It has been said that there are three topics of conversation that should never be discussed in polite company: politics, religion and football. The reason is that people hold deep and strong personal convictions about these. When we start discussing them who hold different points of view, these differences in opinions soon become evident, arguments can follow, and relationships can get damaged as the result.
Today we are going to throw caution to the wind and talk about two of the three forbidden topics: politics and religion. If you’d like to get into the third topic and have a conversation about football, we can do that after the service. My guess is though, after the result of this weekend’s AFL Showdown between the Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide Power, at least some of us won’t be very keen to do that!
If you were asked if Australia should be a monarchy or a republic, how would you answer? Australians are pretty divided on this issue. Some people love the monarchy, although time will tell whether that affection was more for Queen Elizabeth II than the monarchy itself. It will be interesting to watch how Australians will react to the reign of the new king, Charles III. For other Australians, the idea of being ruled by a foreign king is abhorrent. This might be because of the convict heritage of most Australian states. During the convict era of our history, harsh penalties were imposed on people who did wrong in the name of and under the authority of the British king. Some Australians don’t understand why we should fund a monarchy which serves no real purpose, and which takes more from our country than it gives. For other Australians, the idea of a king is just irrelevant to our lives here and now.
It is important that we understand the attitudes of Australians towards the monarchy when we talk about Jesus as King. When the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday, they identified Jesus as their king. We read this in Matthew’s reference to the prophet Zechariah who wrote these words hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Matthew 21:5 NIV)
We can also see the crowds welcome Jesus as their king in verse 9 where they called him the ‘son of David’. This was a title reserved for a descendant of King David who, it was believed, would ascend the throne and restore the Kingdom of Israel as an independent nation. Quoting Psalm 118:25,26, an ancient psalm of royal victory over the enemies of Israel, also shows us that the crowds viewed Jesus as their liberating king.
There has been a long history of kings processing through capital cities of nations to show that they were the reigning monarch. We will see this when King Charles III is crowned on 6th May. He will be part of a royal procession through the streets of London to celebrate his coronation. This will be the same route that his mother, Queen Elizabeth II took when she was crowned in 1953. This is what newly crowned royals do: they process through their capital to display or confirm their new status as sovereign. When the people of Jerusalem processed into the city with Jesus, they were basically doing the same thing.
Which can lead us to ask, what kind of king is Jesus? As we discussed earlier, many Australians dislike the monarchy and would prefer not to have a king or queen for various reasons. When we refer to Jesus as ‘King’, they can imagine that he is like those earthly monarchs that they don’t like.
Some people can imagine ‘King Jesus’ to be a tyrant who demands that we live according to a strict set of rules under the threat of eternal punishment if we transgress in even some small way. Others can think about Jesus as a king who makes unrealistic demands on our time, effort and money, draining our lives of everything good, but who gives very little back in return. Still other Australians don’t see the point of a God who is a long way away, distant and removed from our lives here and now, and is, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant.
When we hear the story of Jesus being welcomed as king by the people of Jerusalem, and especially when we see what happened in the week that followed this event, we see a very different kind of king. This king rides on a donkey, not on a war horse. This signifies that Jesus comes in humility, not to lord it over the people of his kingdom, but as one of us. Jesus is a king who doesn’t just mix with the rich, beautiful, or popular. He embraces the poor, the needy, the rejected and the outcast. King Jesus identifies with the lowest people of society in order to raise them up and give them hope. He comes to exercise healing and mercy, not power and control. King Jesus didn’t come to threaten the people of his kingdom with harsh and brutal punishments for people who do wrong, but he offers forgiveness and pardon for all. He didn’t enter Jerusalem to crush his enemies, but instead he prayed that our Father in heaven would forgive his enemies for the wrongs they were doing. Jesus isn’t the kind of king who drains his kingdom of everything good for his own pleasure, but he sacrifices everything for the good of the people who live in his kingdom, even making the ultimate sacrifice by giving his life for us on the cross. King Jesus establishes his rule of grace, mercy, peace and love not through a show of force, a conquering army, or armed troopers, but by giving his life for us on a cross and inviting us to be citizens of his kingdom through faith in him. King Jesus comes to set us free from fear, shame, and guilt, not to imprison us through forced labour, heavy taxes or crushing demands. In the end, Jesus is the kind of king who would rather die than see any of his people under the captive rule of sin, death and evil.
We can have our differences of opinion about whether Australia should remain a monarchy or become a republic, but please have that conversation with respect in Christ-like love for each other. Either way, we are part of a greater and eternal kingdom. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem he came to rule as our king and to invite us to be part of his kingdom of peace, grace, mercy and love through faith in him. In this kingdom we can find every good thing we need for life in this world and the next as our King Jesus provides for us and keeps us safe in his love. Today we welcome Jesus as our king. In this coming week we will walk with him and see him exercise his full authority: on the cross and in the empty grave.
And let me know if you’d like to talk to me about last night’s Showdown…
More to think about or discuss:
- Do you have a positive or negative view of kings or queens? Why do you think of them like that?
- What comes to mind when you think of Jesus as ‘King’? How is Jesus similar to or different from earthly monarchs?
- What difference does it make to your life to live with Jesus as your King?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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