John 18:28-40
John 12:12-19
1 Samuel 8:10-22


Jesus said that he’s a king. The writers of the Hebrew scriptures refer to God as king, and write that he understands himself as such.

This compares to reading Dr. Seuss. A collapsible frink, a dawf or a foona-lagoona baboona is like a king to me: I’d know it only if someone pointed it out. I’m American. We’re all equal in our own eyes. Thomas Jefferson put it on paper, and those who think their blood is bluer look like fools to us who know better.

In the West, we’re so equal that we become mini-provincial authorities.

“Who are you to instruct me? We’re equal.”

Sadly, this thought process bleeds into my relationship with Jesus.

He says, “I’m a king.”

We respond, “What’s a king? Some arrogant notion of feudal types? We’re American. We are all the same.”

Yet how can I properly approach someone whose position I contend with, ignore or don’t understand? Try to imagine a student not recognizing the authority of his teacher, a private ignoring a lieutenant colonel’s directives, a paralegal dismissing a partner’s request for assistance. The issue involves position and authority.

He asks us to let him lead. He asks no small thing. We hail from the institution of the individual, where we blaze our own trails to mark personal significance.

Can we approach God through Jesus if we won’t see the king’s crown? We certainly cannot view him as an impeachable elected official swayed by polls, despite our desires. He really is above us, and he expects that we see this and defer to it.

If we refuse, we’ll certainly miss the point of a God desiring to come be with us, to dine and talk and share experience.

We’ll miss the significance of Jesus’ words: “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends …” (John 15:15).

He waits. He knows our stubbornness, our insolence, and he gently works out the knots that keep our necks bowed. He allows us to view him as a friend for the moment. Yet he knows that a time approaches when we’ll gawk at the love of the billionaire because he’d walk with us, paupers.

We’ll realize who calls us friends.

Do I have any example of royalty in my world?
Does it strike me at all as magnificent?
Can I understand who God is if I don’t understand the significance of a king?