Christ the King

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The Arrival of the King

Matthew 2:1-12

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”

 

          The Magi’s’ story is familiar and is read and proclaimed every Christmas. It is so recognizable we can almost recite it by memory. It has been embedded in our minds from our childhood as we hear the story recounted through Christmas carols, pageants, and children's books.  However, it is one thing to know the story, but it is another to recognize the significance and embrace its implications.  The story introduces the book's theme and the message that Matthew interweaves throughout his book.  The gospel of Matthew is not just a record of the events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.  Matthew is not just writing as a historian.  Matthew is writing as a theologian with a theological message.  Matthew's central theme and message is to present Christ as the Messianic King who fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies related to the Davidic King.  Matthew points us to Christ who has come to establish an everlasting kingdom in which He would reign with justice and righteousness.

          While we celebrate and recite the story of the birth of the King, it is a whole different story when we are confronted with the story's implications.  We must ask ourselves, “What is the Kingdom of Christ and what are the implications for us?”  To answer this question, we need to delve deep into scriptures to understand Christ's physical and spiritual reign in the present and future and then live in light of the implications.  When Christ came, he inaugurated the establishment of His spiritual reign in anticipation of His future return when He will establish His kingdom on earth and reign over the whole world.  While the physical kingdom is yet future, the spiritual aspect of the kingdom is realized when we surrender our lives to His rule.  To embrace His spiritual reign involves submitting to His sovereign rule in all facets of life by increasingly bringing everything under His sovereign control.  It involves increasingly submitting to His lordship over every aspect of our lives and surrendering our will to Him. When Christ becomes our king, we bring all things under His control and allow Him to determine our thoughts, desires, plans, motives, actions, and attitudes.  

We live in a world today in which our political allegiances serve to define what we believe.  Our politics determines what news agencies we listen to, what authors we read, and what laws and governmental policies we support.  The result is that our culture is increasingly polarized and divided.  We pronounce our political allegiances through signs, bumper stickers, and public declarations.  We make the political leaders of our affirmed party saints while demonizing those in the other party.  We fail to realize that we are looking in the wrong place for the wrong solutions.  We are looking for political solutions to spiritual problems.

Politicians (whether Democrat or Republican) ultimately fail, for they are not the answer.  The only answer to the problems of the world is Jesus.  He is the only King who will restore the world entirely and solve the spiritual problem of sin that distorts and corrupts all things.  Therefore, we must turn to Him for our answers, individually and globally.  Only when we accept Christ as our King and submit to Him and His word will we genuinely discover the answers to all of life’s problems in our lives and the world.  The problem we face is not that the wrong party is in power; the problem is where we are looking.  We affirm our loyalty to a political party but refuse to surrender to Christ.  In the end, we will find our world broken and hopeless.  Only when we accept Christ as our King and His sovereign reign over every facet of our life will we discover the answers for life.  Instead of following a political party, ideology, or leader, follow and surrender to Christ, for He was born not only as the King of the Jews but also the King of the universe and the King of each of us.  He, and He alone, is the answer the world seeks.  Begin each day by asking Christ to increasingly exert His sovereign rule in your life so that you obey Him in all aspects.  When you do, you will discover a leader worth following.

 

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