The King is Coming
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as
king and deal wisely,
and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah
23:5
In anciet Rome when a general or one of the Ceasar's defeated an enemy,
there was often a triumphal entry.
The city would turn out for the spectacle which would include the army parading
into the city, displaying its booty and often with captives in tow.
Kings established their place in the world often by who they conquered.
Alexander the Great was such a king. He lived for battle and conquest.
It is hard to know what motivated him beyond conquest. He seemed to have
no interest in governing. He seemed to have no grand vision of a kingdom
or realm.
In l78l, a French scholar called Nicolas Beauzee, secretary to the Count
d’Artois, brother of Louis XVI, expressed the conviction that Alexander the
Great “had no other motive than his own vanity, no right on his side other
than that he could seize with his sword, no rule other than that dictated
by his passions, and no virtue other than a violent and often thoughtless
daring”.1
In the 600's B.C. Jeremiah castigates the kings and officials of Judah for
their poor stewardship of the people entrusted to them.
He says God has called them to be shepherds over the people of Judah but
they have failed and God's people are leaderless.
Jeremiah's time is a wasteland of leadership and vision.
Each has turned only to his own self interest and the whole nation is on
the rocks because of it.
God is going to intervene, however.
Unfortunately, exile and banishment is going to be the punishment for his
own generation.
But God is not done.
There is going to be an ideal king, "A Righteous Branch" who God will raise
up to do what these leaders have failed to do.
he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute
justice and righteousness in the land.
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this
is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'
We know the kind of images the people had of their Messiah King.
They expected someone like David who would drive out all their enemies and
set up an ideal kingdom.
We have two thousand years of history to look back over when we think about
the coming of the King.
We know the King was nothing like Alexander or Ghengis Khan or Charlemagne.
The King promised by God, the Righteous Branch was meek and lowly, he came
as a poor babe and lived as a simple teacher who laid down his own life for
His flock. Hardly the stuff of Alexander or Julius Caesar.
And a dissapointment to many in his own time.
I led a seminar yesterday on being a pastoral care helper for the Chinese
Church.
One of the resources I used was a brief video clip from the movie "The Horse
Whisperer" with Robert Redford.
The scene I used was when Tom Booker, the horse whisperer first encounters
the troubled and damaged horse that has been brought to him by a woman and
her daughter. The horse in in a stall in a barn and as he enters, the horse
rears and smashes its hooves against the gate to the stall.
Tom Booker opens the stall and chases the horse out into an open pen where
it has much more room. He enters the pen and places himself at a distance
from the horse. He just stands for a moment then squats down and just waits.
Eventually as the movie progresses, he wins the horse's trust.
The point I was making is that when working with someone who is troubled
or easily spooked, just make yourself available, but lower your profile.
Be unthreatening.
I said this is what Advent is about:
God comes into the arena of our world.
Not like Alexander or a Pharoah, who lord it over their subjects, but comes
meekly. He lowers his profile so anyone can identify with the Son of Man.
The King is coming. The Righeous Branch.
But he lowers his profile for us, he stoops to our level so we can look into
his face and see what is there.
The King is still coming.
The King comes into the world in every believer who reaches out to connect
with another person.
In his popular tale, "Where Love Is, God Is", Leo Tolstoy tells the story
of the cobbler, Martin Avdëich.
Martin seeks to find out how to live for God by reading the Gospels.
One night he heard a voice which said, "Look out into the street tomorrow,
for I shall come."
While looking out for Christ coming to visit him, Martin sees an old soldier
shoveling snow,
to whom he gives several glasses of tea and shares about the voice
he heard.
He then sees a peasant woman with a baby trying to keep warm in the cold
wind.
He invites her in, feeds them, and gives her an old cloak to keep warm, while
telling her about the Lord's voice.
He sees an old woman and a boy arguing and reconciles them by telling them
about God's forgiveness.
At the end of the day he heard the voice again. "Martin, Martin, don't you
know me?"
Then out of the dark stepped the old soldier, the woman with the baby in
her arms, and the old woman and the boy.
And Martin understood that his dream had come true; and that the Savior had
really come to him that day, and he had welcomed him.
But we still wait for the final arrival of Christ's kingdom.
It is coming.
Maybe this year. Maybe next.
In the meantime, God has kept his promise to send his servant shepherd.
The King has come
The King is here.
And the King is coming.
let's live in hope and faith and serve in love.
Preached
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. Histoire d’ Alexandre Ie Grand par Quinte Curce,
trans. Beauzee, l78l (quoted by C. Grell and C. Michel, L’Ecole des Princes
ou Alexandre disgracié - Essai sur la mythologie monarchique de l·
France absolutiste, Paris l988, p. 205).
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