A MESSAGE FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY IN LENT
History is full of examples
of kings being forcibly dethroned by their people. We have only to think of the beheading of King
Charles I of England by the forces of Oliver Cromwell, the guillotining of King
Louis XVI during the French Revolution, or the shooting of Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia by the Bolsheviks. Kings have a
way of coming to a sticky end once they lose the loyalty and support of the
people over whom they rule.
In each of these cases and nearly
all the others of history, the royal rulers had previously enjoyed a period of
unquestioned power and control over their people. But in each case, something clicked, some
final straw triggered a breaking point from which there was no turning
back. Often, as in the case of France
and Russia, it’s something to do with an increasingly unacceptable discrepancy
between the luxurious lifestyle of the ruling class and the dire poverty of the
masses. There comes a moment at which
the people say “We’ve had enough!”
We see in today’s Gospel an
example of this phenomenon, when the mob attempts to “come and take Jesus by
force, to make him a king.” They had had
enough of the Roman occupation, of the tyrannous rule of kings like Herod, of
the hypocrisy of the high priests and pharisees. They sought a Messiah who would be for them a
great Liberator from these evils, a political figurehead who would rid them of
their oppressive rulers. Our blessed
Lord, of course, was having none of that, and so “he departed into a mountain
himself alone.”
In a couple of weeks’ time,
on Palm Sunday, we will see a second attempt to make him an earthly king when he
was hailed and glorified during his triumphal arrival in the capital city of
Jerusalem, the multitudes greeting him with shouts of Hosanna, still obstinately
entrenched in their mistaken expectations.
As we have seen with our own eyes recently, when great hopes are dashed,
the ensuing anger must find an outlet.
Whether they’re storming the Bastille or the Capitol building, the rage
of the mob is a frightening thing. And
when they see their bloody King tightly bound and crowned with thorns before
Pilate, when they hear that his kingdom “is not of this world,” their disappointment
and fury know no bounds and their shouts of Hosanna turn to condemnation as
they cry out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
But our Lord was indeed a
king and a liberator. Crowned with
thorns, he delivered his people not from the slavery of the Romans, but from
sin and death. Clothed not with fine
robes and jewels but with the sins of the world, this is our King, and as loyal
subjects, it is now time for us to follow him to Calvary.
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