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Yesterday, I noticed there were many people out carrying signs around town the read “No Kings.” Sparing the details, this is a political slogan in relation to the current President of the United States and whether he is more like a king. Regardless of what you think about such a slogan, I couldn’t help but notice that today, Palm Sunday, we begin Mass with a similar looking gathering in which we all loudly say how much we want a king. So which is it?
I’m as patriotic as they come in my feelings toward the United States and its history, but if you dig into history much, you quickly find that the most stable and long-lasting nations have always been monarchies. It turns out the a good king is the best system of government the world has ever known. But how do you get a good king? There’s the rub. Because a bad king, or tyrannical dictator, are among the worst causes of suffering in the history of the world. I think the answer then is that if we could have a really good kind, then that is what we would want and that is why we really can wave our palm branches with joy today while acclaiming Jesus as king.
You see, Jesus is the best king possible. He uses all his power not for his own gain, but for the good of his subjects. Jesus is the ultimate example of someone who could “get what he wants” because he has all the power. But instead he uses his power to do what is best for everyone else. We are powerless. Stuck under the weight of sin we need saving. Jesus chooses to empty himself of his power and use it for our salvation. It’s no wonder we want him to be our king.
Fairy tales are often full of people wishing for something that it turns out is not really good for them. Getting what you wish for in fairy tale often leads to disaster. In the musical Into the Woods, Cinderella’s mother asks her, “Are you certain what you wish is what you want?” It seems most of politics today is people just trying to use whatever means possible to get what they want. But what if we instead had someone we could trust that knows better than us what we should really wish for and who himself only wants to give us what is good? That’s Jesus. So it turns out that we really do want a king after all.