Make Way for the King

Connection/Tension

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Continuing series on The Return of the King…

The tranquility of a London suburb was shattered one sunny morning by the yelping of a dog and a strange metallic clattering. Suddenly, a crazed greyhound came scrabbling around the corner with its tail between its legs, weaving between shouting shoppers. Frantic with fear, the dog was being hotly pursued by a cheap chrome bistro chair attached to the other end of the dog’s leash. The chair seemed alive, like a dancing snake weaving and flailing, striking and biting at the terrified animal’s rear end.

A movement must have made that chair twitch, which had made the dog jump, which had made the chair leap, which had made the dog scamper, which had made the chair pounce, which had made the dog yelp, which had made shoppers shout, which had made the dog run even more frantically, pursued all the while by this terrifying piece of metal and these crowds of screaming, grabbing strangers. The faster the dog ran, the wilder the chair’s pursuit became - the higher it bounced, the harder it pounced, the louder it banged and clanged and zinged on the cobbles. What the poor dog needed was for its master to come and to speak peace and comfort to it.

We live in a world much like this crazed dog. We are surrounded by things that can be frightening. There are wars and rumors of wars. Natural disasters. The threat of global warming. Debilitating poverty. Injustice. Unchecked greed that continues to divide the haves from the have nots. And closer to home, we face more immediate and personal crises at times. A concerning diagnosis. A troubled marriage. Uncertainty about the future. Financial pressure - has anyone bought groceries lately?! Our peace is easily shattered. We, too, need a Master who will come and speak comfort and peace to us. The good news on this second Sunday of Advent is that God wants to give you peace that goes beyond your circumstances. The return of the king brings comfort to our troubled souls.

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I’m going to bring together passages both in Isaiah 40 and Mark 1 if you’d like to place a finger in your Bible. I want to answer three questions and share three words of comfort this morning.

The return of the king is good news

Why is a returning king good news?

Isaiah 40:1-9

The people this word came to were in exile in Babylon. The impossible had happened. Their nation had fallen. Their Temple was destroyed. And their God had let them down. They had lost hope.

The predominant thoughts they wrestled with is that either God won’t save them - perhaps they had finally gone too far. Or, worse, that he is unable to save them - that he lacked the strength to defeat the gods of the Babylonians.

In the first half of Isaiah, God has repeatedly warned the people of what was going to happen if they didn’t not repent. But now, as they live with the consequences of their choices, the message takes a dramatic turn. “Comfort, O comfort my people.” The time of their banishment is over. God has not forgotten them, nor are the gods of the Babylonians too strong for him.

God’s response to their questions is a royal announcement: your king is coming! Prepare the way, make a straight highway, raise up the valley and flatten the hills. This is the language used when a dignitary is paying a visit. We would say something like “roll out the red carpet!” God the King is coming. This is how he will comfort his people - with his own royal presence.

The brokenness of their situation could only be healed and rectified by God. Likewise, the areas of brokenness in our world and personal life are not something we can fix on our own. No mere human being or human institution can give us any comfort - we should remember this as we enter another election cycle. The only comfort we can receive is if God himself comes to fix this mess. 

This is why a returning king is such good news. The world aches for the vision offered by the kingdom of God. A place where injustice and oppression, where war and violence and exploitation, and high grocery prices, all come to an end. But only the King can bring it about. 

The first word of comfort is that The King is coming, and you will be comforted by his presence. This calls for rekindled faith. Nothing is beyond this king’s compassion or power. There is no situation the king can’t change.

A shepherd-king

But what will this king be like?

Isa 40:10-11

Isaiah says this king will be marked by two things: strength and tenderness. The coming king is both strong enough to bring deliverance, and yet will tenderly lead them like a shepherd.

This no doubt reminded them of the greatest shepherd-king in Israel’s history, David. David was the great king when the nation was whole and undivided and the future was hopeful. David is the one God made a promise to that one of his descendents would always sit on the throne. They thought this promise was lost. But then 500 years later we read this:

Mark 1:1-3

The good news of Jesus THE Christ. The Messiah. The King.

Mark’s focus is on Jesus’ royal title, not his name. It is because Jesus is king that Mark has good news to share. Isaiah said your king is coming; Mark says here he is. Where Isaiah says “Here is your God”, Mark points to Jesus.

The Bible repeatedly tells us that Jesus is the son of David, a direct descendent of the great shepherd-king of Israel. And everything Mark is about to write is telling us what this new shepherd-king is like. And it’s ALL good news.

He comes in strength, yet he shows his strength by disarming the powers of evil. By standing up for the oppressed. By bringing justice to the exploited. By casting out demons of darkness.

And he comes in tenderness. He demonstrates his shepherding tenderness in how he heals the broken and disfigured, and how he welcomes home the outcast.  The vulnerable are safe with him.

In Revelation 5 John receives a revelation about Jesus the King that we should take note of:

Revelation 5:5–6 “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered… Then I saw … a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered...”

We must not miss this. I see images on social media all the time quoting this verse about the lion of Judah. Usually with this majestic, strong, Aslan-looking lion. But John didn’t actually see a lion. He saw a lamb, a mortally wounded one at that.

The second word of comfort this morning is that The King is coming, and you will be comforted by his tender love. Not only is it important to know that Jesus reigns, but how he reigns. Not only do we need to hear proclaimed “Here is your God” but we also need to know what kind of God he is. The comforting news Mark gives us is that King Jesus is nothing like the kings of this world who use their power in ways that often do as much damage as good. The lion of Judah is a crucified king. One who uses his royal power and authority to give his life for those he loves. His rule takes the shape of a cross.

Preparing our hearts for his return

So how can we be prepared for the return of this king?

Mark 1:4-8

Mark repeats Isaiah’s royal proclamation and then turns it to personal preparation. How do we make ourselves ready for this king? Though Baptism. Not the act itself, but what it represents. Repentance, putting away darkness, dying to self. Of entering fully into the kingdom of God, embracing Jesus’ right-side-up kingdom over the kingdoms of this world.

Here’s the catch: it means we must become cross-shaped as well. The cruciform One calls us to cruciformity. This is what baptism is. It symbolizes our death to sin and self, and being brought back to new life in God.  The apostle Paul wrote, Galatians 2:19–20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

People outside the church want the kingdom - the righteousness, peace, joy, and more that come with God’s reign - without wanting the King. They seek justice without judgment, freedom without surrender, and love without forgiveness. They want the fruit of the kingdom without the rule of the King.

But for us inside the church, we often want the King and his kingdom without a cross. We’ll take a Savior who gets us to heaven, a Lord of the afterlife. And we like all the blessings of forgiveness and peace that come with his rule. Yet Jesus calls us to take up the cross as well. This is what it means to follow him. If the world wants the kingdom without the King, the church wants the King without a cross.

To be prepared for the returning King we must become cross-shaped. To embrace the right-side-up nature of the kingdom where we conquer by dying, win by losing, and gain by giving But there is a comfort being offered in this as well. There is comfort in knowing that if we will conform ourselves to his death, he will conform us to his life through the power of the Holy Spirit. The King is coming, and you will be comforted through a transformed life.

Gospel/Response

Going back to my opening story, we can all live our lives a lot like that demented greyhound - driven and disoriented by irrational fears, pursued by entire packs of bloodthirsty bistro chairs, too scared to simply stop. And so this morning, the second Sunday of Advent, God speaks firmly into the noise and discord of our human experience. Our Master comes to speak peace and comfort to our racing hearts and minds.

Of course, we find it incredibly difficult to hear his voice at times, but as we do so, perspective is restored and terrors turn back into bistro chairs. This is why the return of the king is such good news for us today.

Jesus’ reign is something we can experience now… (next steps slide).