“Above his head they placed the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

                 Over the last many years our family has enjoyed the exploits of our youngest daughter in baseball and then softball.  She’s been an all-star on virtually every team she’s played.  Her success has given our family a bit of notoriety in the Southside Little League community.  It has also given me an opportunity to become her “manager” of sorts.  I carry her bag to and from the field, help her teams at practice, give her some advice (like Tiger Woods’ caddy, I’m sure) with the hopes that when she turns pro and signs a big fat contract, I’ll get a cut of the money.  Well, … I can dream, right?!  Professional softball players today don’t make squat.  But it’s all good fun nonetheless.

One of the things that repeatedly occurs during her practices is various lines from sports movies, especially baseball/softball movies popping up.  One particular movie, A League of Their Own, depicts the rise and fall of a woman’s baseball league during World War 2.  Tom Hanks plays the manager, a foul-mouthed alcoholic and former major league star that’s washed up.  His involvement is critical for a successful league launch.  During a practice, Hanks chews out one player and hurts her feelings in the process causing her to cry.  Hanks goes ballistic and shouts, “Crying?!  Crying?!  There’s no crying in baseball!!”  That line has made its way into our practices, including an almost unlimited number of adaptations: “There’s no sissies in softball!”  “There’s no backtalk in softball!”  You get the picture.

So what does this have to do with the King of the Jews?  Much.  First, we note that the above verse from Matthew 27:37 states the ‘crime’ Jesus was supposedly guilty of: being the Jewish king.  His ceremonial and triumphant entry in Jerusalem in Matthew 21:3 fulfills Zechariah 9:9.  Here’s the connection: Jesus, the King of the Jews, is riding into town on a donkey…a donkey!  Here’s the spin on Hanks’ line: “There’re no kings on donkeys!”  What’s majorly wrong with this picture?  Kings — especially ones entering their capital city in celebratory procession — ride horses, not donkeys…especially white horses.  Not Jesus.  He’s on a donkey.  But why?

Jesus was sending a subtle message.  Kings on horses conquer through sheer power.  This King would do things differently.  The week after Palm Sunday would not go as the masses expected.  Remember they were shouting, “Hosanna”, which means, “save” or “save us”.   What they were yearning for was getting rid of Roman occupation, overthrowing the Gentile power, restoring Jewish sovereignty.  Not exactly what God had in mind…not by a long shot.

Enter the King of the Jews riding a donkey.  The Sovereign of the universe, Omnipotence personified, Omniscience in human flesh, sending out a misunderstood signal.  This Person of the ages had enemies who wanted him gone, and the sooner the better.  And instead of him saying the word that could have wiped out all of them in a mere nanosecond, instead of revealing their sins to the masses to highlight their fraud for all to see, instead of stooping to popular opinion and passion and giving the Jews what they wanted, Jesus allowed himself to be subject to his enemies’ wicked plot, all the way down to their personal preferences: convicting him on trumped up charges, condemning him in a charade of a trial, beating him while blindfolded, and then turning him over to the Romans, who did far worse before ultimately crucifying him, the most painful and torturous execution devised at that point in time.  And in doing so, he neither violated anyone’s free will, nor gave anyone a clue as to how to fulfill predictive passages written hundreds and thousands of years earlier that described the precise sequence of events as they occurred.  And by allowing them to do their very worst, he used that context to do his very best — for us!

You see, he is the King of the Jews.  Who are the Jews?  They are a small people group descended from Abraham surrounded by enemies and have their backs to the water (Mediterranean Sea).  Their know their king must be their savior.  They have no one else to turn to.  And in Jesus being “guilty” as King of the Jews, he’ll return as the King of Kings — King over all.  Such is the majesty of this royalty.

The King of the Jews is both subtle and strong, surprising and surpassing in glory, strategy and will not be undone or outdone by others.  Are you learning to be his loyal and faithful servant day by day?