Monarchs

In the past decade, we saw the death of three notable monarchs. Sultan of Oman, Sayyid Qaboos bin Said wanted his people to achieve greatness and committed himself to liberating and uplifting the people of Oman. Thai people considered the king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, their father because he was so kind to them. The final was the queen of England, Elizabeth II. With the deaths of monarchs, countries wonder what would happen next.

This was the fear that haunted the Israelites. Although Saul was their first king, God chose David to start a dynasty. God promised him that someone from his loins would always sit on the throne and rule the people. That promise lasted from around 1100 to 586 B.C., when the last Davidic king ruled them. Has God gone back on his promise? No, he had not. When they cried for help amid foreign rule over them, God heard and sent his king, Jesus.

“The Lord God will give him, Jesus, the throne of David, his father” (Luke 1:32b)

When David wanted to build a temple for the Lord Yahweh, he said that David’s hands were filled with blood, and he didn’t want David to build a temple for him. But God would not forget his love and commitment and let his son build him a temple. Further, God would be his Father, and the king would be God’s Son (2 Sam 7:15).

The people knew this promise, but the reality was different: Herod, a Gentile, was ruling over them with the power of Rome, another group of Gentiles. How could God keep his promise?

He would fulfill his promise through the baby born through Mariam/Mary – Jesus.* She married a descendant of David. And God would make her offspring David’s son, the rightful heir to the throne. “The Lord God will give him, Jesus, the throne of David, his father” (Luke 1:32b).

This was difficult for the first-century Christians to accept – they were comfortable with Herod as their king and the emperor Caesar as their Lord. They didn’t want to change that status quo.

But God’s word/promise could not fail. Just as he promised David, he would raise a king from his lineage, even after troublesome years of Gentile rule over his people. That was what Mary heard and wondered.

In the past few weeks, I’ve heard and listened to podcasts of people trying to change the gospel to accommodate the world. These brilliant men and women no longer like, support, or uphold evangelical faith. Instead, they want to have a loose or non-moral Christianity. As I listened, I remembered a quote from a contemporary of Gandhi, E. Stanley Jones. He said,

“If we present Christianity as a rival to other religions, it will fail. Our position should be: There are many religions. There is but one gospel. We are not setting a religion over against other religions, but a gospel over against human need, which is the same everywhere. The greatest service we can give anyone in East or West is to introduce him [or her] to the moral and spiritual power found in Christ. India needs everything. We humbly offer the best we have. The best we have is Christ.”

He was so correct. Christians aren’t extraordinary people, and Christianity isn’t the best religion. But Christ, the Lord Jesus, is. Our task is to present him to the world, nothing else.

*I use Mariam for Mary because of a Scriptural allusion to Mariam, Moses’s sister.