In Jesus’ time, the kings were the Caesars, who ruled the Roman Empire as gods and worshipped as such. They granted freedoms to the subject populations - Jews, for instance, could assemble and worship freely in the temples and synagogues - in exchange for obedience to Roman rule. The emperors even permitted local kings to operate under Roman jurisdiction: the psychopath King Herod the Great was “King of the Jews” - at least until another pretender to the throne appeared.

On Palm Sunday, the Church celebrates the entry into Jerusalem of a very different kind of king: Jesus, the Son of God. To the common folk who welcomed him, Jesus’ kingship derived from his example, his teaching, and the “deeds of power” that he worked among them. The manner of his entry - on the back of a young donkey - was a clear statement about the nature of his kingship. It fulfilled the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures while presenting a king devoid of the usual trappings of pomp and spectacle.

Over whom or what is Jesus king? Jesus does not seek to establish a political kingdom. The closest the world got to that was in the fourth century, during the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great, who decreed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. If that sounds like progress, remember that people converted to Christianity in order to advance their political careers. Pure Christianity and political power appear to have always had an inimical relationship.

Jesus himself makes clear that the kingdoms over which he will rule are the kingdoms of heaven and earth. However, these two kingdoms are not the same. We have obligations to both, which Jesus illustrated by holding up a coin and asking whose head was displayed on it. The answer was “the emperor’s.” Jesus told them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:19-21)

That suggests that the two kingdoms - earthly and heavenly - can co-exist. However, there are times when the earthly kingdom seeks to claim part of the heavenly realm for itself. When the emperor required Christians to worship Caesar and not God, brave Christians repudiated their Roman masters and chose God. This became a test of Christian character and led to many martyrdoms. 

What was it that made Christians forfeit their lives in the coliseum and elsewhere - to choose to be torn apart by lions rather than confess Caesar as God? The answer is found in the personal relationship between Jesus, the king of heaven, and his subjects. It is a relationship founded on love. Jesus’ example is one of self-sacrifice, which inspires his followers to act similarly. It is not a superficial identification with the king of heaven, but a loving surrender of the self to the will of God.

The way of surrender and sacrifice raises up people of conscience and courage. This matters, because the kingdoms of earth, wherever they are, are always aiming to grab the heavenly spaces for themselves. The evidence is discernible in the increasing hostility to the Christian faith, both here and abroad, by secular and religious rivals.

This year has provided grim evidence of Christians being attacked and killed. In February this year, in the eastern Congo, 70 Christians -men, women and children - were abducted and beheaded by Islamist militia. In Nigeria last month, hundreds of Christians were killed in a series of attacks on Christian villages which were raided and burned to the ground. In Syria, the ancient church is almost extinct, because of persecution.

One must ask, who stands up for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being tortured and murdered for their faith? Is this not the time when brave witness is called for, especially from the leaders of the worldwide Church? Yet for some reason many of our church leaders, who strike moral poses on many issues, ignore the sufferings of our Christian brothers and sisters abroad. 

There is silence too in the face of the pernicious incursion of the State into the practice of prayer. Here I am talking about the UK, which does not have the benefit of the First Amendment to protect its citizens. Under the current UK law, where it is illegal to pray within 150 years of an abortion center, people are being arrested for praying. 

On YouTube there is a chilling video of a grandmother being questioned by the police. She is standing alone in a public street. At one point the policeman asks her, in a threatening voice, “Are you praying?” She refuses to come to the police station voluntarily and so is arrested on the spot. This is no isolated incident. Others have been arrested for praying silently and have ended up in police cells. 

I would have thought that the act of prayer was so sacrosanct that every churchwoman and man in England would be gathering to protest, but alas, that has not happened. It begs the question, how much are you prepared to give to Caesar and how much to God? If prayer no longer belongs to God but to the State, then an important principle of our faith has been surrendered. 

There are almost no martyrs in our western church. This reflects the benefits of living in peace and freedom. It could also mean that, if the personal cost of discipleship is deemed too high, we are no longer willing to stand up for the basic principles of our faith. Our silence convicts us of timidity, at a time when the Church is increasingly under attack. 

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhöffer, (whom we remember today in our Church calendar,) wrote about the separation between Church and the world. The Church operates in the world but is not of the world. Christians identify with a man of suffering, Jesus Christ, who is “the narrow way and the strait gate.” If we follow him, step by step, we shall not go astray. However, Bonhöffer warns us that

“…if we worry about the dangers that beset us, if we gaze at the road instead of at Him who goes before, we are already straying from the path.”

I think of the king entering Jerusalem. What did he die for? His story inspires us, but have we taken his sacrifice for granted? He died not that we might live in comfort, free from trouble, but that we might be brave people of conscience and courage. Instead, our faith has grown flabby, and we turn away from injustice. We are silent for fear of offending those whose favor we seek. We have taken our eyes off the king of grace, and become adrift in a sea of relativism and materialism. 

We have a kingdom worth dying for, but what will it take for us to be roused from our semi-slumber? Will we let go of our attachment to worldly approval and embrace instead the life of heaven? God’s grace is freely given and we are invited to share in his glory. However, until we are willing to accept the cost of discipleship, which calls us to share in Christ’s sufferings along with his glory, we will be straying from the path that leads to heaven.

Father David