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Meet Father KempPalm Sunday – 28 March 2010
I love North Dakota because it is a state that still has unifying stories (or to put it philosophically, grand meta-narratives) that unite the residents. One grand meta-narrative is the story of Roger Maris. Maris grew up in Fargo and excelled at numerous sports at Shanley High School, the Catholic High School in Fargo. He decided to play baseball and in 1957 he was drafted by the Clevand Indians. He was traded to the Kansas City Athletics in 1958 and finally to the New York Yankees in 1960 where he won his first American League MVP award. However, the real story began in 1961 when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record by hitting 61 home runs in one year. One would think this incredible feat would bring Maris eternal and everlasting baseball glory, but it did not. In fact, it brought the opposite. Roger Maris preferred to spend time with his wife and children and was quiet, shy and reclusive – he was everything fans and reporters do not like. As he began to close in on Ruth’s record he refused to give interviews and go out in public and as a result everybody hated him. Reporters began to smear him, fans in Yankee Stadium, his own ball field, began to boo him and he received thousands of death threats. To add insult to injury, six games were added to the baseball season in 1961 and Bill Frick the commissioner of Baseball, decided to put an asterisk on Roger Maris’s record because Maris played in 6 more games than Babe Ruth. Frick ignored the facts that Maris faced better pitchers, played in the same Yankee Stadium that Ruth played in, had to play games at night and travel to the west coast, things Ruth never did. Furthermore, and more importantly Frick ignored the fact that Roger Maris had fewer at bats than Babe Ruth. Thus, Roger Maris’s record was relativized with an asterisk because baseball fans did not like him.
As we all know, the word ‘Christ’ is not Jesus’ last name. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word ‘Messiah.’ The word ‘Messiah’ means ‘the anointed one’ and referred to three different vocations that required anointing: prophet, priest, and king. However, by at least the 1st century A.D. in Israel the word ‘Messiah’ was used almost exclusively for a king, the king who would restore David’s throne and rule not just Israel but the entire world. Christians in America love to the prophetic and priestly offices of Jesus, but we tend to put an asterisk on Jesus’ kingly office. Maybe it is because we Americans have an aversion to kings and monarchies or maybe it is because we would rather ignore the implications of Jesus’ kingship, particularly the implications that if Jesus is the world’s true king, everything that happens apart from him and his kingdom is branded with a big asterisk.
This is a weighty implication; it implies that our entire lives must be lived under the rule of King Jesus. It implies that all worldly events that happen outside of Jesus’ kingdom have an asterisk that says, “That is nice, but it is not eternal’ or “Good for you, but it will not last so do not put your hopes and dreams on it.” How can such a weighty implication be made? To understand the kingship of Jesus and its implication we must turn to the Old Testament. There were two major Old Testament passages shaped Israel’s kingly messiah. The first passage is Genesis 49:10 when the patriarch Jacob (whose name had been changed to Israel by that time) blessed his son Judah with these words, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah until he comes whose right it is [to rule].” Israel understood this blessing to mean that one day God would raise up a Messiah, a king, from the tribe of Judah who would rule Israel wisely and faithfullytribe of Judah who would rule Israel faithfullyy God would raise up a Messiah, a king, from the tribe of Judah who would rule f. II Samuel 7 accentuated this promise when God promised to establish David, a descendent of Judah, and give one of David’s descendents an eternal throne. Furthermore, several Psalms proclaim that the rule of this king would be worldwide. Consider Psalm 2, “I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘you are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.’” Consider Psalm 72, “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the kings’ son…May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Finally consider Psalm 89, “I have found my servant David; with my holy oil I have anointed him; my hand shall always remain with him; my arm also shall strengthen him…He shall cry to me: ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!’ I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Thus, Israel’s messiah would be a king from the house of David who would rule over the entire earth, just as the Angel Gabriel told Mary, “[y]ou will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:31,32) If Jesus is the Christ, he must be this king. If Jesus is this King then he is bent on world domination until every heart confess his lordship and every knee bows to his rule. So did Jesus claim to be this king? Yes, he did. Concerning the coming of this expected King, the prophet Zechariah said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ..He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey, he was deliberately fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecies and boldly declaring that he was the promised king. The king who would sit upon David’s throne, bring peace the nations and rule the world. In fact, King Jesus is ruling from the heavenly throne right now for when he ascended into heaven he sat down on his throne is waiting for his enemies to be subjected, as St. Paul said, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11) Therefore, the hope laid out in Scripture is that one day the disparity between heaven and earth will end as it says in the book of Revelations, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15) The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth will become one kingdom when King Jesus reigns over every inch of the cosmos, which is why we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This means that everything that happens apart from King Jesus and his kingdom will not last, it is branded with an asterisk.
However, why is this good news? Why is the proclamation that there is a new king named Jesus who will one day rule the planet good news? Furthermore, history is full of kings who have claimed to be the world’s true king, who will usher in peace and prosperity for everyone and they have all been crooks, why is Jesus different? Jesus’ public proclamation that he was Israel’s king was his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but the Jesus’ enthronement, when the public accepted his rule, did not occur until Good Friday when Jesus was publically enthroned on the cross under his kingly banner that read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Rather than bring shame and sorrow upon his subjects, Jesus bore their shame and sorrow as it says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” (Isaiah 53:4) Rather than cause his subjects to sin, Jesus took their sin upon himself as it says, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5) Instead of punishing his rebellious subjects, Jesus took their punishment as it says, “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” (Isaiah 53:5) Rather than kill his subjects to win the throne, Jesus died for his subjects. Finally, rather than tax his subjects, Jesus paid his subjects debt.. Without the cross, the proclamation that Jesus is king is bad news; he would just be another manipulative, murderous tyrant. However, because Jesus’ kingship is proclaimed through the cross he is the king we always wanted to have, a king who loves his subjects more than his crown. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own ways and because of our wanderings from God, we have branded our lives with an asterisk, an asterisk that says I am a rebellious sinner who deserves to be punished, a sinner unworthy to be a subject of King Jesus. However, because of the cross there is a King named Jesus, a king who was pierced for our transgression, a king who took our punishment upon himself and who can now erase the asterisk of sin that has branded our lives. Therefore, hear and receive the good news: there is king named Jesus, he is the world’s true and only king and he is a king who loves you more than he loves his crown, he is a king who has taken away your asterisk of sin so that you could become a subject in his glorious kingdom. So come to him, put your faith in his justice, put your hope in his righteousness, and submit to his rule for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
