JESUS BECAME KING WITHOUT FORCE
By Ernest O'Neill
JESUS BECAME KING WITHOUT FORCE
By Ernest O'Neill
So I wonder what meaning this Palm Sunday event has for you and me because you know what the Bible says. Well, you should look at it if you haven't been here for the past few weeks. Romans 15:4 is the verse that makes it clear that God has something in this event for us today.
Romans 15:4, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope." So this was written for our encouragement and you know we've been studying the encouragement of God and how he makes himself alive in our situations today in our life. Now, what does this say to us?
Well, first of all, if you had been a Roman soldier on that day or you had been a Jewish high priest and you saw this slight figure riding on this little donkey, the first fact that would have hit you square between the eyes is, this man is not going to become a king by force of arms. If he becomes a king at all, he certainly isn't going to become a king by force of arms because he is in no way a military conqueror as far as we can see.
So that's the first fact that we get that this man who was going to become a king, was going to become a king by means other than the visible means and methods that you and I usually accept. I mean we can see Hitler with his panzer divisions moving in. We can see Bismarck further back moving in with his armies. We can see the Montgomery moving in or Eisenhower moving in with the armor and the weapons and we understand that kind of rule and power but obviously this man, if he was going to become a king, he was not going to become a king using the usual, visible means and methods that we understand in our world.
Actually, that has become the verdict of history. There's a man called Shaff, and some of you who study theology know of Shaff's church history volumes. Shaff says this, "This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Cesar, Mohammad, and Napoleon, without science and learning, he shed more light on matters human and divine, than all philosophers and scholars combined, without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet, without writing a single line he set more pens in motion and furnished things for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of arts and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."