Did you hear that the Queen of Denmark will abdicate her throne? Later this month, on the fifty-second anniversary of her ascent to the throne, Queen Margrethe will step down, opening the door for her son to become King of Denmark. The announcement caught my attention. With a deep appreciation for democracy, we may still wonder, what it would be like to live in a kingdom and have a king.
Jesus emptied himself as he stepped down from the throne of heaven to be born as a human being. When he began to preach, in his first sermon he said, “Repent. The Kingdom of God is here.” Now Luke tells us that after his crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead and gave his disciples convincing proof that he was alive. For forty days before his ascension, Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom of God. Then he ascended to the right hand of the Father. From the beginning of his public ministry until his exit from this earth, Jesus taught about the kingdom.
What do we know about the kingdom of God? We have truncated the gospel, and somehow have forgotten Jesus’ primary subject. Every time we pray the model prayer that Jesus taught, we say, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Alan Redpath famously said, “We can never pray ‘Thy kingdom come,” until we are willing to pray, “My kingdom go.” For Jesus to reign without rival in my life, I must abdicate the throne of my life. Jesus is King over the universe. Isn’t it time that he ruled in our lives as well?
