In Gabriel’s message to Mary his promise about Jesus is, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his Kingdom will have no end.” Is this political cast in the spiritual or is it spiritual cast in political terms? Or is it both?
Perhaps it is that both modern and post-modern people are such materialist that a King whose kingdom is not of this world isn’t much of a king at all. Or if they want to make him some kind of worldly leader or guru they cut away all of the biblical meaning of his kingship. But he is truly King. He is king whether we want him to be or not.
But my thought about Jesus being a King who isn’t much of a King at all, it is because of the way we see the world, its because we have lost touch with the realities that are greater than any worldly realities. This causes such hardness and faithlessness. And Advent isn’t just about the first coming of Christ; it’s also about his second coming. And he is coming.
That One who is seemingly so weak and unreal with his coming will break through the broken certainties of this sinful world with a hugeness of reality none of us expect. It will be like the grass of Paradise in C.S. Lewis' Great Divorce. It was so real it hurt the feet of those who traveled there from darker regions.
Political will mean what it could not mean now. Jesus' kingliness is the measure of all kings and rulers. His power is full of perfect justice, perfect comfort, perfect mercy, perfect judgment, and perfect love. We shall tremble before him, and some shall rejoice but all will kneel in acknowledgement that he is truth.
He is the hidden one now, and often his people are also hidden. But he is a King, he will come and he will never leave us. Praises for his birth, praises for his second coming.
4 comments:
Viola - you've done it again! You have a knack for picking extraordinary music I haven't encountered before.
Thanks. And Merry Christmas.
What's most striking about Christ's Kingdom is that it isn't defined by coercion. Our kingdoms and nations and states use the power of the sword or it's proxy, the power of mammon, to coerce our obedience and to control us. That's just the nature of things in the world.
But Christ's rule is very, very different.
Merry Christmas to you too Will. I'm glad you like the music.
Beloved Spear, I haven't heard from you in a long time, I'm glad you are back. I think it is defined by his love and our relationship to Him. He speaks of love, receiving, forgiving, giving life, but he also speaks of those who are disobedient and reject him being in outer darkness, etc.
Post a Comment