Jesus The King

Matthew 21:1-9

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,

    ‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
        humble, and mounted on a donkey,
        and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”’

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Today’s bulletin insert deals with the English Civil Wars, which were the result of completely different visions of what it means to be a king. It was a war of visions between factions, each of whom wanted to bend the notion of kingship to fit their own points of view. This was certainly nothing new in history. As we celebrate the birth of the Supreme King of the nations, we can look back on Judea in Jesus’ time and recognize these same issues. Although Jesus fit the Scriptural prophesies perfectly, He did not necessarily fit the idea in the minds of those who taught the Scriptures of what the Messiah was supposed to be. If we look at the Greek word the author uses in verse 5 of Matthew 21 for “humble” ( ) , we see that it is not used in the same context as can be used today: lowly, submissive, ordinary. It appears three times in Matthew and once in 1 Peter, and is also translated as “meek” and “gentle” in those cases. It’s interesting that the Greek word used was translated for the French Bible as the phrase, “a lot of softness”. This is a far cry from the violent military messiah that the leaders of the Jews were expecting. They pictured a king like those in Israel’s and Judah’s past who would come and lead the people to military victory over their oppressors. Instead, they got a gentle man from a gentle background, and they failed to recognize Him for who He truly was.

Or did they? It’s obvious from today’s passage that at least some of the people knew that a king was entering Jerusalem, and it’s because of two very specific statements that Jesus was making in the way He entered the city. First we see Jesus exercising His authority as King in claiming use of the donkeys. In verses 2 and 3 He says to His disciples, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” What if someone came to your house and tried to do that with your car? His command here is the word of someone with authority.

The second statement is the donkeys, themselves. Now, the text refers to the king entering Jerusalem humbly and mounted on a beast of burden, but there is a cultural clue here that is very easy to lose to the modern reader. Jesus did not enter Jerusalem incognito. He was making a bold proclamation about who He was and where He stood in the history of God’s people. To us, riding into town on a donkey may be the ultimate declaration of humility, but to a people well schooled in the history of the judges and kings of ancient Israel and Judah, no further clarification was needed. They remembered that the judge named Jair, the most powerful man in Israel, had twenty sons who rode twenty donkeys. They remembered the judge Abdon whose sons and grandsons rode on seventy donkeys. They remembered that King David was offered donkeys for his household to ride by the servant Ziba. They remembered that, when David’s son, Absalom murdered his own brother, the rest of David’s sons ~ all princes of Israel ~ fled on their own donkeys. They remembered that in the book of Kings, David passes the throne to his son, Solomon, by summoning him, riding King David’s own donkey, and, as 1 Kings 1:40 records of Solomon’s procession, …all the people went up after him, playing on pipes, and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth was split by their noise. All of these important people in the history of the Hebrews rode on donkeys, the symbol of royalty. So, when Jesus, who descended from the kings of Israel and Judah, rode into the city of David on the chosen mount of royalty, He was making a strong statement about who He was, His purpose for being there, and what He expected from His people. And based on His reception, the people recognized it, too; at least in part.

But Jesus is a completely different sort of King than we see in history. Jesus’ claim to the perfect Kingship can be found in three main displays of His character that differ from anything we see in the history of the Hebrew kings, and therefore compels us to recognize His Divine Kingship over us: Jesus’ claim upon us is substantiated through History, through Authority, and through Victory. In History, He is unlike any who have come before Him or since Him. In Authority, His power is supreme on earth. In Victory, He has removed all other contenders who may claim our hearts.

Beginning with History, let’s look at the character of Jesus’ Kingship. He is not only the perfection of the Kingship of God’s chosen people, He is the reformation of the Kingship, and the return of the Kingship to its rightful owner. Let’s look at 1 Samuel 8:4-7: Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. This statement doesn’t just apply to the ancient Israelites, because we have all rejected God’s Kingship over us. God set His people apart to be governed by Him, and He would bless them, but being delivered from Egypt, defeating their enemies, and being given the Promised Land weren’t enough. Here’s the key phrase: they wanted to be like the other nations. So god gave them kings, and set up rules by which they were to govern. These kings strayed repeatedly, and led Israel and Judah into disaster repeatedly. The purpose of the kingship was to preserve, protect, lead, and bless the people, but the kings were led astray by their own passions and their own lingering desires to be just like their neighbors.

But one king was set apart from the others by God. This king committed adultery, murder, and stole the wife of a trusted servant. He repeatedly violated the laws God gave to Israel regarding the conduct of a king, but he was also a man who walked with God and is commonly referred to in the Bible as blameless before God. King David was a man after God’s own heart, and because of this, God promised to preserve his royal line through his descendants. This was fulfilled ultimately through his descendant, the ultimate King, Jesus.

But David’s other descendent kings couldn’t stay on God’s path, and Israel was broken into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Kings came and kings went. Some followed God, others did not. None of these kings could do what God would have done for Israel if they had not rejected him and wanted earthly kings. None of these earthly kings could protect Israel and Judah, and save them from the foreign invasions God sent to scatter the people. The Israelites wanted to live like other nations, so God scattered them throughout those nations. The earthly kingship of Israel failed.

But Jesus’ Kingship over us is not one of an earthly king. God’s promise to David to maintain his line on the throne comes to pass through Jesus, as Jesus, son of David, is the physical heir to David’s physical throne. But since Jesus, Son of God, is the rightful heir to the Spiritual throne, He alone has the power to deliver His people, to guide them properly, and to claim our hearts as subject to Him.

This comes from the source of His Authority. Jesus is the Supreme King because of His supreme authority over all Creation. Unlike the kings who came before Him, Jesus’ authority was not incomplete. Let’s look at 1 Kings 21:2-4. It deals with King Ahab and shows something I found rather interesting: And … Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him… Now I thought this was actually pretty funny, that the most powerful man in Israel would sulk over something so minor as not getting a piece of dirt he wanted, but then, I tend to have the same sort of reaction when things don’t go my way, so, lesson learned. But isn’t it also interesting that the king of Israel could not even order a commoner to sell him a piece of land? Compare this to our verses from Matthew regarding getting the donkeys for Him to ride: If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This is true power and authority, and people recognized Jesus’ authority and that it was supreme over the authority they were used to. Matthew 7:28 and 29 closes a section of Jesus’ strenuous admonitions to the crowds, and it tells us this: And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. Jesus often used a specific formula in His teachings: You have heard it said… but I say to you… What He is doing is identifying a false or corrupted teaching, and then identifying Himself as having the authority to correct them. He is saying that the authority of the Scribes and the Pharisees comes from earthly sources that have corrupted truth, but Jesus’ authority comes from God, the Divine Author of all Truth, and therefore Jesus speaks with perfect authority.

And what’s more, His authority was Divinely appointed to be recognized and observed by those around Him. In Matthew 9 He asks the crowd, For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

This also shows us that Jesus’ power and authority as King go beyond the physical realm. He not only has authority over the things we can see, but He has authority over all things outside our sphere of understanding. Luke Chapter 8 tells the story of a man who was possessed by multiple demons, who, when they saw Jesus coming, knew He had complete authority over them, and begged Him not to send them into the abyss. His authority is so complete that He can pass it along to others to do things in His name. Matthew 10 says, And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. This is an authority much greater than any found in any other king in history.

But it was one event that cemented Jesus’ claim to Supreme Kingship, an event necessary to fulfilling His role as the Supreme Savior of His people. After this event He stood before His disciples and announced to them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This event was His death on the cross, when He gained Victory over Satan and death.

Jesus’ claim to Supreme Kingship through Victory over Satan shows the scope of Satan’s rule on earth. Many kings and rulers have held control over vast empires that spanned the globe, but none have ever been able to claim full possession of the earth. But when Satan was tempting Jesus in the desert for forty days, he showed that he could make that claim. Matthew 4 tells us, Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Satan was offering to give Jesus kingship of the entire world in return for loyalty to him, but there is a fallacy in that reasoning: the True Kingship of the world belonged to Jesus by birthright as the Son of God. Kingship under Satan would not be complete kingship because Jesus would have had to give His allegiance to Satan to claim it. But, by gaining victory over Satan, Jesus’ claim to perfect, total supremacy was complete.

Because of Jesus’ victory, we are no longer in bondage to Satan. Jesus’ power and authority as our perfect King comes from His power to forgive our sins, change our hearts, and transform our lives. He isn’t a king who merely makes the law and punishes us when we break it. The more we become His servants the more we desire to keep His law, and the more deeply we want to serve Him. What earthly king has ever has such allegiance? Our King is established; more perfect, more benevolent, more able to save than any the earth has ever known. His Kingship is total, and one day every knee shall bow before Him, acknowledging that He is King over all of Creation, and everything and everyone in it. When we remember His birth, we aren’t merely celebrating the Salvation He gives to us, but we are recognizing His perfect authority over us as our rightful King, and unlike every king before whom mankind has fallen, our King’s throne can never be shaken, it can never be overthrown.

In 1741 a German immigrant to Great Britain named George Frideric Handel spent 24 days writing an oratorio about the life of Jesus Christ. A man named Charles Jennens wrote the libretto for Handel’s music, and chose for the 44^th piece, which was a chorus celebrating God’s triumph, three separate verses from the Book of Revelation:

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
(Revelation 19:6)

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:16)

The 44^th piece in Handel’s Messiah oratorio is one of the most famous in the world of music, and is a staple at Christmastime. We respond to it for many reasons: the beauty of the music, the power of the message, and the overwhelming feeling we get from knowing that God loves us and is in total control. He has set His Son as our eternal King, a King who sacrificed Himself for us so that we could live covenanted lives with Him. All other kings have failed, but our King shall not fail. God gave us a promise concerning our King through the prophet Daniel:

And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed. (Dan7:14)

Hallelujah.