“Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the
Lord! Blessed is the Son of David! Hosanna!” That’s a greeting not just for
anybody. That’s a greeting for a king! The Son of David was the title given to
the kings of Israel, the men who were descended from King David himself, the
greatest king that Israel had ever known.
We don’t know much about kings here in the USA. We don’t
have a king; we have a president. But the job of a king isn’t really that
different from the job that our president has. When a newly-elected president
takes the oath of office, that person promises to defend our country from all
enemies, foreign and domestic. In other words, the job of the president is to
care for the people. That means leading us in times of war, making sure that all
the citizens are able to get what they need to survive, and generally keeping
our country healthy. Kings do the same thing; but you can’t get rid of a king
once he is governing. There’s no way to vote him out. When you have a king,
you’re stuck with him.
That’s why the biblical text contains warnings about kings. The
book of I Samuel, in particular, doesn’t like the idea of a king at all. When
the people of Israel asked the prophet Samuel to anoint a king for them so they
could be like all the other nations, he warned them that they didn’t know what
they were asking for. “This is what the king who will reign over you will do,”
Samuel said. “He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and
horses. Some he will assign to be commanders, others to plow his ground and
reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war. He will take your
daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your
fields and vineyards and olive groves. He will take a tenth of your grain and
of your wine. The best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
He will take a tenth of your flocks; and you yourselves will become his
slaves.” (I Samuel 8:11-17, selected)
Oh, yes – having a king can be a problem. But we all know
that there are kings… and there are kings. Sometimes, there are kings like the
great King David. Oh, David had his faults. In particular, he got mixed up in
that sordid affair with Bathsheba; and it messed up his own family for the rest
of his life. But all things considered, David was a very, very good king. He
united the twelve tribes of Israel into one unified country. He protected
Israel from the threat of the Philistines. He even brought the Ark of the
Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence, to Jerusalem. And if that isn’t enough,
the Bible calls David “a man after God’s own heart.” Why, the name “David” even
means “beloved.” No, there never was another king like David. He set the bar
pretty high. But one day – one day
the Messiah would come. He would be
like David, a man after God’s own heart. He
would be as good a king as David had been, but without David’s faults. He would be the king to end all kings!
Those were the hopes of all the people who waved palm
branches on that first Palm Sunday. They were waiting for a king who would care
for them like David did. Actually, they were waiting for a king who would take
care of them even better than David
did! And the man riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday turned out to
be exactly that man. Like the king that he is, Jesus cares for his people. In
fact, Jesus did everything that David did, but better! Jesus united not only
people of Israel, but people all over the world into one family of God’s
children. Jesus protects us not from the Philistines, but from the threat of
death itself. And we no longer need an Ark of the Covenant, because Jesus
himself is in our midst. He lives not only in our midst, but also within the life of each person who puts
their faith in him. Through Jesus, nothing can ever separate us from God’s
presence! Jesus took caring for his people to a whole new level!
And he is far from the selfish, domineering monarch that
Samuel warned the people about. To those who are in his kingdom, he grants
fullness of life like we’ve never even imagined it! Like the kings of old, Jesus
takes our sons and our daughters. But he doesn’t take them to be his slaves. He
takes them to be his friends and his partners. He doesn’t demand our
possessions, but asks us to lend them to him. And they are not used for war,
but to spread his kingdom of love and mercy throughout the world. And what he
asks of us is not even for his own use! It is for the use of the war-torn and
the refugee, the ill and the suffering, the lonely and the unloved. No, Jesus
is no king like any other on earth! And we could have predicted that just by
looking at the way he came into Jerusalem. He didn’t ride a war horse or carry
a sword. He rode on a donkey with empty hands – empty except for the blessings
that he offered to all who followed him. He wasn’t dressed in armor with a
helmet and shield. He wore the simple robes of a peasant. He didn’t have an
escort of well-armed troops who marched in step to his commands. He was
surrounded by a crowd of the most ordinary people. But Jesus is the king that
conquers all other kings, cares for his people like a father cares for his
children, and calls us to care for each other the same way that he cares for
us.
There is an old legend in Great Britain. Some of you may
have heard of it. It involves King Arthur, the first and some say the greatest
of all the kings that Britain has seen. You know about King Arthur. He called knights to live in his court, to sit
at his round table, and to fight for justice for all people. Legend has it that
when Britain most needs him, King Arthur will reappear to fight again for the
good of his people. T. H. White wrote about him in his book The Once and Future King. We have a king
like that, too; one who comes to us when we most need him; but his name isn’t
Arthur. His name is Jesus. He is our once and future king! He died for us on
Good Friday; he rose for us on Easter morning; and he lives for us today. He is
greater than King Arthur; greater even than King David!
Hosanna!
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the Son of David!
Blessed is Jesus, our once and future king!
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