No crown, no palace, no riches ...

On our fall holiday-trips I happened across two novels just when I was running out of reading material! Both dealt with the controversial topic of Jesus' grave -- and whether bones unearthed in the '90s of this century might in fact be his? -- To find these novels in a magazine kiosk alongside the lottery tickets does seem a little strange, doesn't it! They've been a good read -- but rather 'unorthodox'!  

Where do most of us get our 'information about Jesus, 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords'? Church attendance is down since the Great Wars. People are searching for a spirituality without the discipline [and oblgation and cost] of belonging to a church or denomination. Information from 'web' sites feeds many curious appetites -- but is it correct?  Is it useful without the fellowship that brings God's Word to life?

As I leafed through the new 2008 Presbyterian calendar with the theme: 'Faces of Mission', the 2006-2007 annual report of Presbyterian World Service and Development, and the Something Extra projects for 2007 -- which all have beautiful pictures of people from around the world on their covers and inside -- I couldn't help thinking that our Lord may have looked like any of them!  Matthew 25 suggests he actually comes to us  hungry and thirsty; a stranger, as a sick person; a prisoner -- The little boy's smiling face on the Something Extra leaflet especially spoke to me! And, the bearded, weathered face of the young male on the PWS&D report cover looked as Jesus must have -- laughing with eyes squinting and a full mouth of white teeth showing!!

Jesus was not an obvious king! According to the Scriptures he didn't wear a crown until his beating before his crucifixion. His visits to palaces were also in that passion-time of his life, when he was tried before the High Priest and Pilate... He did receive riches -- at his birth. Whatever happened to these? We don't know that they were saved for a later university education. At one point Jesus said: "Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

I believe we mustn't think of Jesus as too 'disadvantaged'! When many of us were young, we also had far less than our children have today --  we were happy. Sometimes we were poor and sad. Sometimes ill. Sometimes hungry ...

Our great King and our Saviour; the Son of God, was fully God and human --  Scripture wants us to accept that he was the full revelation of God sent to us so the world might be reclaimed for God our Creator!    This is the Lord and King of the Church whom we celebrate on Sunday November 25, and always!

How wonderful it is to know Him and to be reminded of Jesus in many of the faces we see daily. Thanks be to God. Amen