King

              While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.  He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return…  

            “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

             “He was made king, however, and returned home...

             But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’” (Like 19:11-12, 14-15a, 27)

 

            John Ortberg discusses this passage in Who Is This Man? I’ve read a number of books like this one, and Mr. Ortberg does a good job, especially with historical context.  Luke 19 is about the time of the triumphal entry or Palm Sunday. We tend to think of palm branches as symbols of peace, but at the time, they were symbols of the Jewish nation. They were (f you’ll pardon the comparison) the swastika of the people of Israel. The triumphal entry was all about the people proclaiming Jesus to be king  in order that he would smash the Roman Empire’s control over them.

            At the time, there were three notable approaches to dealing with Rome. The Zealots wanted to smash Rome and kick it out. The Essenes wanted to pull away or go off in the wilderness and do their own thing. And the Sadducee's sought to assimilate. The triumphal entry rejected all three of these options. In response to the pressure to go in this, that, or the other way, Jesus tells two stories woven together and the verses above deal with one of them.

            In this strand of the story, a nobleman – a man who has the birthright to allow him to be king, goes to another land to be proclaimed king. This seems strange to us because we tend to think that what goes on in a nation is done in that nation, but at that time, nations like Israel were “under Caesar” just as the Kingdom of God will be "under God."

            Think of Eden, where God was rejected as king, or of the time before the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, the many times in the wilderness and during the time of the judges, when the Israelites demanded that Samuel give them a king; the time(s) when Israel either rejected the kings they were given, and the many times Israel refused to listen to the prophets and even had them killed.

            Let me add one. Herod had a son named Archelaus, who was born in 22 BC. He lived to 18 AD. After Herod’s death, he went to Rome to be made the king of the Jews. A delegation was sent after him, pleading that the emperor would not grant him the kingdom. Caesar did anyway, and when Archelaus returned to Jerusalem, he had the delegation killed.

            And about eleven years later, this was the story Jesus told in response to the suggestions about his bringing in the Kingdom. Those who wanted to kick Rome out rejected him because he wouldn’t denounce and destroy Rome. Those who wanted to withdraw rejected him because he was too willing to accept the Romans. And those who wanted to assimilate with the Romans rejected him because he threatened their cooperation by allowing others to call him king. They later proclaimed, “We have no king but Caeser!”

            Today’s “lesson” isn’t so much about our lives, though if the shoe fits… Instead, I hope it’s a better understanding of what Jesus was talking about and why people might have reacted as they did. I'll end with this reminder...the wages of sin is death...