The world expected a king, but what they got was a humble man riding on a donkey towards his death. As time went by, people began to understand the deeper truth behind this irony. Some even believed it to be Good News.
Kings come to rule and dictate. People are either subjects and servants or slaves. They will hope for a righteous Ruler, but history tells of a different reality.
Then comes Jesus and instead of being the king the world was hoping for, he chose a different route, one of serving, giving and loving. A Way of Life where significance is measured, not in terms of fame, status, family tree, sex, wealth of power, but rather by the value of one’s identity as a Human Being (re)created in the image of the Great Creator. He did come to make people subjects or slaves, instead he called them to be friends on a journey towards a different way of being human.
In the end this truth was too much to ask of the people of his day. It’s easier to be a subject of a king, even a bad king, because all you got to do is follow orders. You don’t have to love, you just have to obey.
Through centuries people choose to keep on living under the rule of Power, instead of following a friend beyond the boundaries of the powerful status quo towards a new Way where Love is the great criteria for life. The world saw it in France under the rule of Napoleon, in Germany under the rule of Hitler, in the USA under the rule of Bush, in South-Africa under the rule of Verwoerd and we see it in Zimbabwe under the current rule of Mugabe.
We also see it in religious systems where God is portrayed as an all Powerful King and where the leadership, popes, bishops, priests, clergy, preachers and pastors act as if they have special privileges that the rest of his subjects and slaves don’t have.
But still people choose to stay in this reality, because it is so much easier to obey than to think, act and take responsibility.
The Good News call of Jesus is sometimes just too subversive to bear.
The call to be friends with a humble man on a donkey towards certain death versus a life of obedience under a Rich and Powerful Ruler...
You make the choice.
3 comments:
It's just so easy to be a sheep...
"In the end this truth was too much to ask of the people of his day. It’s easier to be a subject of a king, even a bad king, because all you got to do is follow orders. You don’t have to love, you just have to obey."
Whao! That hits the nail perfectly on the head. It's easier to follow a tyrant than walk next to a friend. This paradoxical of human nature may be the core of our difficulty to follow Jesus the way He intended.
It takes God to create a flower, yet a baby to destroy it. I am starting the realise that God's way goes against the grain of human nature. It's as if sin and years of human brainwashing made us resistant of God's way. It's the letting go that's the hardest - not the actual changing itself.
and god warned us/them about kings...
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