Palm Sunday -- To Receive a Kingdom

“Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Such are the accolades poured down upon Jesus as he proceeded to Jerusalem at the beginning of his “passion week.” Hopes were high that he was the looked-for inheritor of David’s throne. He certainly had done things that no one else had done, things that heralded the reign of the promised one. The signs were there: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” He must be the one! “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

But as was often the case for those who encountered Jesus, the enthused people failed to grasp all that was going on. They were right to hail him as king, but the fulfillment of his reign was not to be realized in the days that immediately followed. This they needed to understand so that they might be prepared for his return. On that day, he will come not on a donkey “having salvation,” but astride a white horse to “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” To press this point he told a parable.

The nobleman of the parable was going to “a far country” where he would “receive a kingdom” and return. If they were listening, what they needed to grasp was the fact that upon his return the nobleman would settle accounts. The metaphor Jesus used was the nobleman entrusting money into his servants’ hands with the expectation that they would “engage in business” until he returned. There were others in the parable who, like the religious leaders of Jesus day, rejected outright the nobleman being vested with authority to rule over them. These, too, would be called to account.

The nobleman’s dealings with his servants, however, is most applicable to us in his church. What he gave them was something with innate capacity to bring a return (as the saying goes, “the rich get richer . . .’). For the church, it’s not money that has been entrusted, but things of far greater value, all with innate capacity to bring him a return: his story, his Spirit, and his reputation. How we have stewarded these precious commodities is what we will have to answer for upon his return. By his grace, we strive to hear, “Well done, good servant!”

Advent: Holding Fast

Abraham had been waiting a long time. God promised him a heritage that would bless “all the families of the earth,” but fulfillment of the promise had not been realized. What at first seemed like an extraordinary gift had become a source of frustration and disappointment. In the face of the delay, Abraham’s faith had faltered more than once and he made decisions that had unwelcome consequences. Finally, a propitious wind blew and fanned the flames of his faith and he was transformed. The promise settled into his soul and he was able to heed and trust the word of God, even a command that seemingly negated everything God had previously spoken.

Abraham’s Advent experience is instructive. He had his own period of waiting that placed huge demands on his ability to hold fast to the word that God had spoken. And though he is remembered for his willingness to raise his knife over the promised heir to slay him, convinced that God had the power to raise him from the dead, such bold believing was not always his. He lost confidence and settled for shortcuts and man-made solutions. 

His wait, however, turned out to be a mere 24 years. How long has it been since the church received the promise that Jesus would return to judge the world and gather to himself his own? Nearly 2000 years. 2000 years is a long time. Long enough to cause a soul to doubt that he's ever going to return. Long enough to drift from the teaching that promised reward on that day for the faithful, the “one who overcomes.” Long enough to convince a disciple that deferred gratification is not as sensible as immediate gratification.

This Advent, let’s ask God for the grace to hold fast to our confession of faith without wavering, believing that the one who came and gained the victory over the deceiver and the evil he unleashed is coming again to bring full restoration to all that he has made.