Heads Up For The King Of Glory!

“Heads up!” That’s something you might hear at a baseball game when a sharply hit foul ball comes careening your way. It’s a warning that could keep you from getting seriously hurt. “Heads up!” can also be an encouragement to stay alert so that you don’t miss something interesting like a moose, or bear grazing on the side of the road as you drive through Jasper.

This morning King David calls out to us, “Heads up! Heads up for the King of Glory!” He means that as both a warning and an encouragement because Jesus, the King of Glory, is our Creator and Saviour and therefore deserves our worship.

Jesus didn’t very much look like the King of Glory when he walked the earth, not even on Palm Sunday. Sure, as he came into Jerusalem people swarmed around him proclaiming the kingly greeting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9) As they said this they laid palm branches and their cloaks in his path giving Jesus the red carpet treatment a king deserved.

Still, Jesus didn’t look very kingly, especially seated atop the colt of a donkey. Was that the best he could do? Couldn’t he have had his disciples bring back a chariot or at least a white stallion to make his entrance into the holy city a bit more grand? I doubt if any of the movie stars who are planning on attending the Oscars tonight will show up in anything less than a chauffer-driven limo.

Jesus didn’t come riding into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey because that’s all he could afford or find. David said of Jesus in the first two verses of our text: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” As the King of Glory Jesus could have chosen anything on which to ride into Jerusalem, even a lion because he is the King of Creation!

Just think of how powerful and wise Jesus must be to have created all things. For example in the same time it took professional installers to put new windows in half of the parsonage last Monday, Jesus created light and laid the foundations of the earth. Before the Egyptians even dreamed of building pyramids Jesus had long created black holes and quasars. As impressive as the skyscrapers of this world are they are fragile toothpicks compared to the towering mountains. The Panama Canal is but a scratch in the earth’s surface compared to the Grand Canyon. And who can match the beauty of sunsets? Was the colt of a donkey all Jesus could afford on which to ride into Jerusalem? Of course not!

In just a little bit we’ll talk more about Jesus’ choice of transportation but let’s continue to consider what it means for us that Jesus is the King of Creation. The fact that Jesus is the King of Creation means that he not only created everything out there, but also in here (point to self), Therefore we shouldn’t think that we can use our body to do whatever we want. It’s not ours to experiment with on drugs or to misuse sexually. Nor is our mind free to wander wherever it wants. Instead it should always be thinking about how we can bring glory to the King of Creation.

David put it this way, “3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false” (Ps. 24:3, 4). Since God created us he has the right to demand what we be like, and what he wants is for us to have clean hands and a pure heart. Just how zealous is God about that? Very zealous, as David knew first hand. Some Bible students think that David may have written this Psalm to celebrate the Ark of the Covenant being brought into Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant was the place where God had chosen to reveal himself to his people. It was a sacred object and God had said that if anyone should touch it they would die. That very thing happened on an earlier attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem when a Levite reached out to steady the Ark after it had been loaded on to a cart for transport. For this act of disobedience God struck the offender dead (2 Sam. 6).

Wow, who can hope to stand in God’s presence? Only those who have clean hands and a pure heart. That disqualifies us all doesn’t it? Just think of how unclean our hands have been when we keep flipping back to that program that excites our sinful nature, or when we hit a sibling, or wrap our fingers around something that doesn’t belong to us. Can we claim to have pure hearts? Think back to last weekend and our Easter 4 Kids outreach. Why was it that we baked those muffins, set up those chairs, or delivered those lines? Was it simply to serve God out of joy or because others were counting on us? Do you see what I mean? Even the good things that we do are tainted with sin because we often do them out of guilt, or for show, or both! As Isaiah said, even our righteous acts are like filthy rags in God’s sight (Is. 64:6).