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Over the past few weeks, we’ve asked the question as to whether or not Mary, Jesus’ earthly mother, had any knowledge or idea of the magnitude of the child that she had given birth to that night there in Bethlehem. And using our most advanced powers of deduction, we’ve come up with a big fat “maybe, but probably not.” She might have known that the miracles that he would later do were pointing to something bigger. She might have known that he was coming to serve as a prophet of God, proclaiming God’s Word. She might have known that he was coming to be the prophesized priest of the order of Melchizedek. However, even though she knew something of what Jesus was coming to do, she more than likely didn’t have a full understanding of the magnitude or scope of Jesus’ ministry and work. Much of what she understood and viewed things through was from the appearance of the angel Gabriel to her before her conception. So, she knew full well that God most certainly was involved in everything that was taking place, but her understanding was limited. After all, she was only human. She was a person who was trusting in God; hence her words in Luke 1:38 “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” These words she said to the angel after being told that she was going to have a son and that the child would be the Son of God, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit.
If we were to turn back in our Bibles one chapter from the text that we’ve read each of the last four Sundays and read the account of Mary’s being visited by the angel Gabriel, we would see all that is recorded from what Mary was told about the child that she was to bear. And if we look at sort of the middle of that chunk of text, in vv. 32-33, we find these words, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Throne, reign, kingdom; these words cause a certain picture to come to our minds. We think of some type of royalty. Now we’ve looked at Jesus as the eternal prophet. We’ve looked at him as the eternal priest. So today, we’re going to be examining the third office of his threefold role as the covenant mediator or the mediator of the relationship that exists between God and mankind, his role as the eternal king.
In only fourteen weeks, we’re going to gather back in this sanctuary for a time of worship much like we have today. Instead of what we’re wearing now, we’ll probably be wearing something much more springtime appropriate. We’ll begin that service of worship with children walking down the center aisle and placing palm branches at the foot of a wooden cross here in the sanctuary. Yes, we will be celebrating Palm Sunday. And when we gather on Palm Sunday, our minds are always drawn back to that day when there were some 2 million+ estimated people there lining the streets as Jesus entered into Jerusalem shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Then, later on during that week, we will gather again, this time on Thursday evening, for our Maundy Thursday service in which we will remember the events of the Upper Room and turn our attention to the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior. And as we leave, we will ask ourselves the same question that we ask every time we think about it, “How did the people go from cheering Jesus so robustly one day to calling so ferociously for his execution only a few days later?” Well, in order to answer that we have to back up to what was expected of the coming Messiah.
In the words recorded by the prophet Isaiah, we find a good bit about the coming, promised Messiah. For example, these words from 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over this kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” When we read these words about the government being upon someone’s shoulders then we naturally think of the one who rules that particular government. Also, like with the words from Gabriel to Mary that we mentioned earlier, when we see anything that has to do with the throne of David and his kingdom, then we know that what is being referenced is the office or position of a king; specifically the king of Israel, God’s chosen people. The text that we brought in last Sunday, Psalm 110 (the Old Testament text most often quoted in the New Testament), even alludes to messianic kingship in the opening verses. “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!” And these are only a few of the Old Testament texts that we could look to and find some prophecy about the kingship of the coming Messiah.
Now, the question that you might be asking yourself is what this has to do with Palm Sunday. Well, let me make the connection for you if you haven’t already. Why do you think the people were cheering that day as Jesus was entering into Jerusalem? What were they so excited about? They didn’t have any clue as to what was about to happen. As a matter of fact, they thought that the exact opposite of what took place was going to happen. You see, they had known that the coming messiah was to be a king. The Bible that existed at that time was what we call the Old Testament today. They knew that the messiah was coming to restore the people of Israel to their rightful place. However, they were all thinking in an earthly sense. They were all thinking that the time of prosperity and well-being that Israel enjoyed under the reign of David was what Jesus came into the world to accomplish. This was going to be like David 2.0 for them. I’ll remind you that it wasn’t as if the Jewish people were even in charge of their own government at this point in time. They were under the ultimate authority of Rome. So, when people started hearing that this man named Jesus had come into the world and that he was claiming to be the promised messiah sent by God, they got excited. They couldn’t wait for the words of the prophets and the words of David to come true. They couldn’t wait for God to use this long-awaited messiah to make the enemies of God’s chosen people a footstool. They couldn’t wait to see their enemies and oppressors overthrown and for the people of God to be restored to their rightful place (that is, in any earthly manner of speaking of course). However, that wasn’t exactly the plan that God had, and it wasn’t the work that Jesus came to accomplish.
You see, God’s plan was on a much grander level. The problem that the Jewish people had with it is a problem that we ought to relate to today. Jesus wasn’t coming to reestablish an earthly kingdom that would run the course that all earthly kingdoms do. No, he was coming to establish an eternal kingdom. You would think that by definition that someone would want what is eternal and lasting over something that isn’t eternal and doesn’t last. However, we, much like the Jewish people of that time, are far too often concerned with the immediate benefits and immediate blessings that we value those things as more important than something that we must wait for. We don’t really care about the value of the two realities being compared, we just simply want our reward and we want it as fast as possible.
Very often in our house, the kids will want to go and do something that Amy and I already had planned for them to do. However, very rarely does our timing and theirs sync up. In an effort to not divulge our plans, Amy and I will often give them choices, but they are never really equal choices. For example, let’s say that they want to go eat at Waffle House for dinner (which they love). Now, we don’t mind taking them to Waffle House because we enjoy it too. However, that particular day might not be the best time for us. So, we will give them two choices: 1) eat at Waffle House today, or 2) eat at Waffle House tomorrow and pick up dessert on the way home. Now, everyone in here can say that Waffle House and dessert is the obvious choice, but there is something to the draw of a desire being satisfied immediately that they choose every single time. Invariably, we have to tell them that they only had the illusion of choosing which day we went and they end up mad at us; even though they are still going to get to eat Waffle House and maybe even still get dessert.
So, why were the people so mad at Jesus only a short time after cheering him? Well, it’s because their desire to have their immediate wants granted to them wasn’t met. Jesus didn’t restore their wealth, power, influence, or way of life. Many of them treated it as if Jesus was some miracle drug that immediately upon his entering into Jerusalem they started asking each other if they anything felt different yet. As Jesus had been saying all along and as many of the prophets had proclaimed earlier, Jesus was coming to establish something that was lasting and eternal. Just look again at the words spoken to Mary by the angel, “he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Or perhaps the words spoken by Isaiah, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over this kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” You see, Jesus was and is different from all other kings, all other rulers that had ever or would ever exist. He was different in many ways, but the most glaring is that He is God, and by definition He is eternal. David died and his kingdom ended. Caesar died and his kingdom ended. All throughout history (both biblical and secular), we are told of kings building up kingdoms only to have those kingdoms begin to crumble after the death of their king. However, Jesus is different. There is no end to his kingdom. There is no end to his reigning at the head of that kingdom. Sure, it may not be a kingdom that we can imagine or that comes to mind when we first hear the word kingdom, but that doesn’t make it not a kingdom. The absence of castles and moats and royal guards doesn’t make it not a kingdom.
I’m going to ask you something that is going to seem really strange when I say it aloud (or at least it ought to). Do you believe that Jesus is, right now as we speak, sitting on a throne at the right hand of God the Father? Now, we would assume that everyone who calls themselves a Christian or at the very least considers it their obligation to attend a Christian worship service would answer in the affirmative. However, do we live like that? Do we live as if Jesus is the eternal king? Do we live as if Jesus is the one who governs our very lives? Or is it someone or something else that’s in charge? Do you act as if you’re in charge of your life? After all, who knows what’s best for you better than you, right? Well, the answer, quite simply, is that Jesus knows what’s best for you and your life and your family and your friends and everyone or everything else you can think of.
As Jesus was being examined and interviewed by Pontius Pilate prior to his being delivered over to be crucified, he made the status of his kingdom quite clear. In the midst of Pilate’s questioning as to whether or not Jesus had called himself the King of the Jews, Pilate almost seems to reach a point of questioning whether or not Jesus understands the severity of the charges that had been leveled against him. Jesus, looking directly at Pilate, simply says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world.” The kingdom that Jesus came to establish isn’t of this world, and neither is our citizenship. Philippians 3:20 (But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ) and Hebrews 13:14 (For we have no lasting city, but we seek a city that is to come) make this clear.
Friends, our citizenship is not of this world. We are, in essence, strangers in a foreign land. Do you ever wonder why it is that the more a person grows in their faith and their understanding in the gospel, the more they seem to become at odds with the world around them? It’s not because the world is changing that fast, although that’s what we like to tell ourselves. The truth of the matter is that evil has always existed; sin has always existed, at least since the fall. The reality of it all is that the more that we grow in our understanding of the things of God, the more we will see that this earth is not our natural home. Our home is with Jesus. Our home is in the kingdom of God, with Jesus Christ as the king for all eternity. However, that doesn’t mean that we all long for the day that we pass from this life into the next. What it means is that we take orders from our king. We follow the commands that he has given us. We seek to complete the tasks that he has laid out before us. We seek to establish his kingdom upon this earth. We seek to build our lives and the lives of those around us upon the Word of God. And we are to do so, while remembering that Jesus Christ reigns as our king upon his throne. For he did not come to build an earthly kingdom, but an everlasting one that will last forever and ever.
In the words of Dr. R.C. Sproul: “Christ reigns now as the Lamb who is worthy to receive the kingdom of God. That kingdom has begun and is growing, but it will not be consummated until Christ comes at the end of human history to subdue all kingdoms. At that time, the kingdom, which is now invisible, will become visible. But although the kingdom is now invisible, it is not unreal. At the consummation, there will be a complete renovation of the created order as we know it, and Christ will establish His kingdom in its full glory forever.” Amen.
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