Jean’s Gospel: Behold Your King!

In the Old Testament, when the king or his emissary came to town, he usually was received with fear and trembling. Two examples illustrate this reaction:

• When Samuel went to Bethlehem, “[t]he elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, ‘Do you come peaceably?’ ” (1 Sam 16:4) and
• When King David went to Nob in search of food, “Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling” (1 Sam 21:1).

The implicit question on everyone’s mind was: “Is the king coming as a friend or enemy?” But because of their timid consciences, they assumed the king was angry with them or their city for some reason. So they feared and trembled because the king held their lives in his hand.

It works the same way when God comes, only more so. The timid conscience knows and feels that God, who sees and knows all, is an enemy of sin and severely punishes it. Remember Adam: “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ ” (Gen 3:9-10) Or the Israelites, who in the wilderness could not even bear to hear the voice of God (Ex 20:19).

If Christ had come as an earthly king, valiant and riding on a war horse, who could stand before Him? Who would have the courage to receive Him? Mary Magdalene? The woman with the discharge of blood? The Canaanite woman? Zacchaeus? The woman caught in adultery? Mary and Martha? The countless unnamed lame, possessed, tax collectors, beggars and lepers? The problem with a timid conscience is that it makes an enemy of God.

Therefore, Christ came in humility. To comfort our delusions and timidity, Christ came as the son of a poor virgin, born in a manger, constantly on the move with nowhere to lay His head, despised by the religious leaders, and finally processioning into Jerusalem on the back of a borrowed donkey. He came, as if saying: “Do not flee and despair, because I have not come as I came to Adam, to Cain, at the flood, at Babel, to Sodom and Gomorrah, nor as I came to the people at Mount Sinai.” Christ did not come as a King who wished to settle accounts and collect His debts. Christ came to take our burdens on His shoulders, to make satisfaction for our debts and ransom us from sin and death. Christ laid aside wrath and brought nothing but grace and mercy to his people.

“This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” ’ ” (Matt 21:4-5, see also Zech 9:9)

“Say to the daughter of Zion.” By his entrance, Jesus discouraged all carnal and political Messianic hopes and dreams. He was not coming in the manner of a conqueror-hero, as many of the worldly-minded Jerusalemites expected. Jesus came to the city, which ultimately would reject Him, with the offer of God’s peace, but the people did not “know the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:42).

The inclusion of Zechariah’s prophesy in Matthew’s gospel not only testifies to its fulfillment in Christ, but provides Christians with what to say (or preach) about Christ, if we are to gain a right knowledge of Him. Here we have what may have been the backbone for the apostles’ preaching before the New Testament was written, of which Paul wrote: “[I was] set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:1-2).

“Behold, your king is coming to you.” This sermon makes a bold assertion: “Behold, your King.” God is offering you His Christ, right now. What kind of King is He? Paul wrote that in Him and His kingdom “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:14) His is truly a kingdom not of this world. No earthly king could accomplish the wonders of Christ. In what appears to be weakness, defeat and death in His cross, Christ ransomed us from the powers of sin, death and the devil and made satisfaction for our sins. In Christ, God has revealed His righteousness, “so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Rom 3:26)

Our King comes to us. We do not seek Him, but he seeks us. We do not find Him, he finds us. For His preachers come from Him, not from us; their sermons come from Him, not from us; our faith comes from Him, not from us; everything that faith works in us comes from Him, not from us. Therefore, “Behold, your King.” Jesus humbled himself so that we might understand the way of God’s grace and mercy. May His way become our way. In faith, love and hope, let us join our Savior’s procession with all the faithful who proclaim: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt 21:9) Amen.

“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Heb 2:9) Amen.

Christ, the life of all the living,
Christ, the death of death, our foe,
Christ, yourself for me once giving
To the darkest depths of woe:
Through your suffering, death, and merit
Life eternal I inherit.
Thousand, thousand thanks are due,
Dearest Jesus, unto you.

You have suffered great affliction
And have borne it patiently,
Even death by crucifixion,
Fully to atone for me;
For you chose to be tormented
That my doom should be prevented.
Thousand, thousand thanks are due,
Dearest Jesus, unto you.

Then, for all that bought my pardon,
For the sorrows deep and sore,
For the anguish in the garden,
I will thank you evermore,
Thank you for the groaning, sighing,
For the bleeding and the dying,
For that last triumphant cry,
Praise you evermore on high.

Christ, the Life of All the Living, by Ernst C. Homburg