find relief in the Temple and their prayers … the Zealots are revolutionaries, and Barabbas is likely one of their own …
When Herod the Great hears of a royal birth in Bethlehem, he goes nuts … he orders the death of children two and under.
When Herod the Great dies … Herod’s three sons divide up the kingdom:
Herod Antipas rules Galilee and the east bank; Philip has the Golan heights in the north-east; and Archelaus governs Samaria and Judaea.
With all this, we’re into the New Testament … these are the rulers Jesus knows …
When Jesus is arrested, and questioned by Pilate, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas, because Jesus is a Galilean … Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate … and you know the rest of the story.
Is Jesus a king?
When Jesus is crucified, a sign is nailed to the cross: “This is Jesus, King of the Judeans” … in other words, this is what happens to anyone who competes with Rome.
Is Jesus a king?
When Jesus comes into Jerusalem from the east, he rides on a donkey - Jesus knows what he’s doing … he brings to life what the prophet Zechariah says:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Palm branches are waved; cloaks laid down - folks cheer, At last, we’ll have a king again … glory will be restored … we’ll be great again.
But the work of Jesus moves in other directions … it isn’t about Israel, it’s all about the world … it isn’t about the past, it’s all about the future … it’s not about greatness, but humility and love …
Jesus says to his disciples:
The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Is Jesus a king?
A king for the soul, for the world, for humanity … a king who dies for the sins of the world - which kings never do - because kings make sure other people die …
He’s loved by many, despised by others …
He’s crucified, dead and buried … on the third day, the stone is rolled away.
Christ the king … Pilate can’t see it, nor can Herod … blinded by their own power, they cannot see the King of kings.
Yet others see him in truth and love … Paul the Apostle meets him on the Damascus Road … millions of people have believed and followed him … here in this place, here and now, Christ the king is present, his Spirit at work, loving you, loving me, loving the world.
To him, our loyalty, our hope … that we might be, as he says: the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.
And that, dear people, is the Last Word! Amen and Amen!
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