A King to Be Good


Israel didn’t always have a king. The casual reader of the Old Testament will soon discover that Israel was led by Judges for a significant period of their history. The Judges, both men and women, were wise sages, effective politicians, and bold military commanders. The tradition of Judges was working quite well. That is, until some of the Israelites observed that most of the powerful nations with which they had dealings all boasted monarchs. So, not to be outdone, the Israelites began clamoring for a King of their own.

God’s response to that was- King? What do you need a king for? I am your king.

To make a long story short; God gave in and appointed King Saul and the monarchy continued for many years. During those years it was clear that a King should be more than a figurehead. And a King should be more than a military leader. A King should be wise. Solomon was legend as a poet, philosopher, and sage. A King should be upright in heart, as was David, despite his obvious failures. In Israel at least, the King was in some sense, God’s representative, not unlike a priest.

That tradition of a monarchy filled with divine purpose was continued in the Christian tradition. In France and England especially, divine right was invoked to back all the decisions of the kings and queens. Now matter how wrong or brutal their decisions were, there was always an understanding that they were acting on God’s behalf.

Our country was birthed in rebellion against a King. And so, we haven’t carried even the vestiges of respect for that tradition and history of the monarchy. We don’t have a king. The President of the United States is a powerful leader, the most powerful in world, but he’s not king. He is the head politician, the commander-in-chief. But not king.

So how can we understand this notion that Christ is our King? At first I thought this might just be too remote or arcane for Americans raised in democracy. But I believe in a way, our situation resembles those ancient Israelites under the Judges. God wants to be our King, but he has a rival for our hearts allegiance. The rival is us.

If freedom is the supreme value in our American culture, then obedience to authority is often seen very negatively. Nobody is going to tell me what to do. We all want to be Commander-in-Chief of our own little kingdoms. Our kingdoms are the extent to which our will is effectively done, and we guard our kingdoms jealously.

John Ortberg describes a skit they did once at his church about a character named Pastor Howitzer. He was “what General Patton might have been if Patton had gone into church work.” He showed a visiting couple the organizational chart of the church. It looked like this:

Me

Everybody else


Recently they had done a reorganization at Pastor Howiztzer’s church. The new organizational chart looked like this:


ME
↓

Everybody else



We all want to be in control. Weddings are great events for this. Every wedding has a control freak, generally known as the “Mother of the Bride” – MOTB for short. At one wedding the organist was having a little fun by weaving familiar pop tunes into elaborate arrangements, like the Star Wars theme. In this case, the MOTB beamed as she walked down the aisle to rapturous music – she wouldn’t have beamed so brightly had she recognized the music as a variation on “The Old Gray Mare.”

I remember one wedding when the MOTB was not happy with anything. The flowers were wrong, the candles were too white. The music was too loud. She had a few suggestions for me too. She said if I didn’t get a decent-looking pair of shoes, she would have me replaced. And that was my wife’s mother on the day of our wedding.


You may be familiar with the popular billboard messages; maybe you’ve seen this one:

If you want to make me laugh, tell me your plans. – God


We must surrender control. Why? Because we are not God. It wouldn’t hurt to remind ourselves of that, say, about once a day. “I am not God. I am not God.” The reality is that we were all born into someone else’s kingdom. We need to give up the pretense that we are in control. Surrendering to Jesus is saying yes to reality.

Consider the two thieves hanging with Jesus at Calvary. Think about their situation. They didn’t want to be there. They had lived their lives as criminals, flouting the laws and conventions of society. They lived life on their terms. Nobody could tell them what to do. Until finally, they flouted once too much. They were seized, tried, convicted, and sentenced. And then they were punished. They finally had to surrender to their reality. It doesn’t get any more “real” than being nailed to a cross. They were probably famous for years among their street criminal brethren. They had a lot of street cred. But you can only get crucified once. And street cred isn’t really of much use in the big picture.

Interestingly enough, though, only one of the two seemed willing to surrender to the reality of the situation. The other continued to deny wrongdoing. He was still blaming others. He blamed Jesus. “Aren’t you the great Messiah? Well, save us then!”

His partner, however, was sobered by the situation. He was humbled, even.

“Jesus, remember me when the reality of your Kingdom comes to full light.”

That criminal was saved by that request. His surrender finally brought him the freedom he sought.

We don’t have to wait until death is imminent until we surrender. In fact, it is very much better if we do it sooner. Life is richer when we serve the One who is really in charge.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. . .all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

You’ve heard the phrase, “It’s good to be king.” It’s also true that it takes a king to be good. What I mean is, it’s only by surrendering to Christ the King that we can be transformed by his power to become the creatures we are meant to be in the kingdom. When we do that, then the King becomes the uniter of his people and the intermediary in all human relationships. We begin to see each other and relate to each other through Christ.

We stop using each other as objects and start honoring each other as fellow subjects of the King. As the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed, “The Lord is our righteousness.” 23.6

Some people find it hard to believe that everything really revolves around this overfamiliar deity named Jesus. Is this bearded fellow really the key to life?

Yes. He is before all things. In him all things hold together. In everything he will have supremacy. Through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself. This is reality. Will you surrender to this reality in your life today?