Hailed As King

Zechariah 9:9-10; Luke 19:28-40; Philippians 2:5-8

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

01 April 2007

Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We recall how the crowds cheered and hailed him as King. “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” We easily picture the procession with clothing and palms strewn on the way before him. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey—the king of peace, ushering in a new hope for the nation suffering under Roman oppression.

Amid our own cheering and acclaim, do we recognize the full meaning of this scene? Do we really understand the image of Jesus on the donkey? The crowds did not grasp the full message. The disciples did not grasp it either, at least not in Jesus’ terms. As we hail Jesus as king, will we allow him to be the king he intended to be?

Zechariah spoke of the coming day when God would send peace upon Jerusalem. His words were often misunderstood, at least from the perspective in which Jesus recast them. Zechariah looked for a Messiah who would bring peace through the sword. The words recorded in chapter nine are somewhat mixed in their outlook. It is hard to distinguish between peace through violence and peace through some other means. Perhaps this is because we are so accustomed to think of peace as the result of war—fighting off our enemies to achieve independence and freedom from foreign oppression.

Regardless of our expectations, such was not Jesus’ way. Counter to our expectations and the expectations of the people of his own day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in peace for peace. It was through his own gift of becoming a peace offering that he proposed to establish peace for Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to the entire world.

This was not exactly the way Zechariah picture it. It is a viable meaning of his words, but not the most obvious reading of them. He still looked to Messiah as a conquering king. He still anticipated peace as won through war. He expected that battles would have to be fought for the disarming of the nations in order for God’s peace to reign. Jesus did not accept such a path to peace. He announced peace through his entrance on an animal of peace. In so doing, he came to offer his own life that peace might prevail.

It is not the way the disciples expected things to unfold. Oh, at times they may have accepted this truth and purpose of Jesus’ ministry, but the concept was too new for them to have fully embraced it. A few days later, they would be arguing about which one of them would assume the role of their Roman oppressors in utilizing force, power, and intimidation. Such was not Jesus’ model of peaceful kingship. He offered a different take on peace. “My peace I give you, my peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives.” His peace had a different character and staying power. It was being purchased through a different means and for a different exercise.

The crowds, disciples, and people in general looked at the occupation scenario as needing the answer of force. The only way the Romans would leave the people alone was by punishing them to such an extent that they would be forced to leave. The occupied people would have to fight their way to the top. If they fought hard enough and long enough, the Romans would be forced to leave them alone. Then they would find the peace for which they longed. As king, Messiah was to lead the fight.

Jesus took a different route. Sure, he was intent on leading the way to peace, but not as the people expected. He had no need to fight his way to the top. On the contrary, he was already at the top when he took the initiative to set aside position, power, and station to enter the world as a servant. Born into a lowly family, his earthly father a common day-laborer, he took upon himself the least opportune standing to overcome injustice and oppression in the world, or so it would seem.

He didn’t expect to do things our way, however. He spoke of the imminent presence of God’s kingdom as a tangible reality. It would not become tangible through the use of force, however. It was to become reality through living the new life of God’s peace in spite of life’s difficulties, pain, suffering, and oppression. This was a different peace. It was a peace that began in the faith or trust that God would realize the reality of peace as one began to live it.

Jesus’ triumphal entry did not end with his coming into Jerusalem. There was no clash with the Roman oppressors. Rather, there was a confrontation with the money changers and others making use of the temple of God’s name for personal profiteering. He denied claims that Rome had no authority to levy taxes and place requirements upon the people. He also denied that one’s resources and very life were their own to do with as they pleased. He required that God’s reign include the full recognition that all we are and have comes from God and belongs to God. We are not our own, but belong to the Creator who has again purchased us at a great price.

Jesus preached this way of peace. Jesus lived it, too. He called on each of his disciples to take up his own cross in following Jesus’ example. We like to picture that as figuratively as possible. Tradition tells us that several disciples literally were crucified for their full acceptance of faith. This was Jesus path to peace, however. He redefined peace, but lived a peace that few others have come close to living.

This was no absence of conflict. This was no release from the reality of persecution. It was no escape from oppression, suffering, pain, or distress. Jesus’ peace, however, began as the victor. He entered the world as Lord, Creator, and Almighty God. Yet he became on of the oppressed. He stooped to become and live the life of the common day-laborer suffering at the hands of Roman oppressors. From such a standing, he humbled himself in obedience to God’s design for his own life. He lived in accordance with the demands of his position as God’s servant. In so doing, he came to live the victory over the power of sin, death, oppression, and injustice. The peace he preached became reality in his own living, spilling over for all who would accept this peace for themselves.

Some would say this is not the way a king lives, acts, and exercises authority. Jesus is not that kind of king, however. If kingship for Jesus were about the exercise of power, intimidation, and coercion, he would never have taken the path to the cross. He would never have ridden the donkey into Jerusalem. He would have come on the war charger, with sword in hand, just as we are wont to do.

Though he was very God, he did not consider position something to hold by force. He emptied himself to grant peace, love, forgiveness, and compassion. This is the king we serve. This is his quality of peace. The crowds who hailed him on his triumphal entry did not really understand. They did not grasp the peace of the king they hailed. Are we willing to so let go of our own sense of position, right, and standing to accept Jesus’ character of peace? It is only then we accept him as king on His terms.

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin