Royal Baby // A Real Game of Thrones
A voice in the desert crying “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”
Global media went into meltdown yesterday. The royal waters broke. The supreme cervix dilated. Twitter was awash with witty banter. Americans thronged the gates of the palace. The Daily Mail was bizarrely positive about a woman giving birth to a child funded entirely by the taxpayer.
The fanfare around the birth of our future king was remarkable – and I couldn’t help but think of the birth of the King of Kings.
A royal arrival.
Seeing the ecstatic crowds yesterday, I said to myself “that’s what a royal birth should be like”. The Wise Men of the Nativity story thought something similar:
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him'” (Matthew 2:1-2)
A king’s birth should be in the capital, thought the Magi, where the crowds can gather. But when King Jesus was born, he arrived in a small village. He’d left an eternal throne for a nine month stint in the womb of a Jewish teenager. He swapped robes of glory for a gooey placenta. What humility! And that humility led him to the cross; and Heaven’s glorious paradox is that humility leads to true glory.
“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and one earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11)
Our new prince will live a life of wealth, ceremony, status and adoration. Jesus lived a life roaming in obscurity and died in disgrace. But, in doing so, he obtained a glory that will long outlast the House of Windsor.
Whose throne is it anyway?
History is a game of thrones – a game of us saying to God “we’re calling the shots”, and God proving us wrong time and time again.
As our monarchy possesses no real power, we can struggle to appreciate the Bible’s talk of Jesus as “king”. But, across the vast majority of history, kingship = total, inarguable authority. That’s the kind of king Jesus is. And his throne will be the only on standing when all is said and done.
One day, the throne of the Commonwealth will be empty. It will fade and rust. Not so with the throne of Heaven. One day, you’ll see Jesus sitting there. You’ll see his title, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” writ larger than any headline you’ll see this week. From his throne, The King will finish history with two, authoritative acts:
- He’ll judge everyone who has ever lived – “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it… The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books… Anyone who name was not found written in the book life was thrown into the fire” – (Revelation 20:11a, 12b, 15)
- He will remake this world into a New Creation – “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said ‘write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’… Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children” (Revelation 21:5, 7)
We’re all going to stand under Jesus’ throne and hear the King’s verdict on us. For all eternity, we’ll either be cut off from him or enjoy being in his royal family.
The world is celebrating one throne this week, but is tragically ignorant of the throne that really matters. Pray that more people would bow the knee to Jesus Christ, the Servant King, who came to earth so that we could spend forever reigning with him.
An Unshakable Kingdom 