He Relates

The good news talks of a King establishing His Kingdom.

When I consider kings and members of royalty there is usually something about them that makes them hard to connect with, because their personality and position makes them someone who can only be seen from afar.  There is little personal connection and hardly anything to make someone think that we can relate with them.  The good news, however, introduces us to someone worthy of the title – King of Kings.

Here is our King.  He has close friends with whom He shares His life and mission. He invests Himself in them and they see Him in His strength and in His vulnerability.

Here is our King. He is shown lavish and extravagant displays of love and affection, which He welcomes and celebrates.  He enjoys an important religious and cultural feast with His friends who are family to Him. He shares the news of His impending betrayal by one of them.  He goes with his closest friends to pray and agonises as He resolves Himself for the tough course ahead.

Here is our King. His friends scatter and leave Him.  He is betrayed by one of His friends.  He is falsely accused and badly treated.  He is physically abused and rendered a social outcast. He is alone at the time when He needs His friends the most. He is the victim of a serious miscarriage of justice and He keeps quiet through it all, never protesting. The emotional and physical torment is worsened by the derision of masses.

Here is our King. Beaten, ridiculed, mocked, jeered, spat on, stripped, scorned, bloodied, battered and fatigued. Carrying the weight of the world in a way that no one ever had before, and ever would again. Enduring great suffering, sustained by the knowledge that His prayerful connection with the Father has prepared Him for this hour.

Here is our King. Nailed to a piece of wood, hung on the cross, life ebbing away, barely able to forgive those who have trespassed against Him, summoning up the strength to even offer a criminal the open door to paradise from the cross.

Here is our King. Crying out why has He been forsaken. Committing His spirit to His Father, breathing His last.

In these scenes it is understandable to be caught up in the drama of the episode.  In these scenes, however, we also capture a glimpse of something that brings hope to the human condition.

Here is our King – He can relate.

He can relate to experiences of abject poverty.  He can relate to extreme emotional, physical, mental and spiritual pain and suffering.  He can relate to loneliness from desired human companionship.  He can relate to misunderstanding, rejection, betrayal and abuse. He can relate to what it is for the nearest and dearest to you to let you down. He can relate to separation and loss.

He can relate to when things appear to be going wrong. He can relate to the crushing pressure of the status quo to conform to its ways even if it costs you your life. He can relate to times of emotional highs balanced with deep lows.

Here is our King. He can relate.

Not only can He relate in His Body expressed in different areas of the globe, He does relate.  He reaches out through mercy missions, He visits the sick, imprisoned and the lonely.  He feeds the hungry and clothes the naked.  He embraces those neglected, betrayed and abused.  He brings hope to the hopeless. He enriches the lives of those impoverished in every aspect of life. He feels the full force of death and overcomes it to show us the way to Life.

With what anguish and loss

Jesus went to the cross

And He carried my sins with Him there

Now seated at the right hand of God, our King relates to God on our behalf and relates to us on God’s behalf.  Now we have a priest and a King who knows what we’re going through.  Not only that, but He relates and knows what it is to feel all the hurt and pain and yet not sin. In this, He doesn’t reject us when we stray, or condemn us when we sin.  He relates and shares His amazing love through His grace and mercy, His patience towards us to learn of Him and be healed by Him, and be a healing balm to a sick and dying world.

Here is our King – He relates.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden