The Coming of the Crucified King

The Enigma of King Jesus and His Kingdom

Per the Christian Calendar, this week is Holy Week. This Holy Week began last Sunday, which we know as Palm Sunday, with the procession of Jesus into Jerusalem. I always find the story of Jesus’s procession into Jerusalem to be an interesting juxtaposition to the society we live in, particularly considering the two previous Sundays prior to Palm Sunday.

Three Sundays ago were the Oscars. Whether we watched the Oscars or not, we know about it and not just because Will Smith decided to slap Chris Rock. We know about the Oscars because we can hardly turn on the news or social media without hearing about it. Every year we see the pictures of different celebrities walking on the red carpet in the fanciest of wardrobes and treated as celebrities The same goes for the Grammys, two Sundays ago. Then we come to Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt.

This humble entrance of Jesus, whom we believe is the Messiah, ought to challenge us. We know where this story is going. As we have followed Jesus throughout his ministry in the Galilean region, Jesus has made it clear that he is going to Jerusalem where he will be executed by crucifixion. That’s the Messiah who is entering Jerusalem on a colt. So as we proceed to coronate him as the King, we are faced with a challenge: Will we really accept this Jesus as King on the terms of his kingdom? Or is our coronation of Jesus as King on Palm Sunday nothing more than a vain religious gesture divorced from our actual lives and beliefs, values, and practices we live by?

We live in a world that says the only way to win is by bullets and ballots. The latter is preferred but when the political dialogue appears inadequate, might will always make right or so we tell ourselves. Yet Jesus enters Jerusalem neither by bullet nor ballot but is placed as a king onto a colt (cf. Lk 19:35)¹ so that he can ride into the city where he will be nailed to a cross — another juxtaposition. Yet the chorus of praise for Jesus resounds, “Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens” (Lk 19:38).²

We are faced with the enigma of King Jesus and his kingdom. We may ask what kind of kingdom is this? What kind of kingdom is it where the person we have coronated as King neither picks up a sword nor speaks a word against his accusers but instead subjects himself to the most barbaric and shameful manner of death called a crucifixion? The only conclusion to draw is that this is a kingdom brought about by neither a bullet nor a ballot but by a crucifixion.

Ponder that and remember that this very same Jesus we have crowned as King also said, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

And the point is?

Well, as I have tried to carefully point out, King Jesus inaugurates his kingdom by neither bullet nor ballot but by crucifixion instead. Yet this truth is not very evident throughout a lot of church history where Christians have wielded a sword, even against other Christians, in service to another king or to some sectarian creed. Likewise, this truth is not very self-evident in our observations of Christianity in America, where donkeys and elephants seem to captivate so much of the Christian mind.³

However, Jesus is resolute when it comes to the coming of God’s kingdom. According to the Gospel of Luke, the Pharisees tell Jesus to silence his disciples but Jesus will not. Instead, Jesus responds, “I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout.” In other words, neither the Pharisees nor anyone else will have a say in the terms upon which God’s kingdom is established. God has already spoken. His kingdom is and is to come, and his kingdom comes only through the coming of the Crucified King. We can follow this Crucified King into his Kingdom through the cross or we don’t. There isn’t any in-between on this matter.

On this Maundy Thursday, the day before Jesus will be crucified, let’s not forget that the coming of Jesus as King is the coming of a Crucified King. From the vantage point of the world, this is not Good Friday. To continue following Jesus seems foolish and scandalous. But Resurrection Sunday is coming and from the vantage point of Easter, following Jesus is to participate in his Kingdom and share in his victory.

Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end. Amen!

1. The placing (epibibazō) of Jesus upon the colt signifies the pronouncement of Jesus as a king, see I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 714.

2. All scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are taken from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

3. Well worth your time to watch is this video on the Wineskins YouTube channel by Matt Dabbs titled My Big Aha on Christian Nationalism, in which he explains the growing “Sadducees problem” among Christianity in America.