Where is the King?
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Jesus had a habit of making people nervous. Peter, we know, from time to time didn't like having Jesus around and exposing His sin. The proud Pharisees and Sadducees likewise didn't like having their sin exposed. But their beef was far broader. It may be that their principle concern wasn't over His personal holiness so much as what His presence meant to the existing order of things. That is, what bothered them was that He might bother their bosses, their overlords, and that those lords might in turn turn their wrath on them. They were onto something that even those who seemed to love Jesus knew.

To understand the context of the earthly ministry of Jesus I like to ask people, "Do you ever wonder why it was that the people of Palestine were so insistent in seeing Jesus as a political revolutionary?" We've all wondered that, haven't we? I mean, how could they have been so dim? I then explain that people thought of Jesus as a political revolutionary because Jesus was a political revolutionary.

Consider this interesting snippet of geography. Caesarea Philippi was a Roman city known for three things. First, it was a center for the worship of Pan, a god whose area of expertise was orgiastic celebration. Second, the city was a garrison for Roman soldiers. Third, and related to the second, if not the first, in the city there was a river that flowed into a cave dug into a huge stone formation. It was not uncommon for Roman soldiers to dispose of the bodies of their Jewish victims in the mouth of this cave/river. Now we know the city for a fourth reason. It was there, in answer to Jesus' question about His identity that Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus responded by reminding Peter whence came this news, and concludes, "And thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

I bet you've wondered about that as well. In speaking of warfare, why would we think of gates as prevailing? Gates are defensive weapons. They might keep someone else from prevailing, but they can hardly prevail themselves. The answer is in the geography. What did the Jews call this hole in the rock, this mouth/river? The gates of hell. Jesus is saying, with absolute clarity to His audience, "My gospel will destroy Roman cultural and military might." Three centuries later, the Emperor Julian the Apostate died with these words, "Thou has conquered, Galilean."

We need not go, however, to Caesarea Philippi, or fast forward three centuries to see this. Imagine for a moment that you are Herod. The home office, back in Rome, has conquered Judea. They have placed you in charge. You don't have to subjugate the Jews, just keep them under subjection. In exchange for taking on this job, you will live like a king, you'll be treated like a king. You'll be called a king, king of the Jews.

One day, however, some visiting dignitaries show up. They have traveled far. They are given an audience with the great and terrible Herod. They are seeking your wisdom, and so ask you, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him" (Matthew 2:2). Matthew perhaps practices a bit of British understatement when he says, "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled" (vs. 3).

The incarnation is so much more than the arrival of one who would deliver us from the wrath of God for our sins. It is so much more even than one thing we have made pains to emphasize in this issue, that Jesus, in taking on flesh, blessed the creation, the physical, tangible world. The incarnation is also an invasion. The birth of Christ was the D-day of the battle prophesied at the beginning, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel" (Genesis 3:15). Jesus the King was coming, the captain of the Lord's Hosts.

This is precisely why Herod was troubled. Roman imperial power was the incarnation of the seed of the serpent, just as any state that dares to defy the Lord. The Lord that he had defied was born, was no longer merely transcendent, but had become immanent. That was why Herod responded to the threat in such a vicious fashion, putting to death all the boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem and around the vicinity.

Rome, of course, didn't stop there. When Jesus slipped through their fingers, they did not give up. Thirty years later again they killed the one they rightly called The King of the Jews. But death could not, and cannot hold Him. Instead, having been raised on the third day, He then was raised yet again, ascending to His heavenly throne, now as the Second Adam, endowed with all authority in heaven and on earth.

But He is still here, for we, His bride, His people, His body, are Jesus incarnate. This is why Rome put to death thousands more. This is why Christians are martyred across the ages, and across the globe. We are still a threat to all those kings who seek to throw off the Lord's anointed, who refuse to kiss the Son. And so, though the strong man has been bound, though his head has been crushed, the battle continues here and now, until the consummation, until we once more behold Him in His flesh.

Then though, as He comes again, He comes to judge both the living and the dead. Then He shall break all who deny that He is King with a rod of iron. He will dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Therefore we must serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. For He is our one and only true king, now and forever.