What Kind of King are You Seeking?

“Where is He who is born king of the Jews?”

Matthew 2:2

“Where is He who is born king of the Jews?”  That’s the question the magi ask when they arrive in Jerusalem. I hear that question and I ask another one.  What kind of king where they looking for?  Everyone in this story seems to be looking for something different. The magi come first to King Herod’s palace.  That suggests that they were looking for a traditional earthly king – a child born to wealth and privilege… a descendant of a king… one who would inherit the title.  The priests seem content to leave things the way they are.  They hear the question.  They go right to the answer Scripture gives. “In Bethlehem, in Judea, for so it is written by the prophet…”  Yet they make no effort to go to Bethlehem. The only king Herod wants is himself.  He is greatly troubled.  He pretends to want to find go and worship him.  In reality he plots the death of Jesus.  

What kind of king are you and I seeking?”  What do we want Jesus to be?  Once again there are many different answers.  Sometimes we want Jesus to be like a modern day King – just a figurehead. They wear the crown.  They represent their nation. Yet they have no real power to govern.  We do that.  We say, “He’s my king.  I follow Him.”  Yet we allow Him no real power over how we live.  We live as we please not as He pleases.  If kings have any power today is in giving advice or in being a role model.  Is that what we want from Jesus? Someone to look up to?  Someone to show us how to live?  Some of us want a King with power.   We want King we can come to with problems… someone we can fix things for us… someone we can blame when things don’t go wrong.  At other times we are like Herod.  Too often the only King you want is you… or that I want is me.  We want to be able to do what we want, when we want.  Sometimes we just want a benign king who just pats us on the head and tells us, “Everything is fine. Don’t change a thing.   You and I may want Him to set things straight in this world.  Yet by that we mean straighten everyone else out – not you, not me.

Yet, no matter what we want, the King the magi found in Bethlehem is much, much different.  God doesn’t send Jesus to be the King we want. He Him to be the King you and I need.  So they find Him in a humble home not a palace.   His parents are anything but royal.  Joseph is a carpenter.  Mary is a poor peasant girl.  He was wrapped in rags, not fine linens.  Our King is one of us… one who came to live as we live, struggle as we struggle, be tempted as we are tempted.  Ours is a King who understands our lives.   

Secondly, our King chose to wear our crown, rather than His own.  When the magi come to Jerusalem they ask, “Where is He who is born king of the Jews?”  Jesus is called “king of the Jews” only one other time in the Gospel of Matthew.  At his trial Pilates asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  The soldiers mock him with that title as they crown Him with thorns.  Pilate has those words nailed to His cross.  This is the kind of King He is.  He not only lives our life but also dies the death we deserve.  Yes He confronts us with the reality of our sin.  More importantly He pays the price for our sin.  He is punished in our place.  That’s the King Jesus came to be – the one who sacrifices everything for us, even His own life.

Third, Jesus is our shepherd king.  It’s right there in the passage that the priests quote from Micah. “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”  He is a King who takes care of us. He listens to our prayers.  He heals our wounds.  He works all things together for our good.  He leads us in green pastures and beside still waters.  He guides us in the paths of righteousness and guards us in the valley of the Valley of the Shadow.  That doesn’t mean He fixes everything the way we want.  A shepherd often pulls his sheep in a direction they don’t want to go.  He sees the danger better than we sheep do.  He knows best where to take us.   That’s what we need to remember when life doesn’t go the way we want it to go.  He comes to be the shepherd King we need, if not always the one we want.

Finally, He is a King we cannot out give.  People are always trying to find hidden meaning behind the gifts brought by the magi – gold for a king, frankincense because He will offer Himself, and myrrh an ointment used to prepare a body for death.  The Bible gives these gifts none of those meanings.  I see them as hugely out of place.  I think they brought them to give to the kind of King they were expecting – a wealthy prince living in a palace.  Here, with this king they are out of place.  Yet Jesus received their worship and their gifts.  Yet they are nothing compared to what He gives – God’s own Son given for the world, for the magi, for you and me.  Every gift we give to Him will fall short. We cannot out give our King.  Indeed the one gift that honors Him above all others is to receive His gifts… it is put your whole faith and trust in Him and Him alone.  I’ve told you a story about a man pushing a wheel barrel across a huge water fall.  At first no one believed he could. But once he’d done it, everyone said, “Sure I believe.”  To that the man replied, “If you really believe I can, then please sit in my wheel barrel and let me push you across.”  That’s faith. That’s the faith that Jesus the King seeks from you and me… to crawl into His wheel barrel.. to put ourselves completely in His hands.  That may not be the kind of King you were expecting.  But that is the kind of King we need.  That’s the kind of King Jesus is - the kind you can trust completely… with everything. Amen.