Doubtless, many of you did what I did last Saturday morning and watched the coronation of King Charles III. The event gave true meaning to the term “pomp and circumstance.”
It was so interesting to hear the references to Scripture as the formal part of the coronation proceeded. The Bible was proclaimed as the most important book in the world, and many references were made to passages from it.
As I watched, I couldn’t help remembering the preceding events to this day. There was a marriage, an affair, a divorce, other marriages, two deaths, a defection, and now a coronation. In between was a lot of drama. Through it all, there was sin, plain and simple.
The coronation reminded me of the kings of the divided kingdom. King after king took the thrones of Israel and Judah. King after king sinned against God. Even in the New Testament we read about the sinfulness of several kings who wore the name of Herod. They married, had affairs, divorced, remarried, and claimed to be adhering to the Jewish laws. They even committed murder for what they deemed to be a logical way to handle things. King Herod Agrippa came the closest to changing as he gave attention to Paul’s story of his conversion. So far as we know, he never took that step.
True royalty rests in one place—heaven. That is the kingdom we want to inhabit. The beatitudes in Matthew 5 lay out a plan for true royalty, those that will be a part of the kingdom. It is the person that is poor in spirit, meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker, and someone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. That hunger and thirst can’t help but lead to obedience.
John relates Jesus’ own promise to His disciples about heaven. He says “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
We know this earthly home is not our real home. Paul told the Philippians that our citizenship is in heaven; and we are waiting for our Savior, Jesus. He will change these earthly bodies into a glorious body like His. His followers will have a spiritual robe and crown, and we will be a part of the royal family of God. According to Peter, our inheritance will be “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.”
When the apostle John was allowed to see into heaven, he declared that everything was new. There God will wipe away all tears; there will be no death; there will be no mourning or crying; there will be no pain (Revelation 21).What a joy it will be to have a new body in a new kingdom and be free of the temptations, pain, and cares of the world.
In chapter 22, John reveals that those with clean robes will have the right to the tree of life and can enter the gates to the kingdom. Those that won’t have a place in the kingdom of God will be “sorcerers, and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” I don’t want to be one of those.
The pomp and circumstance of position, horse-drawn carriages, fancy attire, military presence, and huge numbers of fans cannot compare with the return of our Lord. An angel told the eleven gazing into the sky when Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1 that Jesus would return in the same way He left. John affirms this in Revelation 1. “Behold he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him”. Now that’s the appearance of a true king.
Sandra Oliver