Behold, Our King Comes!

Being in Afghanistan during Palm Sunday makes it very easy to contemplate the ravages of an entire planet that is in chaos. And as I consider how desperately people all over the globe--us included--clamor for leaders who govern with righteousness and justice, I am impressed with the painful yearning and need that each human has: the need for a righteous and just king who governs with power and perfection for the true fulfillment of those who submit to him, and who will restore all things to what they were intended to be.


We cry and complain over our leaders. Yet the world has never known a leader who truly met our deepest needs and satisfied our eternal longings.

We groan and grumble over those who fail to lead us to the prosperity we desire. But the world has never known one who was able to liberate us from bondage to death. 

We desperately search for the one who will fix this broken-down world we live in and who will liberate us from the social ills that opress society. Yet we fail to see that the ills that oppress society spring from the sin that oppresses our own souls. We will never find that person apart from the one true King. Only Jesus can set us free from the disease that devours our lives and our homes and our cultures. Only Jesus.

We are wrong to think that the right leader will save us from our plight. Perhaps we might have leaders occasionally who are truly great and who truly govern in humility for the benefit of those that follow, but it will only be a temporaray balm, at best.  The swollen, painful need will still burn for something that will never be had in anyone other than the true King, who is Jesus. 

Today we celebrate his triumphal entry into the City of David, the seat of what once was Israel's great power. Those waving the palm branches thought they were hailing their revolutionary champion who would liberate them from Rome. They thought their temporary need would be fixed, and they worshipped him for it. 

But Jesus knew differently. That is why he did not enter riding on a war-horse with a flaming sword, followed by hosts of terrible and awesome battle-angels. He came riding on a mere donkey, to fulfill Zechariah's prophecy:

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey...
 

This prophecy was to confound the Jewish Scribes and religious rulers for centuries. How could their Messiah--their conquering King--come in such lowliness and humility? Where is the glorious conquest and the mighty power?

Jesus knew the answer. He knew that his glorious conquest was found in his humiliating death. He knew that his mighty power would be unleashed through his selfless sacrifice. He saw not a temporary need, but an eternal one. He says, "Yes, I could easilty snap my fingers and destroy Rome. But I love you more than that. I will lay down my life and destroy death itself. I come in sacrificial conquest to give you eternal signficance and meaning, not just a temporary fix that comes in tax breaks and better social services. I've come to deliver you from something far more enslaving than the Romans. I've come to liberate you from the slavery of death."

Jesus was so strong that he put his head on the chopping block where our head ought to go. John Stott wrote: "The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God subsituting himself for man." Timothy Keller says it like this: "We claim the rights that belong to God alone. God accepts the penalties that belong to us alone."  Jesus conquered death by being a sacrificial lamb.

But Jesus knew what lay before him. He knew that one day he would return to conquer evil once and for all, not as a lamb, but as a lion. John's vision shows us that day: ¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.

When the great King restores all things to perfection, there will be no fickle admirers who one day wave palm branches, and who a few days later scream "crucify him!" When the King returns, Psalm 96 tells us that the earth will rejoice; the seas and all that fills it will roar; the field will exult and everything in it! and then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord..for he will come to judge the earth. When King Jesus returns, the trees will wave their own branches in worship of their Maker. 

On this Palm Sunday, may we welcome this lowly conquering King into our hearts. May we truly worship him as king of our lives. May we place all our hope in him alone, and trust that one day he will restore all things, making right every wrong, executing justice for every victim, healing every wound, wiping away every tear, and putting into place the perfect world that we insinctually know once existed. 

Behold, our King Comes!