Time with the children of God
I’d like to talk about kings today. What would a king look like? How would he travel? Where would he live? What would he do?
At the time when Jesus was born, the people were looking for a King to save them and rule over them with peace.
- They were looking for a king with a big crown but the king from God didn’t have a big crown.
- They were looking for a king with a royal red robe. But the king from God didn’t have a red robe.
- They were looking for a king with a big throne. But the king from God didn’t have a big throne.
- They were looking for a king who lived in a palace. But the king from God didn’t live in a palace
- They were looking for a king with fast horses and a big chariot. But the king from God didn’t have fast horses and a big chariot.
Here is the king from God. A tiny baby—Jesus, who came to be King.
- The King Jesus had no crown but straw around his head
- The King Jesus had no royal red robe but was clothed in strips of cloth.
- The King Jesus had no throne but was sitting in a feed box for cattle
- The King Jesus didn’t live in a palace but was born in a dirty stable with animals all around him.
- The King Jesus had no chariot but his parents Joseph and Mary had brought him there on the back of a donkey.
Jesus did not look like a king. In today’s bible reading, Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36a). Jesus had not been born to be a king of a country, but the saviour of the world, to save us from sin, death and the power of the devil. That is the message we are joining in this morning in the Christmas Pageant parade, as the baby Jesus and the manger, and Mary and Joseph are a part of the parade down Jetty road.
Jesus wants to be your king too. Jesus wants you to know He is the real King over all things and your life. We can listen to him and follow him by reading the bible. And he saves all who trust him, to receive blessings from him forever and have eternal life. No other king can give us that! Amen.
Prayer
SERMON
During the UK’s financial crisis of the 1960’s, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously said: “A week is a long time in politics”. Wilson was meaning that circumstances and fortunes can fluctuate rapidly in a short period of time. “A week is a long time in politics” may have been a phrase at the forefront of Vincent Tarzia’s mind following the SA Liberal party’s disastrous loss of the seat of Black in last week’s by-election, clearly impacted by the controversy surrounding David Spiers. A week is a long time in politics—just ask Kamala Harris who was swept away with a sea of Red republican votes across the nation. Donald Trump—the 45th President of the United States—is now the 47th President of the United States—in and out and in again.
A week is a long time in politics. The UK and US have supplied long range missiles to the Ukraine, desperately fighting for survival. After launching strikes on Russia, Russia retaliated with strikes of its own, using experimental ballistic missiles, in what many reporters are saying is Russia’s most devastating attack on Kyiv yet since its invasion of Ukraine. It seems that North Korea is aiding Russia with warheads. In the meantime fighting continues in the Gaza strip which has been reduced to rubble. In these conflicts, there is no end in sight to the cycle of violence, and the violence only escalates as each side retaliates but shows little remorse.
Political leaders come and go and nations rise and fall. It seems as, in the words of Psalm 46, that the very mountains are falling into the heart of the sea. In last week’s Gospel Reading Jesus said:
“When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.” (Mark 13:8).
Jesus knew that a week is a long time in politics too. Cheered on by the masses waving branches as he rode into Jerusalem, betrayed just days later, handed over to soldiers bearing torches and weapons under the cover of darkness in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus stands, shackled and bound, on trial before the Roman Governor Pilate, who asked Jesus: “Are you the king of the Jews?”
it.
Jesus explains: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Jesus’ Kingdom is out of this world, unlike any kingdom on earth—and this is good news! An earthly king rules only one country and for a relatively short period of time. Many rulers rule only with selfish motives. Jesus came from his heavenly homeland into our world when he was born on earth. He has come to free us and all creation in bondage to decay. He has come to free us from the power of sin, and death and hell, mighty forces before which we are utterly helpless. And his kingdom will have no end.
As he stood before the Roman Governor, one of the most powerful leaders in the ancient world, Jesus gave his campaign speech: “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” From that point, Jesus’ approval rating plummeted at breakneck speed. The crowds who had lined the streets to cheer Jesus into the capital at the beginning of that week would later thunderously bellow: “Crucify him!” Jesus needed a new PR manager before it all went down…assassinated like JFK.
This was the very way God ruled over the forces of evil for you. When everything around threatens destruction and fear, look to the Cross. For that is where Jesus overthrew these forces not with an army, not by political means; fighting for his life, or his rights…but by laying down his life and his rights, for you. The Kingdom of God was not overthrown, but through the Cross the very way that Jesus reigns. Jesus said: In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Jesus’ death was how God ransomed the world, reconciling us to himself by his own Son’s precious blood. It was God’s plan that his Son be the once-for-all sacrifice to pay for the sin of the world, and that he would trade places with sinners that in him we would be the righteousness of God, able to approach him and have access to his divine grace and favour even though we don’t’ deserve it.
Despite everything in the world around us which tempts us to think that God is out of control, God has always been in control. Jesus is the eternal King, with authority and power over all dominions. “Nations rage, kingdoms fall. He lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us”—that’s the message of Advent and Christmas. “The God of Jacob is our fortress.” Despite all the chaos and evil that rages around us, we have a King who knows what chaos and evil is like up close, and took it upon himself to free us from it. In Christ we have a King who knows what injustice and suffering and pain and hurt, hunger and thirst are like, as he hung on the Cross, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus did not look like a king to Pilate or the people. He looked ordinary and powerless. But even as he suffered and died, Jesus is the king who showed love, power and authority far greater than any earthly king. Jesus is the King from heaven who does not take from people, but he gives to people. An earthly ruler gathers taxes from the people. The heavenly king paid the greatest price for us, laying down his own life. An earthly king demands, the heavenly King offers and gives. An earthly king fills his coffers with the coins of the people, but the heavenly ruler gave his own life that people might have treasure in heaven.
When I was a kid we had ceramic chef-shaped salt and pepper shakers at home just like these. The holes where the salt and pepper came out are at the top, in their hats. It wasn’t long before the steam from the kitchen clogged up the holes of the saltshaker. Every time we cleared the holes, they just got clogged up again, so after a while we gave up and just left them on the table and didn’t bother using them. Mum kept the salt in a sealed plastic container instead, and we used the salt out of that. If anyone came for tea, they would reach for the saltshaker on the table—because it looked like that’s where the salt would be. They didn’t expect the salt to be in a plain, unattractive, worn-out plastic tub. But because we knew where the salt really was, we knew where to reach for.
Which saltshaker—that is; which kind of king—are we reaching for? One who will answer our prayer for our will be done? One who will give us what we want? One who won’t disrupt our plans, our priorities, our outlook?
Jesus says: “The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Jesus came to be king over our whole life…our whole heart. That is one of the things we pray for when we pray the Lord’s prayer—even though God’s victorious and powerful rule in Christ is such that he does not wait for us to ask him. Luther explained: “God’s kingdom comes indeed without our praying for it, but we ask in this prayer that it may come also to us. God’s Kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that by his grace we believe his holy word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven forever.”
God’s kingdom came to us in Christ when we were not praying for it. He came to us when we weren’t ready to acclaim him as our king. Through the truth of his word, Jesus came to reign in your heart and reveal himself to you as your saviour.
Jesus says: whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.
Pilate and all those who didn’t listen to the truth Jesus teaches are like the guests at the table reaching for the clogged saltshaker—the saltshaker that looks like the real thing but doesn’t give them the salt they need. Those who don’t know the truth of Christ will reach for the things other than Jesus and his word that look like they will give them what they need, but they won’t. They will make things other than Christ and his truth king of their hearts and lives.
But we who are members of God’s family by grace through faith in Christ know where to reach for the salt—we know where to see the true King and share in his victorious rule. We know the truth that Jesus is the Son of God.
We know the truth that nothing will snatch his faithful people from his hand.
We know the truth that not even the gates of hell will overcome his church.
We know the truth that because of his shed blood, there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, and nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The truth is that Jesus died to reconcile you to God so that no matter what you are going through you have access to the fulness of favour and peace from your heavenly Father. Although it doesn’t make news headlines, the Kingdom of God is the most powerful Kingdom at work on earth. Day after day this kingdom goes to work to liberate people from their bondage to sin, death and the kingdom of darkness.
In your problems and fears, failings and needs, troubles and joys, hopes and plans…which king are you reaching for?
God the Father has reached out to you. He has reached out to you through the arms of his Son, outstretched wide on the Cross. It is a suffering embrace to cover your sins and shame and welcome you into his heavenly kingdom. Your place in heaven is not dependent on you, but him, who gave his all for you, until his final breath. And so in all the troubles of this life each day, reach for the right king—Jesus—whose kingdom will never end, long after the heavens and the earth pass away. King Jesus, who lives and reigns with his Father and the Holy Spirit, the one true God, now and forever. Amen.
