When Jesus came to this world, He set up a new kingdom.  And as part of that new kingdom, He is the king(Matt. 27:11).  Sometimes we do not think of Jesus as being our King, but He is.  We don’t have too many kings in the world at this time.  There are probably more than you might think, but those kings are mere men.  They are fallible, and they will die.  Jesus is infallible, and He is eternal.  He will only ever do what is best for us, just like He always has.  But how did He become king?

Becoming King

Some men become king by inheriting a kingdom from their father when their father dies.  Jesus did not inherit His kingdom from His Father as a result of His Father’s death, as His Father never died.  God, Our Father, is eternal just as His Son is eternal.

Some men acquire a king through means of conquering a land and/or people.  William the Conqueror, the first king of England, was like this.  Many others have assumed the throne in a similar fashion.  But is this how Jesus obtained His kingdom?

In Matt. 21:11, Jesus enters Jerusalem just a few days before His crucifixion.  He does not enter with an army.  Instead, He enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey(v. 7), and Matthew lets us know that this is in fulfillment of the prophecy made by the prophet Zechariah, over 400 years earlier, in Zech. 9:9.  Jesus did arrive in Jerusalem to great fanfare, but He did so humbly(or lowly Matt. 21:5).

Humility is not a characteristic of most kings, but Jesus was not like most kings, or really any other king ever.  He did not come to be served, but to serve(Matt. 20:28).  So when He entered Jerusalem, as a king, He did so not as a Conqueror, but as a Liberator.  His goal, from the beginning, was to liberate us from our own sins; He came to take away the sins of the world(John 1:29).  In doing so, He liberated us from our sins.  He gave us life, but not more physical life, as that would be but a short reprieve.  Instead, He gave us eternal life(John10:28; 20:31).  With that eternal life, we do not need to worry about the second death, which is eternal separation from God(Rev. 20:12-15).  Instead, we will have eternal life with Him(Rev. 21:7).

We need to remember our King, and everything He does for us.  The greatest thing He did for us was to liberate us from our sins.  This allows us to have eternal life with Him.  How could anything be better than that?