The Coming King

I wrote this on the first day of the new year, having mingled in church that morning with some of the many refugees who are part of the congregation. Many of them long for home and family whom they have left behind. Many of the refugees have fled their own country because their lives were in danger for no other reason than they had had a revelation of Jesus, showing him to be the Saviour of the world. They could no longer follow their old religion. My refugee friends have sadness in their hearts. They don’t belong here and they long for the familiarities of home and family.

The title of this seed is the title of a Christmas sermon I listened to recently. The theme of the message was that Jesus was a refugee – a concept I hadn’t thought much about previously. The more I thought about it the more I was lost in wonder. The great Creator of the universe who was born in Bethlehem to fulfil Scripture became a homeless stranger in a foreign land.

Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, and after the Magi’s visit to worship Him, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 2:13), telling Joseph to escape from Bethlehem to Egypt because Herod was going to search for the child to kill Him. During the night this little family began the hazardous journey to Egypt (690 km) and stayed there as refugees until Herod had died.

Archelaus, Herod’s scheming son succeeded his father and became the new king of Judea. Joseph was warned in another dream and told not to go back to their home in the desirable area of Judea, but to go from Egypt to Nazareth. Nazarenes were despised. Nazareth was documented as the lowest place on earth, a place where few people would choose to live. But Jesus lived His life there and was known as a Nazarene.

Jesus was later introduced to Nathaniel who became one of the twelve disciples. He was introduced as ‘Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth’.  Nathaniel seemed quite shocked and said, “Can any good thing come from there?” He was told to meet Jesus for himself and then make up his mind. The meeting with Jesus changed him forever (John 1:45). Once anyone truly meets Jesus, they can never be the same again.

Six hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah said, ‘He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs’ (Isaiah 53:3). The King of kings became a refugee and a despised Nazarene. He took the lowest place. He is meek and lowly in heart, and we are told to come to Him and find rest for our souls. His love and humility need to be poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit, so that it overflows to others, because I can’t produce it myself.

At certain times, it’s good to look back with gratitude and thank God for His blessings, His faithfulness and His enduring love. Life hasn’t always been easy. We all have trials and testing, but the crunch point is can we say with Peter, “Lord you know all things, you know that I love you. You are first in my heart. My desire today is to love You more, not just because You have done so much for me, but because of who You are - the coming king who became a hunted refugee and a despised Nazarene, who will return in glory for His bride. You were rich, yet, for my sake, You became poor, that through Your poverty I might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).